Frequently Asked Questions about the PIB

As part of the organization's broader efforts to promote public awareness on the Petroleum Industry Bill (PIB), SPACES FOR CHANGE (S4C) is pleased to present its latest easy-to-read handbook containing concise answers to frequently asked questions (FAQs) about the (PIB). 

A three-hour web conference, The PIB & YOU, held on Saturday, July 14, 2012 involving over 1,500 online participants across the globe generated an array of questions answered in this booklet.  That first-of-its-kind online engagement led by five industry experts further unpacked varied social, economic, environmental and transparency concerns in the latest draft of the Bill addressed in this handbook. 

Since its introduction over 4 years ago, the PIB continues to face persistent setbacks to its passage despite its enormous prospects for improving the technical, operational and regulatory efficiency in Nigeria's oil industry operations. If passed into law, the PIB would obligate the government to make its oil deals more transparent and revenue earnings more accountable, ending decades of corruption that has diverted billions of dollars of oil revenue  that could have been used to clean up oil-devastated poor communities and create employment for restive youths. 

Among several reasons, the setback to its passage resulted mainly from the lack of adequate information on the basis of which lawmakers, citizens and industry stakeholders can make informed legislative decisions regarding the Bill.  The scant citizen engagement and public consultation also fuelled popular resistance, foiling a major 2009 legislative attempt to have the oil bill passed. To depart from the false starts that stalled the passage of the Bill in 2009, S4C is offering this easy-to-read FAQ, written in non-technical language, to promote public awareness of the PIB. 

Consistent with its mandate to increase citizen participation in public decision-making, S4C hopes that this FAQ handbook will provide useful information to keep citizens well informed, and also improve the quality of legislative debates and engagement among key stakeholders in the Bill passage architecture. 

This document was prepared under the auspices of the organization’s FOSTER-supported Information Equity for Citizen Participation Project that campaigns for oil sector transparency and environmental justice in Nigeria.

Kindly disseminate widely among your networks.  You can also download free copies on our website:www.spacesforchange.org  and E-Library: http://issuu.com/spaces.for.change/docs/spaces_for_change._faq_on_the_pib._april_2013

TELECOM COMPANIES AND THE UNENDING CORPORATE THIEVERY IN NIGERIA

By Victoria Ibezim-Ohaeri

It is time to stop this indoor cursing game and venting about the unprecedented fraudulent practices of telecom companies criminally parading themselves as internet service providers. The monumental fraud going on in Nigeria in the name of data service has just got to stop. Enough!!! From MTN to Airtel to STARCOMMS, down to Etisalat….the story is the same: corporate thievery is their united motto; to deceive and rip off their subscribers is their collective agenda. 

Nigeria’s telecom giants are quite lucky; so lucky to be doing business in a country where accountability is an alien word. Worse still, majority of their inertia-gripped subscribers are siddon look experts who have long outsourced their “rights to act” to their pastors and imams. Holding erring companies to account is a worry best dumped at prayer grounds, in the belief that God will set aside all His celestial engagements to “fight against our enemies”... Shuo!

Of all the telecom companies, MTN stands out as a classic case study of how not to do business. MTN’s most useless, most worthless and most fraudulent product labelled MTN Fastlink internet modem is nothing but the cruelest joke of the century. Apart from the fact that it functions horrendously opposite to its name, the ineptness of the device is enough to spur a violent revolution in orderly climes where glitzy advertisement claims steeped brazen falsehood are intolerable.  

Allured by its deceitful name, I found myself robbed of a N7,000 monthly charge even though I couldn’t connect to the internet with the Fastlink modem for 30 whole days! Following repeated visits to their Akowonjo Service Center, the location of my house was blamed for the abstruse malfunction. ‘Your house is too far from the nearest MTN mast”, they told me. On several occasions, I moved my workstation closer to all the nearest MTN masts within the district, all to no avail. 

Frustrated by MTN inefficiencies, I migrated to Starcomms. At first, the Starcomms IZAP was stable enough to sustain a connection for hours, and was a zillion times better than my nightmarish encounter with MTN Fastlink. The courteousness and dedication of the Starcomms staff at their Ojota and Ikotun offices further brightened my enthusiasm. But that was only temporary. By the second month, the data service fluctuated so much that I had to bombard the customer care toll lines with calls. The blame was heaped on the then ongoing technical upgrades. Data service could go off as long as 3 – 7 days at a stretch, but the billing remained very stable and sure. Beyond the torrential flow of verbal apology by its customer care executives, Starcomms never considered giving out consolation freebies to their very upset subscribers, let alone offer them any. For close to 13 months, Starcomms’ customer care executives have not grown weary of blaming technical upgrades for their protracted incompetence.     

Hoodwinked again by another falsehood-laden MTN commercial regarding its latest data service package, HYNET, I migrated from Starcomms to MTN HYNET sometime in February 2013. It worked so well the first week that I popped champagne, and gyrated in celebration, with my colleagues. That celebratory act was my greatest undoing. Till date, the crazy billing on that product is in no way, any match for its unreliability and irregularity only comparable to NEPA light. 

Across the various networks, the criminal billing on both voice and drop calls is even more outrageous, with Airtel and Etisalat standing tall as the gold medalists. MTN’s own medal grade defies description. Between March 13-15, 2013, 3 recharge cards of varying sums loaded on my MTN phone totally disappeared. At first, I blamed it on a roaming data service I had used days earlier. MTN staff at the Akowonjo Call Center that checked my phone affirmed the disappearances were unconnected with roaming services. Assurances that the lost airtime value would be restored remain unfulfilled till this day. On Monday (8/04/13), N1,000 credit loaded on my Etisalat phone also ‘disappeared”. Calls placed to their customer care lines returned another fake assurance that the disappeared airtime value would be restored within 48 hours. As of today, Friday, the thievery has not been reversed. Airtel’s deductions are even more mysterious. Airtime loaded on the Airtel phone (used at home) disappears, reappears and then vanishes with such rapidity that would make the folklore willie-willie ghosts green with envy. 

The Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) is well aware of the prevailing corporate thievery disguised as telecom services in Nigeria. News of sanctions severally slammed on erring telecom companies are hardly ever enforced. Considering the Commission’s signature under-performance, consumer protection is ostensibly, the least of its institutional priorities. In fact, the bark of a local bingo in my village is, more effective than NCC’s toothless roars often rendered in murmuring tones.  Not only that, state and federal lawmakers, including national judicial bodies have simply looked the other way, as corporate impunity by telecom companies flourishes right under their watch.  

With no projection of improvement in sight, it is time for Nigerians to put an end to all the murmuring and indoor grieving about poor quality services. Folding my arms and whining about MTN and co would never bring about the desired change. It is now time to take action, and mobilise for change. 

A Facebook posting on my wall yesterday, expressing outrage about the monumental fraud characterizing the poor data service in Nigeria attracted a floodgate of comments and experience-sharing by visibly angry Nigerians from all walks of life. Too many hurtful experiences shared by a number of contributors rehashed in great detail, the disappointment, agony and financial losses resulting directly from the public misinformation, misleading advertisements and low-quality data services rendered by Nigerian telecommunication companies. With one voice, all clamoured for serious public engagement and collective action against the persisting exploitation. 

Together with fellow counsels, Bunmi Divinewealth Awoyemi and Aminu Mohammed Ofs, we are filing a class action lawsuit to challenge the continuing wrongs perpetrated by these largely-unregulated corporate groups.  Neither pre-action notices nor legal technicalities are sufficient to deter this angry move.  At least, let it be told; let it be on record that unjustifiable corporate exploitation has been formally resisted, and is unwelcome, and will always be an unwelcome practice in Nigeria…

Volume 8 - PIB: Fiscal Competitiveness and Investment Friendliness

Are the fiscal terms in the latest draft of the Petroleum Industry Bill (PIB) globally competitive and investment friendly? Will the oil reform bill promote the development of local content in the petroleum industry? Will the PIB promote domestic gas utilization and support the national gas master plan? Volume 8 of Spaces for Change’s (S4C’S) policy briefing paper proffers answers to these concerns bothering both local and foreign investors.

Volume 8 presents a new angle to the reporting and analysis of the PIB, covering some of the most important developing situations and key issues energy investors, policy makers, parliamentarians and stakeholders should be aware of.  It argues that there are obvious gaps in the PIB in terms of its fiscal competitiveness, stability and certainty of future investments. It is expected that some of these controversial areas will be resolved during the process of legislative debates so that a workable and globally competitive petroleum bill will be passed soon. 

It is further hoped that the recommendations proffered in this paper will contribute to the passage of a bill that ensures an efficient and independent regulatory environment, promotes transparency and maximizes petroleum revenues for the government while ensuring sustained investments to meet present and future energy needs. 

S4C’s policy briefing papers are issued under the auspices of the organization's Policing the Policy (PtP) Series which uses the human rights paradigm to police and analyze social and economic policies and development programs of the Nigerian government. Under this banner, S4C actively participates in the promotion, evaluation and setting of strategic policy directions on specific social and economic issues that coincide with the organization’s thematic focal points: economic governance; environmental justice; security and conflict, housing and urban development; women’s rights and youth development.

This policy briefing paper is now available online, and can be downloaded on our website: www.spacesforchange.org and on our E-Library:  
http://issuu.com/spaces.for.change/docs/s4c.policy_brief._fiscal_competitiveness___investm.

CONFERENCE ANNOUNCEMENT: HOST COMMUNITIES & THE PIB

Spaces for Change is pleased to announce the forth-coming conference, HOST COMMUNITIES & THE PIB: OPPORTUNITIES, CHALLENGES AND THE WAY FORWARD. The conference, scheduled to be held in Port Harcourt between March 23-24, 2013, will present an unprecedented opportunity for federal and state policymakers, the media, environmentalists, industry regulators, representatives of civil society organizations and oil producing communities to build sustainable consensus for realizing greater community participation and environmental protection in the Petroleum Industry Bill (PIB). Among other objectives, the conference will campaign for the improved governance of the environment and to strengthen the structure for community participation in the PIB. It also seeks to show that oil sector reforms arrived at through open, transparent and participatory manner is cost-effective and socially, economically and politically advantageous.

Furthermore, the conference will also feature the public presentation of S4C’s latest publication, The PIB RESOURCE HANDBOOK which contains a detailed analysis of the PIB provisions relating to community participation and the environment (CPE). The Handbook forms part of a broader organizational strategy to promote awareness of the PIB, while expanding access to publicly-available data and resources for building the capacity of industry stakeholders and ordinary citizens to monitor and engage meaningfully in the PIB passage architecture.

Nigeria is ranked Africa’s number one and the twelfth globally among oil-producing countries. Despite being among the world’s top oil producers, Nigeria’s oil and gas industry has been plagued by institutionalized corruption, corporate impunity, and grave environmental and humanitarian devastations. At the root of the rot in Nigeria’s oil industry is the absence of a coherent legal and policy framework for holding operators accountable and for addressing serious violations of environmental standards, forcing aggrieved persons and communities to resort to extra-legal and violent confrontations.  Further compounding the situation is the lack of political will to enforce the potpourri of legislations governing the industry operations.

The Niger Delta is home to Nigeria’s mineral oil resources. Despite the region’s wealth of natural resources, the Delta exemplifies the resource curse as it remains one of the poorest and least-developed parts of the country. Local communities suffer from oppressive levels of poverty, infrastructural decay, and environmental degradation, which have in turn precipitated rising ethnic tensions and escalating violence among competing militia groups. 

Further aggravating the volatile situation in the region is that the relevant laws regulating the environmental impact of oil exploitation by multinational companies are plagued with both substantive failings and non-enforcement by the relevant authorities. This makes it practically impossible for aggrieved persons and communities to obtain legal or administrative remedies for grave legal and human rights breaches by state and non-state entities. The laxness of regulation and technical capacities mean that regulatory agencies such as the Department of Petroleum Resources and the Federal Ministry of Environment are unable to effectively monitor and ensure compliance with regulatory statutes in the oil industry. 

Efforts by the government to overhaul the oil legal regime through the introduction of the Petroleum Industry Bill (PIB) have yet to be matched with the legislative verve required to make the law operational. Absent sustained public engagement, the domestic regulation of oil companies and the protection of oil-bearing communities will likely continue to be weak and inadequate.  Citizen engagement in the PIB passage architecture is also very necessary to open up opportunities to contest policy flaws, challenge bad corporate practices and demand accountability for harmful social and environmental actions.  

With this in mind, Spaces for Change (S4C), with support from the Open Society Initiative for West Africa, (OSIWA) is implementing the Oil Sector Legislative Engagement and Accountability Project (OSLEAP) to create spaces for major stakeholders to engage with environment and community participation provisions in the latest draft of the PIB.  Under the auspices of OSLEAP, this two-day conference seeks to mobilize and organize the voices of key stakeholders to monitor and ensure that major demands by oil producing communities and other stakeholders for environmental protection and community participation are adequately addressed in the new PIB.