Tinubu Nominates Board Members for NMDPRA and NUPRC, Seeks Senate Approval
President Bola Ahmed Tinubu has asked the Senate to confirm 21 nominees for the boards of two key oil and gas regulators, the Nigerian Upstream Petroleum Regulatory Commission and the Nigerian Midstream and Downstream Petroleum Regulatory Authority. In two separate letters read in the Senate, the President outlined his choices for the boards, urging lawmakers to consider the requests without delay. For the Nigerian Upstream Petroleum Regulatory Commission, President Tinubu nominated former senator Magnus Abe as board chairman. Abe represented Rivers South East in the Senate for two terms and previously served on the board of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation. He is currently chairman of the National Agency of the Great Green Wall. Other nominees to the NUPRC board as non executive commissioners are Engineer Paul Yaro Jezhi, a former Trade Union Congress chairman in Kaduna, and Sunday Adebayo Babalola, a former deputy director at the defunct Department of Petroleum Resources. The President also named executive commissioners for the commission. They include Muhammed Sabo Lamido for finance, Edu Inyang for exploration and acreage, Justin Ezeala for economic regulation and strategic planning, and Henry Darlington Oki for development and production. Others are Indabawa Bashari Alka for corporate services and administration, Mahmood Tijani for health, safety and environment, and Olayemi Adeboyejo as secretary and legal adviser. Some of the nominees, including Lamido and Adeboyejo, were first appointed in 2022, while Alka joined the board in 2023. Others are fresh nominees under the Tinubu administration. In his second letter, President Tinubu nominated Adegbite Ebiowei Adeniji as chairman of the Nigerian Midstream and Downstream Petroleum Regulatory Authority board. Adeniji is a lawyer with more than three decades of experience in energy and natural resources. He previously advised the Ministry of Petroleum and worked with the World Bank on Nigeria’s oil and gas reforms. Also nominated as non executive members are former minister Kenneth Kobani and Asabe Ahmed. For executive positions on the NMDPRA board, the President put forward Abiodun Adeniji for finance, Francis Ogaree for hydrocarbon processing, Oluwole Adama for midstream and downstream gas infrastructure, and Mustapha Lamorde for corporate services and administration. Additional nominees include Yahaya Nasamu Yinusa for distribution systems, Adeyemi Murtala Aminu for corporate services, Modie Ogechukwu for economic regulation and strategic planning, and Olawale Dawodu as board secretary and legal adviser. The President reminded the Senate that the nominations followed the recent confirmation of the chief executives of both agencies. Oritsemeyiwa Eyesan now leads the NUPRC, while Saidu Aliyu Mohammed heads the NMDPRA. President Tinubu urged all nominees, once confirmed, to carry out their duties with professionalism as regulators of Nigeria’s oil and gas industry.
| 2026-01-05 14:31:38