President Bola Ahmed Tinubu has formally transmitted the names of two nominees to the Nigerian Senate for confirmation as chief executive officers of the country’s key oil and gas regulatory agencies, following the exit of their former heads.
The nominations are for the Nigerian Upstream Petroleum Regulatory Commission (NUPRC) and the Nigerian Midstream and Downstream Petroleum Regulatory Authority (NMDPRA), both established under the Petroleum Industry Act (PIA).
In a statement released on Wednesday, the Special Adviser to the President on Information and Strategy, Bayo Onanuga, confirmed that the nominations were necessitated by the resignation of Engineer Farouk Ahmed, who previously led the NMDPRA, and Gbenga Komolafe, the former Chief Executive of the NUPRC.
Ahmed and Komolafe were appointed in 2021 during the administration of former President Muhammadu Buhari, shortly after the Petroleum Industry Act came into force and restructured Nigeria’s oil and gas regulatory framework.
According to the statement, President Tinubu has requested the Senate to fast-track the confirmation process for Oritsemeyiwa Amanorisewo Eyesan, who has been nominated as Chief Executive Officer of the NUPRC, and Engineer Saidu Aliyu Mohammed, who has been nominated to lead the NMDPRA.
Onanuga described both nominees as highly experienced professionals with extensive backgrounds in the oil and gas sector.
Eyesan is an Economics graduate of the University of Benin and brings nearly 33 years of experience from the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPCL) and its subsidiaries. She retired in 2024 as Executive Vice President, Upstream, after previously serving as Group General Manager for Corporate Planning and Strategy between 2019 and 2023.
Engineer Saidu Aliyu Mohammed, who was born in 1957 in Gombe State, holds a Bachelor’s degree in Chemical Engineering from Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria. He was recently appointed as an independent non-executive director at Seplat Energy.
Mohammed’s career spans several senior leadership roles across Nigeria’s energy sector. He has served as Managing Director of the Kaduna Refining and Petrochemical Company and the Nigerian Gas Company, in addition to chairing the boards of the West African Gas Pipeline Company, Nigeria LNG subsidiaries, and NNPC Retail.
He also previously held the position of Group Executive Director and Chief Operating Officer of the Gas and Power Directorate, where he played a strategic role in shaping major gas policies and infrastructure projects, including the Gas Masterplan, the Gas Network Code, and legislative inputs into the Petroleum Industry Act.
Mohammed was instrumental in the execution of landmark projects such as the Escravos–Lagos Pipeline Expansion, the Ajaokuta–Kaduna–Kano (AKK) Gas Pipeline, and multiple Nigeria LNG Train developments.
