Tinubu Fires NMDPRA CEO After Just 4 Months In Office

|  Nominates Rabiu Umar as replacement  |  Chief executive sacked amid aviation fuel crisis

BY JONATHAN NDA-ISAIAH, NSE ANTHONY-UKO, Abuja CHIKA IZUORA AND YUSUF BABALOLA, Lagos

President Bola Ahmed Tinubu has removed Saidu Mohammed as the chief executive of the Nigerian Midstream and Downstream Petroleum Regulatory Authority (NMDPRA) after a brief four-month tenure, citing public interest.

The decision, announced via a State House press release, is coming amid ongoing challenges in Nigeria’s downstream petroleum sector.

Following Mohammed’s removal, President Tinubu nominated Rabiu Abdullahi Umar as the new NMDPRA chief executive, subject to Senate confirmation under the Petroleum Industry Act 2021.

Mohammed had assumed office on 22 December 2025, following his Senate confirmation on 19 December after a 16 December nomination by Tinubu.

He succeeded Farouk Ahmed, whose abrupt exit earlier that month had already signalled turbulence at the regulatory agency.

Farouk Ahmed’s departure from NMDPRA in mid-December 2025 capped a controversial tenure marked by high-profile clashes with industry stakeholders. Appointed in 2023 under the Petroleum Industry Act, Ahmed faced mounting criticism over regulatory decisions.

The tipping point came in the weeks leading to his exit when he was involved in a public feud with the Dangote Refinery.

The statement issued by the Special Adviser to the President on Information and Strategy, Bayo Onanuga, noted that the changes were made to enhance regulatory oversight in the midstream and downstream petroleum segments.

Pending approval, NMDPRA’s most senior official will serve in an acting capacity.

Tinubu thanked Mohammed for his service and reiterated his administration’s focus on capable leadership to drive energy security, sector reforms, and economic growth.

Nigeria has been grappling with an aviation fuel (Jet A-1) crisis in recent months, intensified by global supply disruptions arising from Middle East tensions.

Since early 2026, escalating conflicts, particularly involving Iran, Israel, and proxy groups, have disrupted key shipping routes like the Strait of Hormuz, spiking crude prices and constricting refined product supplies.

Domestically, this has led to Jet A-1 shortages at major airports, grounding flights and forcing airlines like Air Peace and Arik Air to scale down operations.

LEADERSHIP reports that amid mounting pressure from local airline operators, who threatened to suspend operations over the lingering aviation fuel crisis and rising operating costs, the NMDPRA on Monday set a price band for aviation fuel, also known as Jet A1.

Under the new arrangement, the Authority pegged the maximum price at N2,037 per litre in Abuja, while Lagos will operate within a price band of N1,760 to N1,988 per litre, lower than the over N3,000 per litre at which airline operators had been buying the commodity.

The cost of fuelling aircraft has surged sharply in recent months, placing significant strain on airline operations. For instance, fuelling a Bombardier CRJ 900 or Airbus A220, which cost about N2.1 million per flight in January, has jumped to approximately N7.6 million as of 26 April, representing a 350 per cent increase.

Meanwhile, Umar brings over 25 years of experience in energy, manufacturing, and infrastructure. His track record spans strategic leadership, operational turnarounds, and major project execution.

A Bayero University Accounting graduate and Harvard Business School alumnus, he is seen as a steady hand to navigate regulatory complexities.

Analysts view the leadership shuffle as Tinubu’s bid to stabilise NMDPRA amid intertwined challenges: aviation fuel scarcity, refinery integration, and global volatility.

Experts Back Sack, Urge Successor To Prioritise Refineries, Energy Security

Meanwhile, experts have shown their approval of Mohammed’s removal, urging his successor to prioritise investment in new refineries and bolster energy security amid ongoing fuel pricing and distribution lapses.

The Secretary-General of the Aviation Round Table Initiative (ARTI), Olumide Ohunayo, has pointed to serious regulatory lapses in fuel pricing and distribution.

Ohunayo said the regulator failed to effectively monitor pricing and distribution channels, particularly during the Iran crisis, when the presence of multiple middlemen distorted aviation fuel supply and pricing.

According to him, the situation had ripple effects across other petroleum products, including kerosene and diesel.

He noted that in a critical and volatile sector such as oil and gas, regulators must maintain strict oversight, stressing that the absence of proper monitoring allowed irregularities to thrive across the federation, not just in Lagos.

He added that the persistence of inaccurate fuel pump measurements at major filling stations, despite high prices, further underscored systemic regulatory weaknesses.

The ARTI scribe argued that the President’s decision to remove the NMDPRA boss was justified, emphasising that regulatory agencies must prioritise consumer protection, pricing transparency, quality, and safety in the discharge of their duties.

Ohunayo also warned that the development should serve as a lesson to other regulators, urging them to act diligently to avoid similar consequences.

He expressed optimism that whoever succeeds the former MD would take a cue from the situation and strengthen oversight mechanisms.

Highlighting the strategic importance of the aviation sector, Ohunayo reiterated that inefficiencies in fuel supply could have far-reaching economic implications.

“When aviation sneezes, the entire country catches a cold,” he said, stressing that the sector remains vital for the movement of passengers, goods, and services, and must be supported with a reliable and efficiently regulated fuel supply system.

Speaking on the development, the President of the Petroleum Products Retail Outlets Owners Association of Nigeria (PETROAN), Mr Billy Gillis-Harry, said the change is not expected to disrupt downstream workflows, but it will be expedient for the new appointee, upon confirmation by the Senate, to ensure continuity of reform implementation.

“I want to believe the President has enough information on the reasons for the change in the leadership of the agency,” he added.

On his part, the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the Centre for the Promotion of Private Enterprise (CPPE), Dr Muda Yusuf, first expressed shock at the development but said the new helmsman should encourage investment in new refineries.

According to Yusuf, his priorities should be to incentivise investors to build more refineries and put in place protection policies for existing ones like the Dangote Refinery.

In this way, he said, the new regulatory boss would go a long way to promote energy security, adding that he should be fully guided by global experience with the ongoing war in Iran.