President Bola Ahmed Tinubu has written two separate letters to the Senate, seeking confirmation of 21 nominees to serve on the boards of the Nigerian Midstream and Downstream Petroleum Regulatory Authority (NMDPRA) and the Nigerian Upstream Petroleum Regulatory Commission (NUPRC).
The disclosure was made on Monday by the President’s Senior Special Adviser on Information and Strategy, Mr Bayo Onanuga.
In the first letter, President Tinubu nominated Senator Magnus Abe as Chairman of the Nigerian Upstream Petroleum Regulatory Commission board. Abe, who represented Rivers South-East Senatorial District for two terms, previously served on the board of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation and currently chairs the National Agency for the Great Green Wall.
Also nominated to the NUPRC board as non-executive commissioners are Engineer Paul Yaro Jezhi, a former Trade Union Congress chairman in Kaduna State, and Mr Sunday Adebayo Babalola, a former Deputy Director of the defunct Department of Petroleum Resources, which was dissolved following the enactment of the Petroleum Industry Act in 2021.
The President further nominated several executive commissioners to the NUPRC board, covering portfolios such as finance, exploration and acreage, economic regulation and strategic planning, development and production, corporate services and administration, as well as health, safety and environment. Ms Olayemi Adeboyejo was also nominated as secretary and legal adviser to the commission.
It was gathered that some of the nominees, including Muhammed Sabo Lamido and Ms Adeboyejo, were initially appointed in 2022, while Indabawa Bashari Alka was appointed in 2023. Others, including Edu Inyang, Justin Ezeala, Mahmood Tijani, Paul Jezhi and Sunday Babalola, are new appointees of President Tinubu.
In a second letter to the Senate, President Tinubu nominated Mr Adegbite Ebiowei Adeniji as Chairman of the NMDPRA board. Adeniji, a legal practitioner with over three decades of experience in energy and natural resources, previously served as a technical adviser to the Minister of State for Petroleum Resources and was part of the World Bank Oil and Gas Policy team that supported Nigeria’s petroleum sector reforms. He is currently the Managing Partner at ENR Advisory.
Other nominations to the NMDPRA board include Chief Kenneth Kobani, a former Minister of State for Trade and former Secretary to the Rivers State Government, as well as Mrs Asabe Ahmed as non-executive members. Several executive directors were also nominated to oversee finance, hydrocarbon processing, midstream and downstream gas infrastructure, and corporate services and administration.
Additional nominees were proposed to serve in key regulatory and administrative roles within the NMDPRA, including distribution systems, corporate services, economic regulation and strategic planning, as well as board secretariat and legal advisory functions.
President Tinubu urged the Senate to consider and approve the nominees expeditiously, stressing the importance of effective leadership and professionalism in regulating Nigeria’s oil and gas industry. He also reminded the nominees of their responsibility to uphold high standards in the discharge of their duties.
Recall that the Senate recently confirmed Oritsemeyiwa Eyesan as Chief Executive Officer of the Nigerian Upstream Petroleum Regulatory Commission and Engineer Saidu Aliyu Mohammed as Chief Executive Officer of the Nigerian Midstream and Downstream Petroleum Regulatory Authority.
