Lawan stated this on Tuesday while welcoming back his colleagues from a two-month recess.
He lamented that the bill had stayed too long in the National Assembly since its introduction and that the delay in concluding works on it was affecting the petroleum sector.
He said, “The petroleum industry is long overdue for reform. Several efforts and attempts were made in the past three sessions of the National Assembly but they were unfortunately not successful.
“It, however, remains legislation that should succeed. We are going to renew and redouble our efforts on the reform, by doing things differently this time.
“The previous efforts were lone efforts either on the part of the executive, as witnessed in the sixth and seventh sessions of the National Assembly, or the part of the legislature, as seen in the eighth session.
“Perhaps an early consultation and collaboration between the two arms of government will yield the desired outcome in the overriding national interest.
“Our priority is to have an oil industry that is functional and productive, in a fair, just and transparent environment.”
Lawan also pledged that the ninth Senate will work with the executive to tackle the growing rate of youths unemployment in the country.
He also said that the parliament would key in to the agenda of President Muhammadu Buhari’s administration’s determination to take 100 million Nigerians out of poverty.
He said, “Youth unemployment is yet another challenge we cannot allow to continue.
“Youths are ideally a present and a future fulcrum of a nation’s workforce.
“They are therefore a priceless asset of a nation’s population,” Lawan said.
