President Bola Tinubu has formally requested the Senate’s confirmation of 21 nominees for the governing boards of the Nigerian Upstream Petroleum Regulatory Commission (NUPRC) and the Nigerian Midstream and Downstream Petroleum Regulatory Authority (NMDPRA).
In a letter to the Senate, the President nominated former senator and ex–NNPC board member, Magnus Abe, as chairman of the NUPRC board. Abe represented Rivers South-East Senatorial District for two terms and currently serves as chairman of 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 Sunday Adebayo Babalola, a former deputy director of the defunct Department of Petroleum Resources, dissolved following the enactment of the Petroleum Industry Act (PIA) in 2021.
President Tinubu also submitted names of executive commissioners for the commission. 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), and Mahmood Tijani (Health, Safety and Environment). Olayemi Adeboyejo was nominated as secretary and legal adviser.
While Lamido and Adeboyejo were initially appointed in 2022 and Alka in 2023, several others — including Inyang, Ezeala, Tijani, Babalola, and Jezhi — are new nominees under the Tinubu administration.
In a separate letter, the President nominated Adegbite Ebiowei Adeniji, a legal practitioner with over three decades of 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 part of the World Bank Oil and Gas Policy team that advised Nigeria on petroleum sector reforms. He is currently the managing partner at ENR Advisory.
Also nominated as non-executive members of the NMDPRA board are Chief Kenneth Kobani, a former minister of state for trade and former secretary to the Rivers State Government, and Asabe Ahmed.
Executive directors nominated for the authority include Abiodun Adeniji (Finance), Francis Ogaree (Hydrocarbon Processing Plants), Oluwole Adama (Midstream and Downstream Gas Infrastructure), and Dr Mustapha Lamorde (Corporate Services and Administration). Adama was appointed in 2024, while Lamorde, Adeniji, and Ogaree were earlier appointed between 2021 and 2022.
Additional nominees are Yahaya Nasamu Yinusa (Distribution Systems), Adeyemi Murtala Aminu (Corporate Services), Modie Ogechukwu (Economic Regulation and Strategic Planning), and Barrister Olawale Dawodu as board secretary and legal adviser. Dawodu is an industry professional and a former financial reporting manager at Exxon’s Nigerian subsidiaries.
President Tinubu urged the Senate to consider and approve the nominations promptly, noting that the requests followed 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 carry out their responsibilities with professionalism and diligence in regulating Nigeria’s oil and gas sector.
Tinubu Seeks Senate Confirmation for 21 Nominees to Key Petroleum Regulatory Boards
