KEY POINTS
- President Tinubu has nominated Senator Magnus Abe and Adegbite Adeniji as board chairmen of NUPRC and NMDPRA respectively.
- A total of 21 nominees were submitted to the Senate for confirmation to fill executive and non-executive positions across both regulators.
- Tinubu urged lawmakers to fast-track the confirmation process, citing the critical role of the agencies in strengthening Nigeria’s oil and gas governance.
President Bola Tinubu has formally requested the Senate’s confirmation of 21 nominees for the boards of the Nigerian Upstream Petroleum Regulatory Commission, NUPRC, and the Nigerian Midstream and Downstream Petroleum Regulatory Authority, NMDPRA.
The nominations were conveyed in two separate letters to the upper chamber and disclosed in a statement issued by the President’s Adviser on Information and Strategy, Bayo Onanuga.
In the first letter, Tinubu named Senator Magnus Abe, a former senator from Rivers South-East, as the NUPRC board’s chairman.
Abe used to be a board member of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) and is now the Chairman of the National Agency of the Great Green Wall.
Engr. Paul Jezhi, a former chairman of the Trade Union Congress (TUC) in Kaduna State, and Mr. Sunday Babalola, a former Deputy Director of the now-defunct Department of Petroleum Resources (DPR), have also been nominated as non-executive commissioners on the NUPRC board.
Executive Commissioners for NUPRC
The president also named several executive commissioners for the upstream regulator, including:
- Muhammed Lamido – Executive Commissioner, Finance
- Edu Inyang – Executive Commissioner, Exploration and Acreage
- Justin Ezeala – Executive Commissioner, Economic Regulation and Strategic Planning
- Henry Darlington Oki – Executive Commissioner, Development and Production
- Indabawa Alka – Executive Commissioner, Corporate Services and Administration
- Mahmood Tijani – Executive Commissioner, Health, Safety and Environment
- Olayemi Adeboyejo – Secretary and Legal Adviser
Some of the nominees, including Lamido and Adeboyejo, were initially appointed by former President Muhammadu Buhari in 2022, while Alka was appointed by Tinubu in 2023. Others are fresh appointees.
Adeniji Picked to Chair NMDPRA Board
In the second letter, President Tinubu nominated Mr. 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 supported Nigeria’s petroleum sector reforms. He is currently Managing Partner at ENR Advisory.
