Senate President Bukola Saraki at the weekend assured Nigerians that the long-awaited Petroleum Industry Bill (PIB) would become law before the end of the eighth National Assembly (NASS) in 2019.
While giving the status of the bill, which had passed through various stages of reading at the NASS, the Senate president declared: “This 8th National Assembly has taken the bull by the horns. We have been making conscious efforts to ensure that we progress the passage of the law, which has gone through various readings.
“But I promise Nigerians that before the end of this legislative assembly, definitely the bill will be passed.”
He gave this assurance Friday night through Senator Abdullahi Sabi, his representative at the formal presentation of the International Tourisms Borse-Berlin Golden City Gate Film Festival award in Germany won by Wilfred Ukpong, a Nigerian artists and film maker, with his film, ‘Future World’ in the Eco-Tourism category.
Yusuf Tuggar, Nigeria’s Ambassador to Germany, who received the award from the organisers of the international film festival held in Berlin in March 2018, on behalf of the artiste, assisted by Senator Sabi, formally presented it to Ukpong.
After the screening of the film before the audience, Saraki observed that the message in the film “is quite clear and apt”, noting that “it is an early warning of the impending danger in the Niger Delta,” and advised all the stakeholders to take it seriously.
He maintained that “all Nigerians had a responsibility to what is happening in Niger Delta, which has been captured by our own artiste through the Future World film, and unbiasedly recognised in far away Germany, and said that “we must congratulate the government of Buhari for the initiatives of starting the clean-up of the Niger Delta, beginning with the Ogoni land.”
While presenting the award to Ukpong, Ambassador Tuggar described ‘Future World’ as “a piece of work that provokes discussions around some of the most topical issues of the day: environmental pollution and climate change, youth employment and migration, energy mix and international trade,” adding that Nigerian government is already taking a good step to finding permanent solutions to the challenges.
Receiving the award, Ukpong, a multi-disciplinary artiste and filmmaker, said “the seven-minute film narrative conflates around climate change, environmental pollution and health-related issues, and draws from true life stories and regional myths to create a captivating abstract universe pulsing with some of the most profound historical, ecological, and socio-cultural issues of our time.”
He noted that it was produced to further raise awareness on the level of degradation in the oil-producing area, and calls for urgent solutions.
