President Bola Tinubu has forwarded letters to the Senate requesting confirmation of 21 nominees for appointment into the boards of the Nigerian Upstream Petroleum Regulatory Commission (NUPRC) and the Nigerian Midstream and Downstream Petroleum Regulatory Authority (NMDPRA).
The nominations ere disclosed on Tuesday by the President’s Special Adviser on Information and Strtegy, Bayo Onanuga.
In the letter to the Senate on the NUPRC board, Tinubu nominated former Rivers South-East senator, Magnus Abe, as chairman. Abe, a two-term senator, is a former member of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation board and currently serves as chairman of the National Agency for the Great Green Wall.
Other nominees for the NUPRC board include 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, both nominated as non-executive commissioners.
The President also nominated several executive commissioners for the NUPRC board.
They include Muhammed Sabo Lamido (Finance), Edu Inyang (Exploration and Acreage), Justin Ezeala (Economic Regulation and Strategic Planning), Henry Darlington Oki (Development and Production), Indabawa Bashari Alka (Corporate Services and Administration), Mahmood Tijani (Health, Safety and Environment), and Ms. Olayemi Adeboyejo as Secretary and Legal Adviser.
Some of the nominees, including Lamido and Adeboyejo, were initially appointed by former President Muhammadu Buhari, while Alka was appointed by Tinubu in 2023. Others are fresh nominations by the President.
In a separate letter, Tinubu nominated Mr. Adegbite Ebiowei Adeniji as chairman of the NMDPRA board.
Adeniji is a lawyer with over 30 years’ experience in energy and natural resources and previously served as Special Technical Adviser to the Minister of State for Petroleum on upstream and gas matters. He was also part of the World Bank Oil and Gas Policy team that advised the Nigerian government.
Other nominees for the NMDPRA board include Chief Kenneth Kobani and Mrs. Asabe Ahmed as non-executive members. Executive members nominated are Abiodun Adeniji (Finance), Francis Ogaree (Hydrocarbon), Oluwole Adama (Midstream and Downstream Gas Infrastructure), and Dr. Mustapha Lamorde (Corporate Services and Administration).
Additional nominees include Yahaya Nasamu Yinusa (Distribution Systems), Adeyemi Murtala Aminu (Corporate Services), Modie Ogechukwu (Economic Regulation and Strategic Planning), and Barrister Olawale Dawodu as Secretary and Legal Adviser.
President Tinubu urged the Senate to expedite the confirmation process, noting that the nominations followed the recent appointment of chief executive officers for both agencies. Oritsemeyiwa Eyesan was appointed CEO of the NUPRC, while Engineer Saidu Aliyu Mohammed was named CEO of the NMDPRA.
The President charged all the nominees to carry out their regulatory responsibilities with professionalism to ensure effective oversight and improved governance of Nigeria’s oil and gas sector.
