Governor Musa Kwankwaso has been urged to adequately familiarise himself with the content of the Petroleum Industry bill before embarking on a hasty criticism of the proposed legislation.

This call was made in Abuja yesterday by two members of the House of Representatives who hail from the Niger Delta Region.

In his own contribution to the raging debate on PIB, Chairman of the House Committee on Petroleum (Downstream) Hon. Dakuku Peterside stated that he was sure that Governor Kwankwaso was not adequately informed about the provisions of the bill.

Said he: "I do not think that Governor Rabiu Kwankwaso has gone through the Petroleum Industry Bill yet. Incidentally, Governor Kwankwaso was a one a one-time member of the House of Representatives. Very Often, people take positions based on information at their disposal."

He continued: "In the first place, what Northern leaders should understand is that the Bill intends to open up the economy for further investment. It creates the opportunity for more revenue to enter Federal Government's coffers and by extension the purse of Kano State and all other states in the country.

Presently, the economy is being strangulated and all this because there is restricted opportunity for investment. This is mainly as a result of uncertainty in the petroleum sector.

I plead with the Northern leaders to try to understand what the issues are. If they do, they would take a different position. I assume they all believe in Nigeria and progress.

"Our economy is still a third world economy which requires a lot of investment in infrastructure. The PIB addresses all of that. I have come to realise is that what most Northern leaders are opposed to is the allocation of 10 percent from the profit of oil companies to their host communities. But If we have peace in the host communities of the Niger Delta, then it is better for the entire nation. There is no doubt that the nation has lost trillions of naira as a result of the absence of peace in the region."