President Bola Tinubu has nominated former Rivers South-East Senator Magnus Abe as chairman of the Nigerian Upstream Petroleum Regulatory Commission, seeking the Senate’s confirmation for him and 20 other nominees to serve on the boards of the two key petroleum regulatory agencies.
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In separate letters to the Senate on Monday, the President requested expedited approval for board members of the NUPRC and the Nigerian Midstream and Downstream Petroleum Regulatory Authority.
Abe, who represented Rivers South-East in the Senate for two terms, previously served as a board member of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation and currently chairs the National Agency of the Great Green Wall.
According to a statement by the Special Adviser to the President on Information and Strategy, Bayo Onanuga, Abe will lead the NUPRC board alongside other non-executive commissioners including Paul Jezhi, a former Trade Union Congress chairman in Kaduna, and Sunday Babalola, a former deputy director of the defunct Department of Petroleum Resources.
The President also nominated seven executive commissioners to the NUPRC board: Muhammed Lamido as executive commissioner for finance; Edu Inyang for exploration and acreage; Justin Ezeala for economic regulation and strategic planning; and Henry Oki for development and production.
Others are Indabawa Alka for corporate services and administration; Mahmood Tijani for health, safety and environment; and Olayemi Adeboyejo as secretary and legal adviser.
Lamido and Adeboyejo were initially appointed by former President Muhammadu Buhari in 2022, while Tinubu appointed Alka in 2023.
Inyang, Ezeala, a former managing director of Nigerian Gas Marketing Limited, Tijani, Babalola, and Jezhi are new appointees.
For the NMDPRA board, President Tinubu nominated Adegbite Adeniji, a lawyer with over 30 years of experience in energy and natural resources, as 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’s Oil & Gas Policy team that advised the Nigerian government on petroleum sector reform, including the development of the Strategic Gas Plan for Nigeria. He currently serves as managing partner at ENR Advisory.
The President also nominated Kenneth Kobani, a former minister of state for trade under President Goodluck Jonathan and ex-secretary to the Rivers State government under Nyesom Wike, and Asabe Ahmed as non-executive members of the NMDPRA board.
Other NMDPRA board nominees include Abiodun Adeniji as executive director of finance; Francis Ogaree for hydrocarbon; Oluwole Adama for midstream and downstream gas infrastructure; and Dr Mustapha Lamorde for corporate services and administration.
President Tinubu appointed Adama in 2024, while late President Buhari appointed Lamorde and Adeniji in 2021 and Ogaree in 2022.
Additional NMDPRA board members proposed by the President are Yahaya Yinusa as executive director for distribution systems; Adeyemi Aminu for corporate services; Modie Ogechukwu for economic regulation and strategic planning; and Olawale Dawodu as board secretary and legal adviser.
Dawodu, an industry veteran, previously served as Financial Reporting Manager at Exxon Nigerian subsidiaries.
The presidential requests follow the recent confirmation by the Senate of chief executive officers for the two regulatory agencies.
Oritsemeyiwa Eyesan was confirmed as CEO of NUPRC, while Saidu Aliyu Mohammed was approved as CEO of NMDPRA.
Both regulatory bodies were established by the Petroleum Industry Act of 2021, which abolished the Department of Petroleum Resources and restructured Nigeria’s petroleum sector governance framework.
President Tinubu charged all appointees and nominees to discharge their duties and responsibilities professionally as regulators of the oil and gas sectors, emphasising the strategic importance of effective oversight in the nation’s petroleum industry.
The Senate is expected to screen the nominees in the coming weeks before formal confirmation votes.
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