President Bola Tinubu has nominated former senator Magnus Abe as chairman of the board of the Nigerian Upstream Petroleum Regulatory Commission (NUPRC) and appointed energy lawyer Adegbite Adeniji as chairman of the board of the Nigerian Midstream and Downstream Petroleum Regulatory Authority (NMDPRA), subject to Senate confirmation.
The nominations were contained in a statement issued on Monday by Bayo Onanuga, Special Adviser to the President on Information and Strategy.
In the statement, Onanuga disclosed that President Tinubu had transmitted two separate letters to the Senate, seeking confirmation of 21 nominees for the boards of the two key petroleum sector regulators established under the Petroleum Industry Act (PIA).
Abe, who represented Rivers South-East Senatorial District for two terms, is a former member of the board of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) and currently serves as chairman of the National Agency for the Great Green Wall. If confirmed, he will lead the board of the NUPRC, which oversees Nigeria’s upstream oil and gas operations.
Other nominees to the NUPRC board include Engineer Paul Yaro Jezhi, a former chairman of the Trade Union Congress in Kaduna State, and Sunday Adebayo Babalola, a former deputy director at the defunct Department of Petroleum Resources (DPR), both as non-executive commissioners. Several executive commissioners were also nominated, covering finance, exploration, production, economic regulation, corporate services, and health, safety and environment.
In a separate letter, President Tinubu nominated Adegbite Ebiowei Adeniji as chairman of the NMDPRA board. Adeniji, a lawyer with more than three decades of experience in energy and natural resources law, previously served as special technical adviser to the Minister of State for Petroleum and worked with the World Bank’s Oil and Gas Policy team on Nigeria’s petroleum sector reforms. He is currently the managing partner of ENR Advisory.
Also nominated to the NMDPRA board are former Minister of State for Trade, Chief Kenneth Kobani, and Mrs Asabe Ahmed as non-executive members, alongside several executive directors responsible for finance, hydrocarbons, gas infrastructure, distribution systems, corporate services and economic regulation.
The president urged the senate to consider and confirm the nominees expeditiously, noting that the appointments follow 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.
