Tinubu sends names of Magnus Abe, Abiodun Adeniji, 19 others to Senate for NUPRC, NMDPRA boards

President Bola Tinubu has forwarded to the Senate the names of former Rivers South-East senator Magnus Abe, Abiodun Adeniyi and 19 others for appointment to the boards of the Nigerian Upstream Petroleum Regulatory Commission (NUPRC) and the Nigerian Midstream and Downstream Petroleum Regulatory Authority (NMDPRA).

In separate letters read on the Senate floor on Monday, the President requested the lawmakers’ confirmation of the nominees to strengthen the leadership of the two petroleum regulatory agencies created under the Petroleum Industry Act (PIA) 2021.

Abe, a two-term senator and former board member of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, was nominated as non-executive chairman of the NUPRC. He currently serves as chairman of the National Agency for the Great Green Wall.

Other non-executive commissioners nominated to the NUPRC board include Paul Jezhi, a former chairman of the Trade Union Congress in Kaduna State, and Sunday Babalola, a former deputy director at the defunct Department of Petroleum Resources.

President Tinubu also nominated seven executive commissioners to the NUPRC board. They include Muhammed Lamido for finance; Edu Inyang for exploration and acreage management; Justin Ezeala for economic regulation and strategic planning; Henry Oki for development and production; Indabawa Alka for corporate services and administration; Mahmood Tijani for health, safety and environment; and Olayemi Adeboyejo as secretary and legal adviser.

While Lamido and Adeboyejo were initially appointed by former President Muhammadu Buhari in 2022, Alka was appointed by Tinubu in 2023. Inyang, Ezeala, Tijani, Jezhi and Babalola are new nominees.

For the NMDPRA board, the President nominated energy lawyer Adegbite Adeniji as chairman. Adeniji has more than 30 years’ experience in energy and natural resources law and previously served as special technical adviser to the Minister of State for Petroleum on upstream and gas matters. He was also part of the World Bank Oil and Gas Policy team that advised Nigeria on petroleum sector reforms.

Non-executive members nominated to the NMDPRA board include Kenneth Kobani, a former minister of state for trade and ex-secretary to the Rivers State government, and Asabe Ahmed.

The President also nominated Abiodun Adeniji as executive director for finance; Francis Ogaree for hydrocarbon processing; Oluwole Adama for midstream and downstream gas infrastructure; and Dr Mustapha Lamorde for corporate services and administration.

Adama was appointed by Tinubu in 2024, while Lamorde and Adeniji were appointed by the late President Muhammadu Buhari in 2021, and Ogaree in 2022.

Other nominees to the NMDPRA board 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 previously served as financial reporting manager at Exxon’s Nigerian subsidiaries.

The nominations come shortly after the Senate confirmed the chief executive officers of both agencies — Oritsemeyiwa Eyesan as CEO of the NUPRC and Saidu Aliyu Mohammed as CEO of the NMDPRA.

Established by the Petroleum Industry Act of 2021, both agencies replaced the defunct Department of Petroleum Resources as part of reforms aimed at improving governance and transparency in Nigeria’s oil and gas sector.

The Senate is expected to screen the nominees in the coming weeks before voting on their confirmation.