The Pan Niger Delta Forum, PANDEF, has thrown its weight behind the ongoing oil and gas sector reforms, particularly within the regulatory arms of the sector.
PANDEF said it was thrilled by news of the developments, which it believes would significantly reposition the sector.
Speaking at a news conference in Abuja on Friday, the chairman of PANDEF, Dr Godknows Boladei Igali, said the reforms that led to the emergence of one of Nigeria’s most competent professionals in the oil and gas sector, Mrs Oritsemeyiwa Eyesan, as Chief Executive Officer of the Nigeria Upstream Petroleum Regulatory Commission, NUPRC, reflected President Tinubu’s readiness to take the sector on a quantum leap into the future.
PANDEF, a Niger Delta apex socio-cultural body representing host communities, promised to mobilise people in the region to work closely with the federal and state governments in creating an enabling environment for the oil and gas sector to thrive.
Igali said: “PANDEF reaffirms its commitment to working closely with federal and state governments in mobilising our people to ensure that the right enabling environment exists for this important sector to continue to play its deserved role.
“We, the people of the Niger Delta, are greatly impressed with these changes, and hope that the holistic reforms would be sustained.
“This is the only way to ensure that the oil and gas industry continues to play the paramount role which it has been doing for the common economic interest of all Nigerians and places Nigeria as a dominant player in the global energy architecture.
“We applaud President Bola Tinubu for the appointment of Mrs Eyesan, a seasoned economist, as Executive Vice President, Upstream, in the NNPC, as well as Engr Saidu Aliyu Mohammed as Chief Executive Officer of the Nigeria Midstream and Downstream Regulatory Authority.”
PANDEF, which was formerly led by the late elder statesman, Edwin Clark, urged the Federal Government to put in place an environmental remediation programme that would sustain peace in the region.
“The Federal Government must go beyond the Ogoni clean-up to ensure that there is budgetary provision on an annual basis to clean up the damaged environments of the Niger Delta in a sustained manner,” he said.