President Bola Ahmed Tinubu has nominated Senator Magnus Abe and Adegbite Ebiowei Adeniji to serve as chairmen 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 signed by Special Adviser to the President on Information & Strategy, Bayo Onanuga, this information is contained in two letters Tinubu recently addressed to the Senate, seeking confirmation of 21 nominees for the boards of the two agencies.
Senator Abe, NUPRC’s chairman nominee, who once represented Rivers South East in the Senate for two terms was a former NNPC board member and current chairman of the National Agency of the Great Green Wall.
Other nominees for the NUPRC board are Engineer Paul Yaro Jezhi, a former Trade Union Congress chairman in Kaduna, and Sunday Adebayo Babalola, a former deputy director of the Department of Petroleum Resources (DPR), which was abolished by the PIA in 2021. Both men will serve as non-executive commissioners.
The executive commissioner nominees for NUPRC’s board are: Muhammed Sabo Lamido, executive commissioner for finance; Edu Inyang, executive commissioner for Exploration and Acreage; Justin Ezeala, executive commissioner for economic regulation and strategic planning; and Henry Darlington Oki, executive commissioner for Development and Production.
Others are Indabawa Bashari 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.
Former President Buhari appointed Lamido and Adeboyejo in 2022, while President Tinubu appointed Alka in 2023. Inyang, Ezeala, the former managing director of Nigerian Gas Marketing Limited, Mahmood Tijani, Babalola and Jezhi are new appointees of President Tinubu.
Adeniji, a lawyer, who was nominated as chairman of the NMDPRA board has over 30 years of experience in energy and natural resources issues.
He was a special technical adviser to the Minister of State for Petroleum on upstream and gas until 2018.
He was a member of the Oil & Gas Policy team at the World Bank, which advised the Government of Nigeria on the reform and restructuring of the petroleum sector, including the development of the Strategic Gas Plan for Nigeria.
He is currently the managing partner at ENR Advisory.
Tinubu also nominated Chief Kenneth Kobani and Asabe Ahmed as non-executive members. Kobani was a former minister of state for trade under President Jonathan and secretary to the government of Rivers State, under Nyesom Wike.
Also nominated for confirmation are Abiodun Adeniji, executive director of finance; Francis Ogaree, executive director of hydrocarbon; Oluwole Adama, executive director of midstream and Downstream gas infrastructure; and Dr Mustapha Lamorde, executive director of Corporate Services and Administration.
Tinubu appointed Adama in 2024, while late President Buhari appointed Lamorde and Adeniji in 2021 and Ogaree in 2022. Other members of the NMDPRA board, as proposed by Tinubu, are Yahaya Nasamu Yinusa, executive director, distribution systems; Adeyemi Murtala Aminu, executive director, corporate services; Ms Modie Ogechukwu, executive director, economic regulation and strategic planning; and Barrister Olawale Dawodu, as board secretary and legal adviser.
Dawodu is an industry player and was, at a time, the Financial Reporting Manager at Exxon Nigerian subsidiaries.
The President urged the Senate to approve the nominees expeditiously.
The requests followed the recent appointment of chief executive officers for the two regulatory agencies. The Senate confirmed Oritsemeyiwa Eyesan as the chief executive officer (CEO) of the Nigerian Upstream Petroleum Regulatory Commission (NUPRC) and Engineer Saidu Aliyu Mohammed as CEO of NMDPRA.
The President has charged all the appointees and nominees to discharge their duties and responsibilities professionally as regulators of the oil and gas sectors.
