President Bola Tinubu has forwarded letters to the Senate seeking confirmation of 21 nominees for the boards of the Nigerian Midstream and Downstream Petroleum Regulatory Authority (NMDPRA) and the Nigerian Upstream Petroleum Regulatory Commission (NUPRC).
This was disclosed on Tuesday by the President’s Special Adviser on Information and Strategy, Bayo Onanuga.
In the first letter, Senator Magnus Abe was nominated as Chairman of the NUPRC board. Abe, a two-term senator who represented Rivers South-East, is a former board member of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) and currently chairs the National Agency for the Great Green Wall.
Other nominees for the NUPRC board as non-executive commissioners 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 Department of Petroleum Resources (DPR).
President Tinubu also nominated the following as executive commissioners: 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 first appointed by former President Muhammadu Buhari, while Alka was appointed by President Tinubu in 2023. Others are new nominees.
In a separate letter, the President 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 nominees are Abiodun Adeniji (Finance), Francis Ogaree (Hydrocarbon), Oluwole Adama (Midstream and Downstream Gas Infrastructure), and Dr. Mustapha Lamorde (Corporate Services and Administration).
Additional board members 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 confirm the nominees promptly, noting the recent appointment of Oritsemeyiwa Eyesan as Chief Executive Officer of NUPRC and Engineer Saidu Aliyu Mohammed as Chief Executive Officer of NMDPRA.
He also charged all nominees to discharge their regulatory responsibilities with professionalism to ensure effective oversight of Nigeria’s oil and gas sector.
