By Tony Akowe, Abuja

One of the members of the House of Representatives who protested the consideration of the Petroleum Industry Bill on the floor of the House on Thursday, Rep Sergius Ogun (PDP, Edo) has said that his protest has nothing to do with provisions contained in the bill.

Ogun who said he was a member of the Adhoc Committee that worked on the bill said he protested because he did not have a copy of the final draft when the clause by clause consideration of the bill was going on.

He said even those around him in the House had no copy as only a few copies were brought to the House.

The lawmaker however said they were conscious of the fact that they are not judged by the number of laws you pass, but the impact you have on your community as well as the number of projects you are able to attract to your Constituency.

He said “We didn’t have enough copies. We were told to pick up copies at a particular room. My aide went there, and they were not available. They brought some copies to the chambers. That also was not enough for everybody. The Deputy Chairman of the committee told us that they will come in a short while.

“Ì just went to the Chairman of the ad hoc committee know that we all do not all have copies. As much as I have gone through the bill again and again because I was part of the process that brought it to where it is today, I still needed to have a copy

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“If whatever we have gone through is different from what was presented, I cannot just go ahead and agree to everything. I just wanted to have a copy and flip through.

“That is why I went to protest to the chairman who was surprised that we all do not have copies. The deputy chairman told us that within five minutes from when we start, we will all have copies but that did not happen.

“I could have shared because somebody told me to go share with somebody but people around me did not have,’’ he said.

The Edo lawmaker said further that “It is a good thing that we were able to pass this bill. It might not be everything everybody want. It is a bill and no bill is perfect.

“I want to congratulate Nigerians because we have lost a lot of investments that should have come to this country which have moved to other countries.

“By the grace of God, the President will assent to this bill and investors that have been sitting on the fence will come in and invest here.

“It has been a very torturous journey and I want to appreciate the leadership of the house, the Minister of State for Petroleum, the Group Managing Director of NNPC, they walked the corridors of the National Assembly relentlessly.

“Whenever we needed any clarification on anything, they were available. For the first time, I saw the collaboration between the Executive and the Legislature to see something come to pass.

“The PIB went through the entire process. We have the gazetted copy and went on a couple of retreats. We brought out grey areas that were again examined. We have the Executive come to brief us and we let them know things we are likely to change and they told us the implication of those changes.

“So that we are getting copies today should not be the case, we were supposed to pick clean copies Thursday but that did not happen.

“Some of have protested the process of making laws in this house, most times when we are doing the clause by clause considering when we dissolve into the Committee of the Whole is when you get a copy of what you are going to consider.

“I guess the reason for that is because you debated it during second reading, you have the gazette copy and may you attend the public hearing, but that is not enough because after the public hearing, there is a whole lot of work is done.

“I think members should have a clean copy ahead of time before consideration but that is the culture we met here and that is continuing, must of us have said it should change.

“This is the most important business of lawmaking and it is the one we give the least attention to; the reason for that is that you are not judged based on the number of bills you pass.

“It is the number of projects you do in your constituency, or how many people you can attend their burial, wedding ceremonies and give money to. So if we can repriotise and give more attention to lawmaking, am sure that is when things like this will matter.

“I will continue to create impact for my constituents, create wealth to make life better for them that they have elected somebody like me.

“I am doing my best and am not about to stop and that is why am here to represent my people, and they cannot get anything less, if they are due for a road, I will make sure they do not only get the road but solar streetlights as well so that they will be able to pass it day and night time.”