President Bola Tinubu has nominated former Rivers South-East Senator, Magnus Abe, as chairman of the Nigerian Upstream Petroleum Regulatory Commission (NUPRC), in a fresh move aimed at strengthening regulatory oversight of Nigeria’s oil and gas sector.
The President forwarded separate letters to the Senate on Monday, seeking confirmation for Abe and 20 other nominees to serve on the boards of the NUPRC and the Nigerian Midstream and Downstream Petroleum Regulatory Authority (NMDPRA). Tinubu urged the Senate to expedite consideration of the nominations.
Abe, a two-term senator and former board member of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, currently serves as chairman of the National Agency of the Great Green Wall. If confirmed, he will lead the NUPRC board alongside non-executive commissioners Paul Jezhi, a former Trade Union Congress chairman in Kaduna, and Sunday Babalola, a former deputy director of the defunct Department of Petroleum Resources.
Seven executive commissioners were also nominated to the NUPRC board. They include Muhammed Lamido as executive commissioner for finance; Edu Inyang for exploration and acreage; Justin Ezeala for economic regulation and strategic planning; and Henry Oki for development and production. Others are Indabawa Alka for corporate services and administration; Mahmood Tijani for health, safety and environment; and Olayemi Adeboyejo as secretary and legal adviser.
Lamido and Adeboyejo were first appointed by former President Muhammadu Buhari in 2022, while Alka was appointed by Tinubu in 2023. Inyang, Ezeala, Tijani, Babalola and Jezhi are new nominees.
For the NMDPRA, President Tinubu nominated energy lawyer Adegbite Adeniji as chairman. Adeniji has over three decades 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. He was also part of the World Bank Oil and Gas Policy team that advised Nigeria on sector reforms, including the Strategic Gas Plan, and is currently managing partner at ENR Advisory.
Other non-executive nominees to the NMDPRA board include Kenneth Kobani, a former minister of state for trade and former secretary to the Rivers State government under Nyesom Wike, as well as Asabe Ahmed.
The President also nominated Abiodun Adeniji as executive director of finance; Francis Ogaree for hydrocarbon; Oluwole Adama for midstream and downstream gas infrastructure; and Dr Mustapha Lamorde for corporate services and administration. Adama was appointed in 2024, while Lamorde and Adeniji were appointed in 2021 and Ogaree in 2022 by the late President Buhari.
Additional nominees include Yahaya Yinusa as executive director for distribution systems; Adeyemi Aminu for corporate services; Modie Ogechukwu for economic regulation and strategic planning; and Olawale Dawodu as board secretary and legal adviser. Dawodu previously served as Financial Reporting Manager at Exxon Nigerian subsidiaries.
The nominations follow the recent Senate confirmation of Oritsemeyiwa Eyesan as Chief Executive Officer of the NUPRC and Saidu Aliyu Mohammed as CEO of the NMDPRA.
Both regulatory agencies were created under the Petroleum Industry Act of 2021, which dissolved the Department of Petroleum Resources and restructured governance of Nigeria’s petroleum sector.
President Tinubu has charged all nominees to discharge their responsibilities professionally, stressing the strategic importance of effective regulation in driving growth, transparency and investor confidence in the oil and gas industry. The Senate is expected to begin screening the nominees in the coming weeks.
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