The Senate, today commenced  the legislative procedure for the passage of the controversial Petroleum Industry Bill as the document scaled first reading on the floor of the upper chamber. The bill has been renamed Petroleum Industry and Governance Bill after both chambers of the National Assembly had harmonised it. The development marked the third time that the document would pass first reading in the Senate. The Senate and House of Representatives had recently harmonised a new draft of PIB and renamed it PIGB following a prolonged silence by the presidency on the bill as well as the continued agitation for its passage by the citizenry. The National Assembly has come under criticism over its failure to pass PIB in two consecutive assemblies. Critics blamed the legislative institution for the current state of the petroleum industry including the recent corruption reports , which they said the bill would have addressed . The petroleum industry framework was first conceived by the administration of the late President Umaru Yar’Adua and sent to the sixth National Assembly. The failure of the sixth National Assembly to pass the bill compelled the immediate past government of President Goodluck Jonathan to re-present the bill to the seventh National Assembly which also failed to pass the bill.
