President Bola Tinubu, on Monday, forwarded two letters to the Senate seeking confirmation of Magnus Abe and Adegbite Ebiowei Adeniji, alongside 19 others, as chairmen and board members of the Nigerian Upstream Petroleum Regulatory Commission (NUPRC) and the Nigerian Midstream and Downstream Petroleum Regulatory Authority (NMDPRA), respectively.
Bayo Onanuga, Special Adviser to the President on Information and Strategy, disclosed in a statement that the President nominated Magnus Abe, who represented Rivers South-East in the Senate for two terms, is a former NNPC board member, and the current Chairman of the National Agency for the Great Green Wall, as Chairman of the NUPRC.
The President also forwarded the names of nominees for the NUPRC board for confirmation, including Paul Jezhi, a former Trade Union Congress chairman in Kaduna, and Sunday Babalola, a former deputy director of the Department of Petroleum Resources (DPR), which was abolished by the Petroleum Industry Act (PIA) in 2021.
Both nominees will serve as non-executive commissioners.
President Tinubu also nominated executive commissioners to the board, including Muhammed Lamido as Executive Commissioner for Finance; Edu Inyang as Executive Commissioner for Exploration and Acreage; Justin Ezeala as Executive Commissioner for Economic Regulation and Strategic Planning; and Henry Oki as Executive Commissioner for Development and Production.
Others are Indabawa Alka as Executive Commissioner for Corporate Services and Administration; Mahmood Tijani as Executive Commissioner for Health, Safety and Environment; and Olayemi Adeboyejo as Secretary and Legal Adviser.
Onanuga said former President Muhammadu Buhari appointed Lamido and Adeboyejo in 2022, while President Tinubu appointed Alka in 2023. Inyang, Ezeala—the former Managing Director of Nigerian Gas Marketing Limited—Mahmood Tijani, Babalola and Jezhi are new appointees of President Tinubu.
In his second letter to the Senate, President Tinubu nominated Adegbite Ebiowei Adeniji, a lawyer, as Chairman of the NMDPRA board.
“Adeniji has over 30 years of experience in energy and natural resources issues,” according to Onanuga.
He was a Special Technical Adviser to the Minister of State for Petroleum on upstream and gas matters until 2018. He also served as a member of the Oil and Gas Policy Team at the World Bank, which advised the Government of Nigeria on reforms and restructuring of the petroleum sector, including the development of the Strategic Gas Plan for Nigeria. He is currently the Managing Partner at ENR Advisory.
President Tinubu also nominated Kenneth Kobani and Asabe Ahmed as non-executive members. Kobani is a former Minister of State for Trade under former President Goodluck Jonathan and a former Secretary to the Government of Rivers State under Nyesom Wike.
Also nominated for confirmation are Abiodun Adeniji as Executive Director of Finance; Francis Ogaree as Executive Director of Hydrocarbon Processing; Oluwole Adama as Executive Director of Midstream and Downstream Gas Infrastructure; and Mustapha Lamorde as Executive Director of Corporate Services and Administration.
President Tinubu appointed Adama in 2024, while former President Buhari appointed Lamorde and Adeniji in 2021, and Ogaree in 2022.
Other members of the NMDPRA board proposed by President Tinubu are Yahaya Yinusa as Executive Director of Distribution Systems; Adeyemi Aminu as Executive Director of Corporate Services; Modie Ogechukwu as Executive Director of Economic Regulation and Strategic Planning; and Olawale Dawodu as Board Secretary and Legal Adviser.
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Dawodu is an industry professional and previously served as Financial Reporting Manager at Exxon Nigerian subsidiaries.
The President urged the Senate to approve the nominees expeditiously.
The requests, according to Onanuga, followed the recent appointment of chief executive officers for the two regulatory agencies.
The Senate recently confirmed Oritsemeyiwa Eyesan as Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the NUPRC and Engineer Saidu Aliyu Mohammed as CEO of the NMDPRA.
President Tinubu charged all appointees and nominees to discharge their duties professionally and responsibly as regulators of Nigeria’s oil and gas sector.
