TINUBU SEEKS SENATE APPROVAL FOR NMDPRA, NUPRC BOARD NOMINEES

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By: Balogun Ibrahim

The nominations come in the wake of the recent appointment of Chief Executive Officers for the two regulatory agencies.

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

In his first letter, President Tinubu nominated Senator Magnus Abe as chair of the NUPRC board.

Abe, a two-term senator representing Rivers South East, is a former NNPC board member and currently serves as chairman of the National Agency of the Great Green Wall.

According to a statement on Monday by Bayo Onanuga, Special Adviser to the President on Information and Strategy, other nominees for the NUPRC board include Engineer Paul Yaro Jezhi, a former Kaduna Trade Union Congress chairman, and Sunday Adebayo Babalola, a former deputy director of the Department of Petroleum Resources (DPR), which was abolished under the Petroleum Industry Act in 2021.

Both Jezhi and Babalola are slated to serve as non-executive commissioners.

President Tinubu also nominated executive commissioners to the NUPRC board.

The appointees include Muhammed Sabo 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 Darlington Oki as executive commissioner for Development and Production.

Other nominees are Indabawa Bashari 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.

Lamido and Adeboyejo were initially appointed by former President Buhari in 2022, while Alka received his appointment from President Tinubu in 2023.

Edu Inyang, Justin Ezeala, former Managing Director of Nigerian Gas Marketing Limited, Mahmood Tijani, Sunday Babalola, and Paul Yaro Jezhi are among the new appointees nominated by President Tinubu.

In his second letter to the Senate, President Tinubu nominated lawyer Adegbite Ebiowei Adeniji as chairman of the NMDPRA board.

Adeniji brings over 30 years of experience in energy and natural resources and previously served as special technical adviser to the Minister of State for Petroleum on upstream and gas matters until 2018.

He also served on the Oil & Gas Policy team at the World Bank, advising the Nigerian government on petroleum sector reforms and restructuring, including the development of Nigeria’s Strategic Gas Plan. He is currently the managing partner at ENR Advisory.

President Tinubu further nominated Chief Kenneth Kobani and Asabe Ahmed as non-executive members of the board.

Chief Kenneth Kobani, a former Minister of State for Trade under President Jonathan and former Secretary to the Government of Rivers State under Nyesom Wike, is among the nominees.

Other nominees for confirmation include Abiodun Adeniji as Executive Director of Finance; Francis Ogaree as Executive Director of Hydrocarbon; Oluwole Adama as Executive Director of Midstream and Downstream Gas Infrastructure; and Dr. Mustapha Lamorde as Executive Director of Corporate Services and Administration.

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

Additional nominees for the NMDPRA board include Yahaya Nasamu Yinusa as Executive Director of Distribution Systems; Adeyemi Murtala Aminu as Executive Director of Corporate Services; Modie Ogechukwu as Executive Director of Economic Regulation and Strategic Planning; and Barrister Olawale Dawodu as Board Secretary and Legal Adviser.

Dawodu, an industry veteran, previously served as Financial Reporting Manager at Exxon’s Nigerian subsidiaries.

President Tinubu has urged the Senate to swiftly approve the board nominees.

The requests come after the recent appointment of Chief Executive Officers for the two regulatory agencies. The Senate has already confirmed Oritsemeyiwa Eyesan as CEO of the NUPRC and Engineer Saidu Aliyu Mohammed as CEO of the NMDPRA.

Tinubu called on all appointees and nominees to execute their duties with professionalism as regulators of Nigeria’s oil and gas sectors.