The Nigerian oil and gas industry has been thrown into uncertainty following the resignation of the chief executives of the Nigerian Upstream Petroleum Regulatory Commission, NUPRC, Engr Gbenga Komolafe, and the Nigerian Midstream and Downstream Petroleum Regulatory Authority, NMDPRA, Engr Farouk Ahmed.
Both NUPRC and NMDPRA are responsible for enforcing petroleum laws, regulations and guidelines in the upstream and downstream sectors. Komolafe and Ahmed were appointed in September 2021 by former President Muhammadu Buhari after the Petroleum Industry Act, PIA, came into force and had been reporting directly to President Bola Tinubu, who is also the Petroleum Minister, until their resignations.
Farouk Ahmed’s exit follows his recent clash with industrialist Aliko Dangote, who petitioned the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission, ICPC, over alleged misconduct. Dangote accused the NMDPRA leadership of economic sabotage, claiming that its policies were undermining local refining, including the $20 billion Dangote Refinery, by continuing to issue import licences for petroleum products. He alleged that this practice discourages domestic refiners and keeps Nigeria dependent on fuel imports.
Dangote also alleged that NMDPRA was working with international traders and oil importers against the interests of local operators, a claim the authority has not yet publicly addressed. He further raised personal allegations, stating that Ahmed was living beyond his means, including claims about the cost of educating four of his children in Switzerland.
Ahmed has firmly denied any wrongdoing. In a detailed statement, he said that three of his four children received substantial merit-based scholarships covering between 40 and 65 per cent of tuition costs and that additional support came from a family education trust set up by his late father. He insisted that, when combined with his savings from decades of public service, cooperative investments and family support, funding his children’s education did not amount to living beyond his income as NMDPRA chief, which he put at about N48 million per year including allowances.
Ahmed added that he has consistently filed asset declarations with the Code of Conduct Bureau since joining public service in 1991 and welcomed any official scrutiny of his finances. He stressed that his career in Nigeria’s petroleum sector has seen him rise from a junior engineer in the former Department of Petroleum Resources to the head of NMDPRA, based on merit and competence.
On Wednesday evening, Ahmed visited the Presidential Villa in Abuja and went to the president’s office. He left after less than 30 minutes, and no official briefing was given on whether he met the president or what was discussed.
Following the resignations of Ahmed and Komolafe, President Tinubu has written to the Senate seeking prompt confirmation of new chief executives for both agencies. He nominated Oritsemeyiwa Eyesan as CEO of NUPRC and Engr Saidu Mohammed as CEO of NMDPRA, describing them as experienced professionals in the oil and gas sector.
According to presidential aide Bayo Onanuga, Eyesan, an Economics graduate of the University of Benin, spent nearly 33 years with the Nigerian National Petroleum Company, NNPC, and its subsidiaries. She retired as Executive Vice President, Upstream, in 2024 and previously served as Group General Manager, Corporate Planning and Strategy, at NNPC from 2019 to 2023.
Mohammed, born in 1957 in Gombe, holds a degree in Chemical Engineering from Ahmadu Bello University, obtained in 1981. He was recently announced as an independent non-executive director at Seplat Energy and has held several leadership roles, including Managing Director of Kaduna Refining and Petrochemical Company and Nigerian Gas Company, and chair of the boards of West African Gas Pipeline Company, Nigeria LNG subsidiaries and NNPC Retail.
He also previously served as Group Executive Director and Chief Operating Officer, Gas and Power Directorate at NNPC. In that role, he helped drive major gas projects and policies such as the Gas Master Plan, the Gas Network Code and contributions to the PIA, and played a key part in projects including the Escravos–Lagos Pipeline Expansion, the Ajaokuta–Kaduna–Kano gas pipeline and Nigeria LNG Train 7.
Observers say the resignations may ease the open conflict between Farouk Ahmed and Aliko Dangote over fuel import licences and the place of local refining in Nigeria’s energy policy. However, the wider debate about how Nigeria manages its petroleum resources is still intensifying.
In a memo on the dispute, senior lawyer and energy expert Dr Olisa Agbakoba argued that Nigeria is undermining itself by frustrating large-scale local refining investments such as the Dangote Refinery, while continuing to import fuel. He contrasted Nigeria’s “contract oil” model, where crude is exported and value added abroad, with Saudi Arabia’s “development oil” approach that uses oil resources to build domestic capacity and jobs across the value chain.
Agbakoba warned that the current situation raises questions about economic sovereignty, poverty reduction, employment and industrial growth, and framed the dispute as a choice between continued dependency and a development-focused strategy for managing oil resources. He urged all stakeholders to seek a resolution that aligns with Nigeria’s constitutional duties and long-term national interest.
Professor Emeritus of Petroleum Economics Wumi Iledare also called for priority to be given to indigenous refining without fear of creating a monopoly. He said that supporting local refiners would lead to an oligopolistic market with several strong players, not a monopoly, and that true monopoly conditions are not present in Nigeria’s downstream sector. He added that monopoly is not desirable for long-term business sustainability and expressed confidence that Dangote is not seeking such a position.
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