President Bola Ahmed Tinubu has forwarded two separate letters to the Senate, seeking 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), in a move aimed at strengthening regulation of Nigeria’s oil and gas sector.
According to a statement by the President’s Special Adviser on Information and Strategy, Mr. Bayo Onanuga, the nominations follow the recent appointment and Senate confirmation of the chief executive officers of both agencies and reflect the administration’s commitment to professional and effective energy sector governance.
For the NUPRC, Senator Magnus Abe, a two-term senator representing Rivers South-East and former NNPC board member, has been nominated as Chairman. Other non-executive nominees include Engineer Paul Yaro Jezhi and Mr. Sunday Adebayo Babalola, while executive commissioner positions were proposed for Muhammed Sabo Lamido (Finance), Mr. Edu Inyang (Exploration and Acreage), Justin Ezeala (Economic Regulation and Strategic Planning), Henry Darlington Oki (Development and Production), Indabawa Bashari Alka (Corporate Services and Administration), and Mahmood Tijani (Health, Safety and Environment). Ms. Olayemi Adeboyejo was nominated as Secretary and Legal Adviser.
Lamido and Adeboyejo were first appointed in 2022, Alka in 2023, while Inyang, Ezeala, Tijani, Babalola, and Jezhi are fresh nominees.
In a second letter, the President nominated Mr. Adegbite Ebiowei Adeniji, a lawyer 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 and advised Nigeria on petroleum sector reforms through the World Bank Oil and Gas Policy team.
Other nominees include Chief Kenneth Kobani and Mrs. Asabe Ahmed as non-executive members, and Abiodun Adeniji (Finance), Francis Ogaree (Hydrocarbon), Oluwole Adama (Midstream and Downstream Gas Infrastructure), and Dr. Mustapha Lamorde (Corporate Services and Administration) as executive directors. Additional members include Mr. Yahaya Nasamu Yinusa (Distribution Systems), Adeyemi Murtala Aminu (Corporate Services), Ms. Modie Ogechukwu (Economic Regulation and Strategic Planning), and Barr. Olawale Dawodu (Secretary and Legal Adviser).
President Tinubu has urged the Senate to consider and approve the nominees promptly, emphasizing the strategic importance of the two regulatory agencies to Nigeria’s energy security and economic growth, and charged all nominees to discharge their duties professionally under the Petroleum Industry Act.
If you want, I can also condense this into a punchy, headline-style news report suitable for quick publication. Do you want me to do that?
