President Bola Ahmed Tinubu has appointed former senator representing Rivers South-East, Senator Magnus Abe, as chairman of the board of the Nigerian Upstream Petroleum Regulatory Commission (NUPRC), subject to confirmation by the Senate.
The appointment was contained in one of two letters forwarded by the President to the Senate, seeking confirmation of 21 nominees for the boards of the NUPRC and the Nigerian Midstream and Downstream Petroleum Regulatory Authority (NMDPRA).
Abe, a two-term senator, is a former member of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) board and currently serves as chairman of the National Agency for the Great Green Wall.
Also nominated as non-executive commissioners on the NUPRC board are Engineer Paul Yaro Jezhi, a former chairman of the Trade Union Congress in Kaduna State, and Mr Sunday Adebayo Babalola, a former deputy director of the defunct Department of Petroleum Resources (DPR).
President Tinubu further nominated seven executive officers to the NUPRC board. They include Muhammed Sabo Lamido as executive commissioner for finance; Mr Edu Inyang for exploration and acreage; Justin Ezeala for economic regulation and strategic planning; Henry Darlington Oki for development and production; Indabawa Bashari Alka for corporate services and administration; Mahmood Tijani for health, safety and environment; and Ms Olayemi Adeboyejo as secretary and legal adviser.
While Lamido and Adeboyejo were initially appointed in 2022 by former President Muhammadu Buhari, Alka was appointed by President Tinubu in 2023. Inyang, Ezeala, Tijani, Jezhi and Babalola are new nominees of the President.
In a second letter to the Senate, President Tinubu nominated Mr Adegbite Ebiowei Adeniji, a lawyer with over three decades of experience in energy and natural resources, as chairman of the NMDPRA board.
Adeniji previously served as special technical adviser to the Minister of State for Petroleum on upstream and gas matters and was a member of the World Bank Oil and Gas Policy team that advised the Federal Government on petroleum sector reforms. He is currently the managing partner at 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.
Other nominees for confirmation include Abiodun Adeniji, executive director of finance; Francis Ogaree, executive director of hydrocarbon processing plants; Oluwole Adama, executive director of midstream and downstream gas infrastructure; and Dr Mustapha Lamorde, executive director of corporate services and administration.
Additional members proposed for the NMDPRA board are Mr Yahaya Nasamu Yinusa, executive director of distribution systems; Adeyemi Murtala Aminu, executive director of corporate services; Ms Modie Ogechukwu, executive director of economic regulation and strategic planning; and Barrister Olawale Dawodu, board secretary and legal adviser.
President Tinubu urged the Senate to approve the nominees expeditiously, stressing the importance of effective regulation of the oil and gas sector.
The nominations follow the recent confirmation by the Senate of Oritsemeyiwa Eyesan as chief executive officer of the NUPRC and Engineer Saidu Aliyu Mohammed as chief executive officer of the NMDPRA.
