President Bola Tinubu has nominated Magnus Abe as the board chairman of the Nigerian Upstream Petroleum Regulatory Commission (NUPRC), in a move aimed at strengthening leadership in Nigeria’s oil and gas regulatory space.
The nomination was conveyed to the Senate in a letter sent on Monday, alongside requests for confirmation of 20 other nominees to serve on the boards of the NUPRC and the Nigerian Midstream and Downstream Petroleum Regulatory Authority (NMDPRA).
In a statement issued by the President’s Special Adviser on Information and Strategy, Bayo Onanuga, Abe was described as a former board member of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) and the current chairman of the National Agency for the Great Green Wall. He is expected to lead the NUPRC board if confirmed.
Also nominated as non-executive commissioners for the NUPRC board are Engineer Paul Yaro Jezhi, a former Trade Union Congress chairman in Kaduna State, and Mr Sunday Adebayo Babalola, a former deputy director at the defunct Department of Petroleum Resources (DPR), which was scrapped following the enactment of the Petroleum Industry Act (PIA) in 2021.
President Tinubu further nominated several executive commissioners to the NUPRC 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 are Indabawa Bashari Alka (Corporate Services and Administration), Mahmood Tijani (Health, Safety and Environment), and Ms Olayemi Adeboyejo, who will serve as Secretary and Legal Adviser.
While Lamido and Adeboyejo were initially appointed by former President Muhammadu Buhari in 2022, and Alka by President Tinubu in 2023, several others including Inyang, Ezeala, Tijani, Babalola and Jezhi are fresh nominees.
In a separate letter, the President nominated Adegbite Ebiowei Adeniji, a seasoned energy lawyer, as chairman of the NMDPRA board. Adeniji brings over three decades of experience in energy and natural resources, having previously worked with the World Bank and served as a technical adviser in Nigeria’s petroleum sector.
Other non-executive nominees to the NMDPRA board include Chief Kenneth Kobani, a former Minister of State for Trade and former Secretary to the Rivers State Government, and Mrs Asabe Ahmed.
Tinubu also nominated executive directors for the NMDPRA, including Abiodun Adeniji (Finance), Francis Ogaree (Hydrocarbon), Oluwole Adama (Midstream and Downstream Gas Infrastructure), and Dr Mustapha Lamorde (Corporate Services and Administration). Additional board members include Yahaya Nasamu Yinusa, Adeyemi Murtala Aminu, Modie Ogechukwu, and Barrister Olawale Dawodu as Board Secretary and Legal Adviser.
According to Onanuga, the President urged the Senate to consider and approve the nominations without delay, noting that the requests followed the recent confirmation of chief executive officers for both agencies.
The Senate had earlier confirmed Oritsemeyiwa Eyesan as CEO of the NUPRC and Engineer Saidu Aliyu Mohammed as CEO of the NMDPRA.
President Tinubu, Onanuga added, has charged all nominees to carry out their responsibilities with professionalism and integrity as regulators of Nigeria’s oil and gas sector.
