Kudos and knocks have continued to trail President Mohammadu Buhari’s signing of the Petroleum Industry Bill on Monday even as the dusts raised by its content are yet settle.

Mr. Femi Adesina, Special Adviser to the President (Media and Publicity), announced in a statement on Monday that the President had signed the Bill despite working from home, while observing five days’ quarantine as required by the Presidential Steering Committee on COVID-19 after his return from London on last Friday.

The statement said the ceremonial part of the new legislation will be done today (Wednesday), after the days of mandatory isolation would have been fulfilled. This could happen during the Federal Executive Council Meeting.

The Senate had passed the Bill on July 15, while the House of Representatives followed suit on July 16, thus ending a long wait since of over twenty years, during which the Bill was tossed up and down and enmeshed in different controversies. While the Senate recommended three percent for the host communities, the House of Representatives recommended 5 percent. But the Senate version prevailed.

The conference report of both chambers adopted the Senate resolution of three per cent. Both chambers adopted the committee’s recommendation of 30 per cent profit of the proposed Nigerian National Petroleum Company (NNPC) to be dedicated to crude oil exploration in the Frontier Basins.

Stakeholders in the Niger Delta, including the Pan-Niger Delta Forum, (PANDEF), Ijaw National Council, (INC), described as unacceptable the signing of the bill which they described as injurious to the development of the Niger Delta.

But the Senate and Speaker of the House of Representatives, Femi Gbajabiamila, insisted that the new PIB was the best thing to happen to the oil and gas industry in the country.

While the Senate posited that the new PIB will bail Nigeria out of its present economic predi-cament, Rt. Hon Gbajabiamila said it will engender investments and transparency which would enhance the industry.

Former House of Representatives member from Cross River State, Peter Igbodor, told Vanguard that the bill was hurriedly signed because it favoured the North more than the South where the oil comes from.

Igbodor said it was disheartening that simply because pipelines passed through a community in the North, they had to get paid or receive something, adding that effective representation of Niger Delta lawmakers at the National Assembly was not felt because they did not represent their people well at all.

The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) said President Buhari showed his contempt for oil producing communities by signing the Bill into law despite the outcry against it.

In a statement issued by Kola Ologbondiyan, its national publicity secretary, it noted that the signing of the law, “despite widespread public rejection, amounts to endorsement of imposition and further confirms that President Buhari and his All Progressives Congress (APC) have no iota of respect for the people as well as the tenets of democracy as a system of government.”

The party argued: “By his action, President Buhari has only authenticated that he is not a listening leader and that the APC and its leaders are only out to trample on the will of Nigerians for their selfish interests.”

The All Progressives Congress (APC) on the other hand has commended the President for signing the Bill describing him as a listening leader.

National Publicity Secretary of PANDEF, Ken Robinson, in a statement described the President’s assent as callous, repressive and insensitive to the plight of the Niger Delta.

“This PIB falls way short of the expectations of the oil and gas producing communities that bear the brunt of unconscionable industry operations.

“This assent by President Buhari simply speaks to the repugnant attitude of disregard, propelled by arrogance, disdain and contempt with which issues concerning the Niger Delta region is treated, particularly, by the present

“What this act signifies is an unequivocal message to the Niger Delta people that how they feel and what they say do not count at all in the schemes of the Nigeria project.

“That’s insensitive, abominable and, therefore, unacceptable to the good people of the Niger Delta, the critical economic nexus of the entire Nigerian territory.

“The Niger Delta people will speak shortly after full consultations on this callous act on the best legal and political response,” he disclosed.

Speaking in the same vein, CHURAC’s president/chairman, Board of Trustees, Cleric Alaowei, said the unusual speed by President Buhari in assenting to the Bill was suspicious and a sign that he was predisposed to doing the bid of a section of the country to the detriment of others.

“It appears President Buhari is yielding to the desires of a section of the country, especially the core northern supremacists. For us in the Niger Delta, the hasty signing into law of that rather repressive Act only marked another draconian legal regime where the region is being subjected to the whims and caprices of the inimical petroleum laws.

“Niger Delta people need 10 per cent equity share. Three per cent cannot remedy the despoliation of our environment occasioned by the years of unhindered oil exploration,” he said.

Also, communities in Rivers State, under the umbrella of the Coalition of Rivers Oil and Gas Host Communities (CROGHCOM), rejected the Bill and condemned the signing without first resolving the rifts in it or even putting into consideration the outcry of the people from the host communities to law In a press release in Port Harcourt, on Monday.

CROGHCOM said: “We want to state very clearly that this PIB is just a rubber stamp of what the executive wanted, that’s why it’s been hurriedly passed and signed just like that.”

The statement, signed by chairman of the coalition, Barituka Loanyie, added: “We want our people and indeed the world to know that the meagre three per cent provided for the host Community Trust Fund as signed into law by the president is to be managed by the oil companies. It is like the case of the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC), where they give with one hand and take with the other hand.

“We reject this PIB because it does not scratch where it is itching us. This is complete injustice.”