Former President Goodluck Jonathan has said the Nigerian Oil and Gas Industry Content Development (NOGGICD) Act 2010 was passed when the National Assembly was vibrant and truly an independent legislature.
Jonathan made the assertion Wednesday night after receiving the Nigerian Content Lifetime Achievement Award at the Champions of Nigerian Content Awards 2025.
The awards ceremony was part of the activities at the ongoing Nigerian Oil and Gas Opportunity Fair (NOGOF), being held in Yenagoa, the Bayelsa State capital.
THISDAY, Nigerian’s newspaper of record, was also at the event awarded the Nigerian Content Media Organisation of the Year, in recognition of its sterling interpretative and investigative reporting of local content activities in the petroleum sector.
THISDAY’s award was received by the newspaper’s energy reporter, Peter Uzoho.
Jonathan signed the Nigerian Content Bill into law in April 2010 and immediately saw to the establishment of the implementing agency, Nigerian Content Development and Monitoring Board (NCDMB).
The policy has since its introduction brought significant improvement in the upstream sector of the Nigerian oil and gas industry, with the growth of indigenous participation and in-country capacity. This has resulted in the current 56 per cent growth after 15 years, from a low of just five per cent local capacity utilisation.
Speaking on the occasion, Jonathan said he took the bold step to sign the bill into law to correct the mistake of the past and ensure Nigeria’s oil resources worked for the development of the country.
The former Nigerian leader, who told a story of his encounter with Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni, and the country’s attempt to avoid the mistakes of Nigeria in the management of its own oil industry, said experience inspired him to change the narrative in Nigeria’s oil sector through the Local Content Act.
Jonathan said Nigeria would have gone farther than where it is in terms of growth and value optimisation in the oil and gas industry if the country had laws designed to protect it at the inception of the industry.
He said, “I brought this story because I used to tell people that if at the beginning of the oil industry, we had laws designed to protect us, Nigeria would have gone farther than this. But we did not have that kind of law.”
Jonathan recalled that the first law that governed the Nigerian oil industry was the Mineral Ordinance of 1886, which he doubted if a Nigerian played any role in its development.
He added that the second law that governed the country’s oil industry was the Mineral Oil Ordinance of 1914, which came the year the country was amalgamated, and which, according to him, many Nigerians did not have knowledge of.
The former president maintained that the law that actually started the oil industry in Nigeria was the Petroleum Act of 1969, which came after the discovery of oil in commercial quantity at Oloibiri, Bayelsa State, and after the country’s independence in 1960.
Jonathan stated, “The next robust law was the Petroleum Industry Bill (PIB) that we worked on during my government, but luckily in 2021, it was passed into law.
“To me, today makes me quite happy remembering the journey of the Nigerian Content Development and Monitoring Board.
“Then, what is the story about the Nigerian content or the popularly called Local Content Law. I signed that law in April 2010. As at that time, I was acting President. Of course, you know the story of my becoming acting President. And so, people asked, so why the speed in signing that law?”
He explained that the Nigerian Content Bill originated in the National Assembly as a private-member bill rather than an executive bill, and by a patriotic Rivers State senator, Lee Maeba.
Jonathan said, “Actually, the bill was a private member bill. It was not an executive bill, and I must use this opportunity to commend people like Lee Maeba, a senator from Rivers State. He and other senators came up with the bill.
“So, when the minister of petroleum briefed me that there was such a bill going on in the National Assembly, I was quite pleased and I was just waiting for it, when I was acting President, that was 2010. And when the National Assembly came up with the bill, I hurriedly signed it and we quickly set up the monitoring board.”
He said his visit to China in 2000 as deputy governor in Bayelsa also made him to realise how long China had liberated itself from Western domination in their oil sector while Nigeria remained wholly dependent on Western equipment and materials for oil and gas activities.
Jonathan said, “ One thing that struck me was that the Western companies discovered oil in commercial quantity in Nigeria in Oloibiri in 1956. But the same Western companies discovered oil in commercial quantity in China in 1958, two years after.
“But as at 2000, most of the needs of the oil industry in China were manufactured locally. But in Nigeria, if any company needs a valve, they must go to their home county. If they need a pin, they must go home.
“So, sometimes, the companies will say, governor, deputy governor, we are investing $1 billion or $500 million in a project in your state. Then you ask yourself, what percentage of that half a billion or one billion really goes to impact the local economy? And you will see nothing, because nothing was being produced here.
“Maybe they hire labourers or small steel boats, which is probably $50 million. Every other thing is spent outside.”
The former president solicited that the organisers of the award should remember and recognise lawmakers that initiated the Local Content bill at the then National Assembly for their good work, especially Maeba. He said it was a time the federal legislature was vibrant.
Jonathan stated, “Let me plead that somebody like Lee Maeba, the originator of that bill, that group is also supposed to be recognised because they’ve done well.
“And that is the time the National Assembly was National Assembly.”
He added that it was a time the National Assembly was courageous enough to override the president’s veto of a bill, citing the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC) bill, which former President Olusegun Obasanjo had declined signing into law.
“I use this opportunity to commend Lee Maeba and his team,” Jonathan said.
He also commended the current Executive Secretary of NCDMB, Mr. Felix Ogbe, and his team for keeping the local content flag flying and for keeping the vision of the law intact.
Jonathan lauded Ogbe’s predecessors that had performed creditably in bringing the policy to the current level.
He said, “I believe that with what you briefed us and what we hear, with the Nigerian Content Law being implemented, I think in the next few years, our activities in the oil industry will continue to improve.
“So, once again, let me thank you again for recognising us and giving us this honour, and those of us who received the award today will remain grateful and we thank you and we will continue to do our best for the country.”
Apart from Jonathan and THISDAY, other recipients of the Nigerian content awards included Dangote Refinery, which was recognised as the Downstream Operator of the Year; and Renaissance Africa Energy Company that won the International Upstream Operator of the Year.
Aradel Holdings Plc won the Nigerian Content Independent Upstream Operator of the Year; Nigeria Liquefied Natural Gas Limited (NLNG) bagged the Midstream Operator of the Year; Bank of Industry won the Financial Services Provider of the Year; and Dorman Long won the Indigenous Service Company of the Year.
TechnipFMC was awarded the Nigerian Content International Service Company of the Year; Managing Director of Renaissance, Mr. Tony Attah, won the Nigerian Content Icon of the Year, while Managing Director of Starzs Gas Limited, Iroghama Ogbeifun, won the Nigerian Content Women in Leadership award for Promoting Women Empowerment.
Minister of State for Petroleum (Oil), Senator Heineken Lokpobiri, who spoke earlier at the opening ceremony of NOGOF, commended NCDMB for initiating programmes that promoted local content in the Nigerian oil and gas industry.
Lokpobiri described the biennial opportunity as a national platform that fostered catalytic investment opportunities cutting across the upstream, midstream and downstream areas of the Nigeria oil and gas industry.
The minister called on all participants at the event to go beyond conversations by initiating partnership and investment decisions that will shape the narrative of the industry and ultimately lead to increased oil and gas production and job creation for Nigerians.
In his keynote address, Executive Secretary of NCDMB, Ogbe, highlighted the significance of NOGOF 2025, saying it coincides with the 15 years of the NOGICD) Act 2010.
According to him, the event will showcase opportunities in the entire oil and gas value chain as well as enable local and foreign investors build synergies in the industry and provide shareholders with credible information on upcoming projects.
The executive secretary announced to the audience that the 5-star hotel being built by NCDMB at the Nigerian Content Tower in Yenagoa would be ready for use at the next NOGOF by 2027 and that the facility would be managed by Radisson.
In her goodwill message, Special Adviser to the President on Energy, Mrs. Olu Verheijen, said the current federal government was building an energy sector to benefit every Nigerian by driving industrialisation and creation of sustainable jobs.
Discussion about this post