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From Juliana Taiwo-Obalonye, Abuja
President Bola Tinubu has asked the Senate to confirm 21 nominees for the boards of the Nigerian Midstream and Downstream Petroleum Regulatory Authority (NMDPRA) and the Nigerian Upstream Petroleum Regulatory Commission (NUPRC).
According to a statement by Special Adviser to the President on Information and Strategy, Bayo Onanuga, in two separate letters to the Senate, the President proposed former Rivers South-East senator, Magnus Abe, as chairman of the NUPRC board, and energy lawyer, Adegbite Ebiowei Adeniji, as chairman of the NMDPRA board.
Abe, a two-term senator and former member of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) board, currently chairs the National Agency for the Great Green Wall. Other nominees to the NUPRC board as non-executive commissioners are Paul Jezhi, a former Kaduna chairman of the Trade Union Congress (TUC), and Sunday Babalola, a former deputy director of the defunct Department of Petroleum Resources (DPR).
The President also put forward several executive commissioners for the NUPRC. They include Muhammed Sabo Lamido, executive commissioner, finance; Edu Inyang, executive commissioner, exploration and acreage; Justin Ezeala, executive commissioner, economic regulation and strategic planning; and Henry Darlington Oki, executive commissioner, development and production.
Others are Indabawa Bashari Alka, executive commissioner, corporate services and administration; Mahmood Tijani, executive commissioner, health, safety and environment; and Olayemi Adeboyejo, board secretary and legal adviser.
The statement noted that Lamido and Adeboyejo were first appointed by former President Muhammadu Buhari in 2022, while Alka was appointed by Tinubu in 2023. Inyang, Ezeala, Tijani, Babalola and Jezhi are fresh nominees of the current administration.
For the NMDPRA, Tinubu nominated Adeniji, a lawyer with more than 30 years’ experience in energy and natural resources, as board chairman. Adeniji previously served as special technical adviser to the Minister of State for Petroleum on upstream and gas until 2018, and was a member of the World Bank Oil & Gas Policy team that advised Nigeria on sector reforms, including the Strategic Gas Plan. He is currently managing partner at ENR Advisory.
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Also nominated as non-executive members of the NMDPRA board are Kenneth Kobani, a former Minister of State for Trade under President Goodluck Jonathan and former Secretary to the Government of Rivers State under Nyesom Wike, and Asabe Ahmed.
Other nominees for the NMDPRA board are Abiodun Adeniji, executive director, finance; Francis Ogaree, executive director, hydrocarbon; Oluwole Adama, executive director, midstream and downstream gas infrastructure; and Mustapha Lamorde, executive director, corporate services and administration. The Presidency recalled that Adama was appointed by Tinubu in 2024, while Buhari appointed Lamorde and Adeniji in 2021, and Ogaree in 2022.
Further proposed members of the NMDPRA board are Yahaya Nasamu Yinusa, executive director, distribution systems; Adeyemi Murtala Aminu, executive director, corporate services; Modie Ogechukwu, executive director, economic regulation and strategic planning; and Olawale Dawodu, board secretary and legal adviser. Dawodu is described as an industry player who previously served as Financial Reporting Manager at Exxon’s Nigerian subsidiaries.
The nominations come on the heels of the recent confirmation of chief executive officers for the two regulatory agencies. The Senate had cleared Oritsemeyiwa Eyesan as chief executive officer of the NUPRC and Engineer Saidu Aliyu Mohammed as CEO of the NMDPRA.
Urging speedy consideration of the lists, Tinubu asked the Senate to “approve the nominees expeditiously” to strengthen regulation of the petroleum industry.
“Mr President has charged all the appointees and nominees to discharge their duties and responsibilities professionally as regulators of the oil and gas sectors,” Onanuga said in a statement issued on Monday.
