Tinubu Nominates Magnus Abe, 20 Others for New NUPRC, NMDPRA Boards

By: Aremu Toyeebaht

President Bola Tinubu has moved to complete the leadership structure of Nigeria’s petroleum regulators with the nomination of former Rivers South-East Senator Magnus Abe as chairman of the Nigerian Upstream Petroleum Regulatory Commission (NUPRC), alongside 20 other nominees submitted to the Senate for confirmation.

In separate letters transmitted to the Senate on Monday, the President requested expedited screening and approval of nominees to the boards of the NUPRC and the Nigerian Midstream and Downstream Petroleum Regulatory Authority (NMDPRA), two agencies established under the Petroleum Industry Act (PIA) of 2021.

Abe, a two-term senator and former board member of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, currently serves as chairman of the National Agency of the Great Green Wall. If confirmed, he will chair the NUPRC board, working with non-executive commissioners Paul Jezhi, a former Trade Union Congress chairman in Kaduna, and Sunday Babalola, a former deputy director of the now-defunct Department of Petroleum Resources.

The President also nominated seven executive commissioners to the NUPRC board. They include Muhammed Lamido as executive commissioner for finance; Edu Inyang for exploration and acreage; Justin Ezeala for economic regulation and strategic planning; and Henry Oki for development and production.

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

Lamido and Adeboyejo were initially appointed in 2022 by former President Muhammadu Buhari, while Alka was appointed by Tinubu in 2023. Inyang, Ezeala, Tijani, Babalola and Jezhi are new nominees.

For the NMDPRA, President Tinubu nominated energy and natural resources lawyer Adegbite Adeniji as chairman. Adeniji has more than 30 years’ experience in the sector and previously served as special technical adviser to the Minister of State for Petroleum on upstream and gas. He was also part of the World Bank Oil and Gas Policy team that advised Nigeria on petroleum reforms, including the Strategic Gas Plan, and is currently managing partner at ENR Advisory.

Other non-executive nominees to the NMDPRA board include Kenneth Kobani, a former minister of state for trade and former secretary to the Rivers State government under Nyesom Wike, and Asabe Ahmed.

The President further nominated Abiodun Adeniji as executive director of finance; Francis Ogaree for hydrocarbon; Oluwole Adama for midstream and downstream gas infrastructure; and Dr Mustapha Lamorde for corporate services and administration. Adama was appointed in 2024, while Lamorde and Adeniji were appointed in 2021 and Ogaree in 2022 by the late President Buhari.

Additional nominees include Yahaya Yinusa as executive director for distribution systems; Adeyemi Aminu for corporate services; Modie Ogechukwu for economic regulation and strategic planning; and Olawale Dawodu as board secretary and legal adviser. Dawodu previously served as Financial Reporting Manager at Exxon Nigerian subsidiaries.

The nominations come shortly after the Senate confirmed Oritsemeyiwa Eyesan as Chief Executive Officer of the NUPRC and Saidu Aliyu Mohammed as Chief Executive Officer of the NMDPRA.

Both regulatory agencies were created by the Petroleum Industry Act of 2021, which dismantled the Department of Petroleum Resources and restructured Nigeria’s petroleum governance framework.

President Tinubu has urged all nominees to discharge their duties professionally, underscoring the importance of strong regulatory oversight in promoting transparency, efficiency and investor confidence in Nigeria’s oil and gas industry. The Senate is expected to begin screening the nominees in the coming weeks.