Tinubu Sends NMDPRA, NUPRC Board Nominees to Senate for Approval

President Bola Ahmed Tinubu has formally requested the Senate to confirm 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 requests were contained in two separate letters transmitted to the Senate and read at plenary, following the recent confirmation of chief executive officers for both regulatory agencies.

In the first letter, President Tinubu nominated former senator representing Rivers South-East, Magnus Abe, as chairman of the NUPRC board. Abe, a two-term senator, previously served on the board of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) and is currently the chairman of the National Agency for the Great Green Wall.

Also nominated as non-executive commissioners for the NUPRC board 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 defunct Department of Petroleum Resources (DPR).

The President further nominated several executive commissioners for the commission. They include Muhammed Sabo 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; Henry Darlington Oki as executive commissioner for development and production; Indabawa Bashari Alka as executive commissioner for corporate services and administration; and Mahmood Tijani as executive commissioner for health, safety and environment. Ms Olayemi Adeboyejo was nominated as secretary and legal adviser.

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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 fresh nominees of the current administration.

In a second letter, President Tinubu nominated Mr Adegbite Ebiowei Adeniji, a legal practitioner with over 30 years’ experience in energy and natural resources, as chairman of the NMDPRA board.

Adeniji previously served as special technical adviser to the Minister of State for Petroleum on upstream and gas matters and was a member of the World Bank’s Oil and Gas Policy Team that advised Nigeria on petroleum sector reforms. He is currently the managing partner of ENR Advisory.

Other non-executive nominees for the NMDPRA board include Chief Kenneth Kobani, a former Minister of State for Trade and former Secretary to the Rivers State Government, and Mrs Asabe Ahmed.

The President also forwarded the names of executive directors for confirmation, including 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. Adama was appointed in 2024, while Lamorde and Adeniji were appointed in 2021 and Ogaree in 2022 by the previous administration.

Additional nominees to the NMDPRA board are Mr Yahaya Nasamu Yinusa as executive director, distribution systems; Adeyemi Murtala Aminu as executive director, corporate services; Ms Modie Ogechukwu as executive director, economic regulation and strategic planning; and Barrister Olawale Dawodu as board secretary and legal adviser. Dawodu is an industry professional and formerly served as a financial reporting manager with ExxonMobil’s Nigerian subsidiaries.

President Tinubu urged the Senate to consider and approve the nominations expeditiously, stressing the importance of effective governance in the oil and gas sector.

The nominations follow the recent confirmation of Oritsemeyiwa Eyesan as chief executive officer of the NUPRC and Engineer Saidu Aliyu Mohammed as chief executive officer of the NMDPRA. The President charged all appointees to discharge their duties professionally in line with the mandate of the Petroleum Industry Act.