Tinubu Nominates Magnus Abe, Others for Upstream, Downstream Boards

President Bola Tinubu has written two letters to the Senate, seeking 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).

According to a statement by presidential spokesman, Bayo Onanuga, in the first letter, President Tinubu nominated Senator Magnus Abe to serve as the NUPRC board chair. Abe, who represented Rivers South East in the Senate for two terms, is a former NNPC board member and current chairman of the National Agency of the Great Green Wall.

Other nominees for the NUPRC board are Engineer Paul Yaro Jezhi, a former Trade Union Congress chairman in Kaduna, and Sunday Adebayo Babalola, a former deputy director of the Department of Petroleum Resources (DPR), which was abolished by the PIA in 2021. Both men will serve as non-executive commissioners.

President Tinubu also nominated s executive commissioners to the board.

They are: Muhammed Sabo Lamido, executive commissioner for finance; Edu Inyang, executive commissioner for Exploration and Acreage; Justin Ezeala, executive commissioner for economic regulation and strategic planning; and Henry Darlington Oki, executive commissioner for Development and Production.

Others are Indabawa Bashari Alka, executive commissioner for corporate services and administration; Mahmood Tijani, executive commissioner for health, safety and environment; and Olayemi Adeboyejo, as secretary and legal adviser.

Former President Buhari had appointed Lamido and Adeboyejo in 2022,  while President Tinubu appointed Alka in 2023. Inyang, Ezeala, the former managing director of Nigerian Gas Marketing Limited, Mahmood Tijani, Babalola and Jezhi are new appointees of President Tinubu.

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

Adeniji has over 30 years of experience in energy and natural resources issues. He was a special technical adviser to the minister of state for Petroleum on upstream and gas until 2018.

He was a member of the Oil & Gas Policy team at the World Bank, which advised the Government of Nigeria on the reform and restructuring of the petroleum sector, including the development of the Strategic Gas Plan for Nigeria. He is currently the managing partner at ENR Advisory.

President Tinubu also nominated Kenneth Kobani and Asabe Ahmed as non-executive members. Kobani was a former minister of state for trade under President Jonathan and secretary to the government of Rivers State, under Nyesom Wike.

Also nominated for confirmation are Abiodun Adeniji, executive director of finance; Francis Ogaree, executive director of hydrocarbon; Oluwole Adama, executive director of midstream and Downstream gas infrastructure; and Dr Mustapha Lamorde, executive director of Corporate Services and Administration. President Tinubu appointed Adama in 2024, while late President Buhari appointed Lamorde and Adeniji in 2021 and Ogaree in  2022

Other members of the NMDPRA board, as proposed by President Tinubu, are 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 player and was, at a time, the Financial Reporting manager at Exxon Nigerian subsidiaries.

The President urged the Senate to approve the nominees expeditiously.

The requests followed the recent appointment of chief executive officers for the two regulatory agencies.

Recall that the Senate had confirmed Oritsemeyiwa Eyesan as the chief executive officer (CEO) of the Nigerian Upstream Petroleum Regulatory Commission (NUPRC) and Engineer Saidu Aliyu Mohammed as CEO of NMDPRA.

The President  charged all the appointees and nominees to discharge their duties and responsibilities professionally as regulators of the oil and gas sectors.