Tinubu Appoints Boards For NMDPRA And NUPRC, Seeks Senate Confirmation

President Bola Tinubu has sent two letters to the Senate, seeking confirmation of 21 people he nominated to serve on the boards of the Nigerian Midstream and Downstream Petroleum Regulatory Authority (NMDPRA) and the Nigerian Upstream Petroleum Regulatory Commission (NUPRC).

In the first letter, Tinubu proposed former senator Magnus Abe as chairman of the NUPRC board.

Abe served two terms representing Rivers South East in the Senate, previously sat on the NNPC board, and is the current chairman of the National Agency for the Great Green Wall.

According to a statement issued on Monday by the President’s Special Adviser on Information and Strategy, Bayo Onanuga, other nominees to the NUPRC board include Engineer Paul Yaro Jezhi, a former chairman of the Trade Union Congress in Kaduna, and Sunday Adebayo Babalola, a former deputy director of the now-defunct Department of Petroleum Resources (DPR). Both are nominated as non-executive commissioners.

The President also nominated several executive commissioners for the board, including Muhammed Sabo Lamido (finance), Edu Inyang (exploration and acreage), Justin Ezeala (economic regulation and strategic planning), and Henry Darlington Oki (development and production).

Others nominated are Indabawa Bashari Alka (corporate services and administration), Mahmood Tijani (health, safety, and environment), and Olayemi Adeboyejo as board secretary and legal adviser.

Lamido and Adeboyejo were first appointed under former President Buhari in 2022, while Alka was appointed by Tinubu in 2023. Inyang, Ezeala, Tijani, Babalola, and Jezhi are new nominees.

In his second letter, Tinubu nominated lawyer Adegbite Ebiowei Adeniji as chairman of the NMDPRA board. Adeniji has more than three decades of experience in the energy and natural resources sector.

He previously served as a special technical adviser to the Minister of State for Petroleum on upstream and gas matters until 2018 and was part of a World Bank oil and gas policy team that worked on reforms in Nigeria’s petroleum industry. He now serves as managing partner at ENR Advisory.

Tinubu also nominated Chief Kenneth Kobani and Asabe Ahmed as non-executive members of the board. Kobani is a former Minister of State for Trade under President Goodluck Jonathan and a former Secretary to the Rivers State Government under Nyesom Wike.

Other nominees for executive director roles at NMDPRA include Abiodun Adeniji (finance), Francis Ogaree (hydrocarbon), Oluwole Adama (midstream and downstream gas infrastructure), and Dr. Mustapha Lamorde (corporate services and administration).

Adama was appointed in 2024, while Lamorde and Adeniji were appointed in 2021 and Ogaree in 2022 under former President Buhari.

Additional proposed members include Yahaya Nasamu Yinusa (distribution systems), Adeyemi Murtala Aminu (corporate services), Modie Ogechukwu (economic regulation and strategic planning), and Olawale Dawodu as board secretary and legal adviser.

Dawodu has worked in the industry and previously served as Financial Reporting Manager for Exxon’s Nigerian subsidiaries.

Tinubu asked the Senate to confirm the nominees without delay. His request follows the recent appointment of new chief executives for both agencies, with the Senate already confirming Oritsemeyiwa Eyesan as head of NUPRC and Engineer Saidu Aliyu Mohammed as head of NMDPRA.

The President urged all appointees and nominees to perform their duties professionally and uphold their responsibilities in regulating the oil and gas sector.

KanyiDaily recalls that President Bola Tinubu recently asked the Senate to approve his plan to present the 2026 budget to the National Assembly.