By Taiye Odewale
Abuja
Senate Committee on Petroleum (Upstream) has directed the Department of Petroleum Resources (DPR) to furnish it, on monthly basis, with daily records of oil and gas production in the country.
The records, according to the Chairman of the committee, Senator Tayo Alasoadura, should include petroleum industry activities, data on seismic activities, crude oil production, liftings, allocations; exports by destination, receipts, gas production, utilisation, sales, transmission and exports.
Alasoadura, who stated this in Lagos on Saturday during oversight visit to DPR headquarters with some committee members, said the development would afford the Red Chamber the opportunity to have deeper knowledge of activities of the oil and gas sector in the country.
He said: “The problem with us is that we don’t think the National Assembly is part of government. I have always told people that take the National Assembly away from governance, there is no more democracy. In any other government’s setting, there is the executive and there is the judiciary but it’s only when you have the legislature which will act as a check on the executive that there’s democracy.
“So, whatever is worth doing for the executive must also be done for the legislature so that at the end of the day, we will all understand and speak with one voice.
“Some believe that it is only the executive that is running the government, no. It is not only when you come for budget that the National Assembly should be involved, it should be on a daily basis.
“When you budget money for certain areas, is it only when we come here like this, maybe for once or twice in a year that we should know what you are doing with the money?”
