President Bola Ahmed Tinubu has forwarded two separate letters to the Senate, seeking confirmation of 21 nominees for the governing boards of the Nigerian Upstream Petroleum Regulatory Commission (NUPRC) and the Nigerian Midstream and Downstream Petroleum Regulatory Authority (NMDPRA).
In the first letter, the President nominated former Senator Magnus Abe as Chairman of the NUPRC board. Abe, who represented Rivers South-East Senatorial District for two terms, is a former board member of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) and currently serves as Chairman of the National Agency for the Great Green Wall.
Also nominated as non-executive commissioners for the NUPRC board are Engineer Paul Yaro Jezhi, a former chairman of the Trade Union Congress in Kaduna State, and Mr Sunday Adebayo Babalola, a former deputy director at the defunct Department of Petroleum Resources (DPR).
President Tinubu further nominated six executive commissioners to the NUPRC board. They include Muhammed Sabo Lamido as Executive Commissioner, Finance; Edu Inyang as Executive Commissioner, Exploration and Acreage; Justin Ezeala as Executive Commissioner, Economic Regulation and Strategic Planning; and Henry Darlington Oki as Executive Commissioner, Development and Production.
Others are Indabawa Bashari Alka as Executive Commissioner, Corporate Services and Administration; Mahmood Tijani as Executive Commissioner, Health, Safety and Environment; and Ms Olayemi Adeboyejo as Secretary and Legal Adviser.
While Lamido and Adeboyejo were first appointed in 2022 under former President Muhammadu Buhari, Alka was appointed by President Tinubu in 2023. Inyang, Ezeala, Tijani, Babalola and Jezhi are fresh nominees of the current administration.
In a second letter to the Senate, President Tinubu nominated Mr Adegbite Ebiowei Adeniji as Chairman of the NMDPRA board. Adeniji, a lawyer with over three decades of experience in energy and natural resources governance, previously served as Special Technical Adviser to the Minister of State for Petroleum on upstream and gas matters.
He also worked with the World Bank’s Oil and Gas Policy team and is presently the Managing Partner at ENR Advisory.
Other nominees for the NMDPRA board include Chief Kenneth Kobani, a former Minister of State for Trade and former Secretary to the Rivers State Government, and Mrs Asabe Ahmed, both as non-executive members.
Also nominated for confirmation are Abiodun Adeniji as Executive Director, Finance; Francis Ogaree as Executive Director, Hydrocarbon; Oluwole Adama as Executive Director, Midstream and Downstream Gas Infrastructure; and Dr Mustapha Lamorde as Executive Director, Corporate Services and Administration. Adama was appointed in 2024 by President Tinubu, while Lamorde and Adeniji were appointed in 2021 and Ogaree in 2022 by the late President Buhari.
Additional members proposed for the NMDPRA board include Mr Yahaya Nasamu Yinusa as Executive Director, Distribution Systems; Adeyemi Murtala Aminu as Executive Director, Corporate Services; Ms Modie Ogechukwu as Executive Director, Economic Regulation and Strategic Planning; and Barrister Olawale Dawodu as Board Secretary and Legal Adviser.
The President urged the Senate to consider and approve the nominations without delay.
The requests followed the recent confirmation by the Senate of new chief executive officers for the two agencies. Oritsemeyiwa Eyesan was confirmed as Chief Executive Officer of the NUPRC, while Engineer Saidu Aliyu Mohammed was confirmed as CEO of the NMDPRA.
President Tinubu has charged all appointees to discharge their responsibilities with professionalism and integrity in regulating Nigeria’s oil and gas sector.
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