Tinubu Nominates Abe, Adeniji for NUPRC, NMDPRA Board Chairmen

•Seeks Senate’s confirmation of their nominations, 19 other members of both boards

Deji Elumoye in Abuja

President Bola Tinubu has written two letters to the senate seeking the confirmation of 21 nominees for the boards of Nigerian Midstream and Downstream Petroleum Regulatory Authority (NMDPRA) and Nigerian Upstream Petroleum Regulatory Commission (NUPRC).

In the first letter, Tinubu, according to a statement yesterday by his Adviser on Information and Strategy, Bayo Onanuga, nominated Senator Magnus Abe to serve as NUPRC board chair.

Abe, who represented Rivers South East in Senate for two terms, is a former board member of Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) and current Chairman of National Agency of the Great Green Wall.

Other nominees for the NUPRC board are Engr. Paul Jezhi, a former Trade Union Congress (TUC) chairman in Kaduna, and Mr. Sunday Babalola, a former Deputy Director of Department of Petroleum Resources (DPR), which was abolished by Petroleum Industry Act (PIA) in 2021.

Both men would serve as non-executive commissioners.

Tinubu also nominated executive commissioners to the board. They were Muhammed Lamido, Executive Commissioner for Finance; Mr. Edu Inyang, Executive Commissioner for Exploration and Acreage; Justin Ezeala, Executive Commissioner for Economic Regulation and Strategic Planning; and Henry Darlington Oki, Executive Commissioner for Development and Production.

Others were Indabawa Alka, Executive Commissioner for Corporate Services and Administration; Mahmood Tijani, Executive Commissioner for Health, Safety and Environment; and Ms. Olayemi Adeboyejo, Secretary and Legal Adviser.

Former President Muhammadu Buhari had appointed Lamido and Adeboyejo in 2022, while Tinubu appointed Alka in 2023. Inyang.

Ezeala, former Managing Director of Nigerian Gas Marketing Limited, Mahmood Tijani, Babalola, and Jezhi are new appointees of Tinubu.

In his second letter to Senate, Tinubu nominated Mr. Adegbite Ebiowei Adeniji, a lawyer, as Chairman of the NMDPRA board. Adeniji has over 30 years of experience in energy and natural resources issues.

Adeniji was Special Technical Adviser to Minister of State for Petroleum on upstream and gas until 2018.  He was also a member of Oil & Gas Policy team at the World Bank, which advised the Nigerian government on reform and restructuring of the petroleum sector, including the development of Strategic Gas Plan for Nigeria. He is currently the managing partner at ENR Advisory.

The president also nominated Chief Kenneth Kobani and Mrs. Asabe Ahmed as Non-Executive members. Kobani was Minister of State for Trade under former President Goodluck Jonathan and Secretary to the Government of Rivers State, under then Governor Nyesom Wike.

Equally nominated for confirmation were Abiodun Adeniji, Executive Director of Finance; Francis Ogaree, Executive Director of Hydrocarbon; Oluwole Adama, Executive Director of Midstream and Downstream Gas Infrastructure; and Dr. Mustapha Lamorde, Executive Director of Corporate Services and Administration.

Tinubu appointed Adama in 2024, while late Buhari appointed Lamorde and Adeniji in 2021 and Ogaree in 2022.

Other members of the NMDPRA board, as proposed by Tinubu, were Mr. Yahaya Yinusa, Executive Director, Distribution Systems; Adeyemi Aminu, Executive Director, Corporate Services; Ms. Modie Ogechukwu, Executive Director, Economic Regulation and Strategic Planning; and Olawale Dawodu, as Board Secretary and Legal Adviser. Dawodu is an industry player and was, at a time, Financial Reporting Manager at Exxon Nigerian subsidiaries.

Tinubu charged all the appointees and nominees to discharge their duties and responsibilities professionally as regulators of the oil and gas sectors.

The president urged the senate to approve the nominees expeditiously.

The requests followed the recent appointment of chief executive officers for the two regulatory agencies.

Senate had confirmed Oritsemeyiwa Eyesan as Chief Executive Officer of NUPRC and Engr. Saidu Aliyu Mohammed as CEO of NMDPRA.