Tinubu Names 21 Board Members for Key Oil Regulators, Urges Senate to Fast-Track Confirmation

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President Bola Ahmed Tinubu has forwarded two separate letters to the Senate, seeking the confirmation of 21 nominees for the governing boards of Nigeria’s critical petroleum regulatory agencies—the Nigerian Upstream Petroleum Regulatory Commission (NUPRC) and the Nigerian Midstream and Downstream Petroleum Regulatory Authority (NMDPRA).

The nominations, according to the President, are aimed at strengthening regulatory oversight and deepening reforms in the oil and gas sector under the Petroleum Industry Act (PIA).

A statement issued by Bayo Onanuga, Special Adviser to the President on Information and Strategy said for the NUPRC, President Tinubu nominated former Senator Magnus Abe as board chairman. Abe, who represented Rivers South-East in the Senate for two terms, is a former board member of the Nigerian National Petroleum Company (NNPC) and currently chairs the National Agency for the Great Green Wall.

Other nominees for the NUPRC board as non-executive commissioners are Engineer Paul Yaro Jezhi, a former chairman of the Trade Union Congress (TUC) in Kaduna State, and Mr Sunday Adebayo Babalola, a former deputy director of the defunct Department of Petroleum Resources (DPR).

The President also submitted the names of seven executive commissioners for the NUPRC board. They include Muhammed Sabo Lamido (Finance), 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), Mahmood Tijani (Health, Safety and Environment), and Ms Olayemi Adeboyejo, who will serve as Secretary and Legal Adviser.

While Lamido and Adeboyejo were initially appointed in 2022 by former President Muhammadu Buhari, and Alka in 2023 by President Tinubu, others—Inyang, Ezeala, Tijani, Babalola and Jezhi—are new nominees of the current administration.

In a separate letter, President Tinubu nominated Mr Adegbite Ebiowei Adeniji, a seasoned energy lawyer with over three decades of experience, as chairman of the NMDPRA board. Adeniji previously served as Special Technical Adviser to the Minister of State for Petroleum and was part of the World Bank’s Oil and Gas Policy team that advised Nigeria on key sector reforms, including the Strategic Gas Plan. He is currently the managing partner of ENR Advisory.

Also nominated as non-executive members of the NMDPRA board are Chief Kenneth Kobani, a former Minister of State for Trade and former Secretary to the Rivers State Government, and Mrs Asabe Ahmed.

For executive positions within the NMDPRA, the President submitted Abiodun Adeniji (Executive Director, Finance), Francis Ogaree (Executive Director, Hydrocarbon Processing), Oluwole Adama (Executive Director, Midstream and Downstream Gas Infrastructure), and Dr Mustapha Lamorde (Executive Director, Corporate Services and Administration). Adama was appointed in 2024 by President Tinubu, while Adeniji, Lamorde and Ogaree were appointed between 2021 and 2022 under the previous administration.

Other proposed members of the NMDPRA board include Mr Yahaya Nasamu Yinusa (Executive Director, Distribution Systems), Adeyemi Murtala Aminu (Executive Director, Corporate Services), Ms Modie Ogechukwu (Executive Director, Economic Regulation and Strategic Planning), and Barrister Olawale Dawodu as Board Secretary and Legal Adviser. Dawodu is an industry expert and former Financial Reporting Manager at ExxonMobil’s Nigerian subsidiaries.

President Tinubu urged the Senate to expedite the confirmation process, stressing the need for fully constituted boards to enhance effective regulation of the petroleum sector.

The nominations come on the heels of the recent appointment and Senate confirmation of Oritsemeyiwa Eyesan as Chief Executive Officer of the NUPRC and Engineer Saidu Aliyu Mohammed as Chief Executive Officer of the NMDPRA.

The President has charged all nominees to carry out their duties with professionalism, transparency and commitment to national interest.