President Bola 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).
The nominations were disclosed in a statement issued on Monday by the President’s Adviser on Information and Strategy, Mr. Bayo Onanuga. According to the statement, the appointments are aimed at strengthening governance and regulatory oversight in Nigeria’s oil and gas sector.
In the first letter, President Tinubu nominated former senator, Magnus Abe, as Chairman of the NUPRC board. Abe, who represented Rivers South-East Senatorial District for two terms, previously served as a board member of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) and currently chairs the National Agency for the Great Green Wall.
Also nominated as non-executive commissioners on the NUPRC board are Engr. Paul Jezhi, a former chairman of the Trade Union Congress (TUC) in Kaduna State, and Mr. Sunday Babalola, a former deputy director at the defunct Department of Petroleum Resources (DPR), which was replaced following the enactment of the Petroleum Industry Act (PIA) in 2021.
The President further nominated several executive commissioners to the NUPRC board. They include Muhammed Lamido as Executive Commissioner for Finance; Edu Inyang as Executive Commissioner for Exploration and Acreage; Justin Ezeala as Executive Commissioner for Economic Regulation and Strategic Planning; and Henry Darlington Oki as Executive Commissioner for Development and Production. Others are Indabawa Alka, Executive Commissioner for Corporate Services and Administration; Mahmood Tijani, Executive Commissioner for Health, Safety and Environment; and Ms. Olayemi Adeboyejo as Secretary and Legal Adviser.
Some of the nominees, including Lamido and Adeboyejo, were initially appointed in 2022 by former President Muhammadu Buhari, while Alka was appointed by President Tinubu in 2023. Inyang, Ezeala, Tijani, Babalola and Jezhi are new nominees.
In the second letter, President Tinubu sought Senate confirmation for nominees to the board of the NMDPRA. He nominated Mr. Adegbite Ebiowei Adeniji, a legal practitioner with over three decades of experience in energy and natural resources, as Chairman of the board. Adeniji previously served as Special Technical Adviser to the Minister of State for Petroleum on upstream and gas matters and was part of the World Bank’s oil and gas policy advisory team to Nigeria. He is currently the managing partner at ENR Advisory.
Also nominated as non-executive board members are Chief Kenneth Kobani and Mrs. Asabe Ahmed. Kobani is a former Minister of State for Trade and Investment and previously served as Secretary to the Government of Rivers State.
For executive roles within the NMDPRA, the President nominated Abiodun Adeniji as Executive Director of Finance; Francis Ogaree as Executive Director of Hydrocarbon; Oluwole Adama as Executive Director of Midstream and Downstream Gas Infrastructure; and Dr. Mustapha Lamorde as Executive Director of Corporate Services and Administration. While Adama was appointed in 2024, Lamorde and Adeniji were appointed in 2021, and Ogaree in 2022 under the previous administration.
Additional nominees to the NMDPRA board include Yahaya Yinusa as Executive Director of Distribution Systems; Adeyemi Aminu as Executive Director of Corporate Services; Modie Ogechukwu as Executive Director of Economic Regulation and Strategic Planning; and Olawale Dawodu as Board Secretary and Legal Adviser. Dawodu is an industry professional with prior experience as a financial reporting manager within ExxonMobil’s Nigerian subsidiaries.
President Tinubu urged all nominees to discharge their duties with professionalism and integrity, emphasizing their critical role in regulating Nigeria’s oil and gas industry. He also appealed to the Senate to consider and approve the nominations expeditiously.
The requests come shortly after the Senate confirmed Oritsemeyiwa Eyesan as Chief Executive Officer of the NUPRC and Engr. Saidu Aliyu Mohammed as Chief Executive Officer of the NMDPRA, completing the leadership framework for the two key regulatory agencies.