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Why Regulatory Synergy is Key to Growth and Investor Confidence in Nigeria’s Petroleum Sector
By Akpandem James
The Nigerian oil and gas industry has frequently been in the news for various reasons. Decades before the Petroleum Industry Act (PIA) was enacted in August 2021, the country’s oil and gas exploration sector faced significant challenges due to unclear rules, changing policies and low investor confidence. This was in spite of its key role in the country’s economy. These issues reduced investment funds, delayed project execution and weakened its ability to compete in the rapidly changing global energy market. The PIA altered the narrative. It came with provisions to clarify rules, separate government roles and ensure fiscal stability. Presidential Orders followed, to make things easier for operators and clearer for investors.
The results are obvious today, but the impact could not have been so pronounced if not for the resolve of sector regulators to translate legislation into action. The increasing improvements recorded in investment disposition, operational transparency and sector stability highlight the significance of sustained policy implementation in repositioning the country’s petroleum industry for long-term growth. To reflect current realities, recently there was a transition in the boards and management of the two industry regulators: the Nigerian Upstream Petroleum Regulatory Commission (NUPRC) and the Nigerian Midstream/Downstream Regulatory Agency (NMDPRA).
The twin issues of regulatory stability and operational accountability have often been the nightmare of operators and investors. These weigh more heavily on the regulators, and more on NUPRC, given its unique interface with global players, including local and international partners and stakeholders, as well as its obligation to align with global best practices. Any seeming hiccup in the chain could trigger apprehension. It is against this backdrop that leadership continuity at the NUPRC assumed notable significance, informing the resolve of the new leadership of the regulatory institutions to deepen collaboration, sustain sectoral momentum, drive growth across the oil and gas value chain and strengthen investor confidence.
On Tuesday, December 23, 2025, Engineer Gbenga Komolafe, after four years of transformative leadership, formally handed over the reins at the NUPRC to Mrs Oritsemeyiwa Eyesan, a seasoned industry professional. The smooth transition signalled continuity in regulatory accountability and a renewed commitment to strengthening regulation and sustaining investor confidence, two critical enablers of a thriving petroleum sector. As the pioneer head of the Commission, Eng. Komolafe laid the foundation for a robust regulatory framework and strengthened accountability. Mrs. Eyesan is committed to building on this legacy by fully digitizing operations, increasing production and enhancing transparency to strengthen sectoral gains.
Mrs Eyesan brings more than three decades of industry experience to the role. She retired from the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPCL) in November 2024 as Executive Vice President, Upstream, where she oversaw Nigeria’s upstream petroleum operations. Often, leadership transitions in critical sectors raise concerns about policy direction and operational continuity. In this case, however, such fears do not arise, given the shared vision of repositioning Nigeria’s oil and gas sector as a global reference point in line with the PIA mandate. She made this clear when sharing her vision. It focuses on boosting oil and gas production, attracting investment and turning the Commission into a business enabler. She plans to drive this through digital tools, enhanced openness and staff capacity development. Her open-door policy emphasises regular engagement with staff, as well as internal and external stakeholders.
The new Commission Chief Executive, since assuming, has consistently articulated a clear mandate to advance Nigeria’s upstream sector in line with the PIA. She has reiterated her commitment to making the Commission a business enabler and reigniting upstream investments, while setting firm production targets to grow crude oil and gas output. “The goal is that we must enable the industry; we are regulators. We must enable the industry through our interactions with stakeholders and with everyone. My main objective is to ensure that we make a difference. I believe the NUPRC is at the centre of the industry,” she said. With stakeholder cooperation, she remains confident of achieving tangible results, telling staff: “If we work together, we can unleash opportunities. I don’t see impediments, only opportunities.”
Her familiarity with regulatory requirements and capacity to deliver have been attested to by the African Energy Chamber (AEC), which hailed her appointment. The AEC Chairman, N. J. Ayuk, in a statement, expressed confidence in her leadership, saying it would further strengthen private-sector confidence and position Nigeria as Africa’s leading investment destination for oil and gas.
Reinforcing the importance of regulatory stability and accountability, Ayuk noted that global investors are increasingly selective as competition for capital intensifies across both frontier and established markets. He observed that regulatory credibility, transparency and predictability have become decisive factors, adding that slow and unpredictable approval processes, marked by lengthy permitting timelines, unclear requirements and frequent changes, have historically deterred investment in Nigeria. These issues have already been carefully considered and are currently being addressed through the Presidential Orders of 2024 and 2025.
Recognising that the sector cannot be effectively driven in silos, the NUPRC leadership has already taken steps to deepen collaboration with the NMDPRA to eliminate regulatory bottlenecks and boost investor confidence. Within two weeks of assuming office, Mrs. Eyesan met with the leadership of the sister agency and both agreed to strengthen cooperation. A joint team has since been assembled to identify and resolve regulatory issues, ensure seamless regulation across the value chain and promote the overall interests of the industry. She believes that collaboration between the two regulators is essential, as both institutions drive growth in the sector.
“Whether we are talking about upstream, midstream or downstream, we are enablers for the industry, and the industry is the heartbeat of the nation’s economy,” she said. “We cannot achieve sustainable growth if we do not work together. Sometimes there is no fine line between upstream, midstream and downstream, and lack of coordination can create problems. I believe this marks the beginning of many more engagements.”
Echoing this sentiment, the NMDPRA Chief Executive, Aliyu Mohammed, underscored the need for harmonious cooperation, noting the agencies’ shared heritage as offshoots of the defunct Department of Petroleum Resources (DPR). He craves stronger relationships and amicable resolution of differences, noting that closer collaboration would improve regulatory efficiency and attract investment, with long-term benefits for the national economy.
Recently, President Bola Ahmed Tinubu nominated a seasoned lawmaker and industry insider, Senator Magnus Abe, for Senate confirmation as Chairman of the NUPRC Board. A renowned lawyer from Rivers State, Senator Abe has been associated with the petroleum sector through legislative oversight and reforms, including contributing to the framework of the PIA 2021. He served as a member of the NNPC Board and is currently Chairman of the National Agency for the Great Green Walls. With a Commission Chief Executive boasting over three decades of industry experience and a Board Chairman of proven pedigree, operators and investors in Nigeria’s upstream oil and gas sector can draw renewed confidence.
- James, an Abuja-based communication consultant, is a Fellow of the Nigerian Guild of Editors and member of the International Press Institute (IPI).
I will always refer to the encounter I once had with Kenneth Idiodi. He was then the leader of the Rosicrucian Society in Nigeria, otherwise known as Amok. It was a sit-down at Zodiac Hotel Enugu. Then, I was the reporter of The Guardian in the Coal City.
You know the Amok faith bases its philosophy or belief on the law of Retributive Justice – the law of Karma. That is to say, everything you do in life has its rewards or punishment in equal measure – much like the measure you give, the measure you receive.
I don’t know how much this society draws or links this belief from or with the Bible, but I do recall Jesus Christ warning Simon Peter – return your sword to the scabbard – for he who kills by the sword, dies by the sword.
As a child growing up I listened to one of the epics of Oriental Brothers with the lyrics – ogbu mma ga-esi n’mma na, ogba egbe ga-esi n’egbe na ooo! Translated – he who kills by the sword will die by the sword, he who kills by the gun will die by the nozzle of the gun.
Now, here is where this is relevant in present Nigerian reality – the reason I’m putting details of that encounter out publicly once again, having done so previously.
During that encounter, Idiodi used one event in Nigeria to illustrate his point. He told me of a Nigerian leader who commanded the troop that carried out the Asaba massacre in the heat of the Nigerian civil war – an episode, said to have claimed over 2,000 able-bodied men who had come out to welcome the Nigerian soldiers with songs and dances only to fall in the hail of bullets that descended on them like rainstorms – was not spared by fate.
That commander was to meet his own death in a hail of bullets even as a Head of State. He never mentioned the name of the military top brass. But I used my tongue to count my teeth to come to the answer. You could also do same – use your tongue.
Now, how does this relate? You may have followed the outing of General Yakubu Gowon at the Bola Ahmed Tinubu International Conference Centre, Abuja, where he presented his autobiography titled: My Life of Duty and Allegiance, that contained what seemed his memoir on the Nigerian civil war, which he prosecuted as Head of State.
I’m sure you must have been observing the debate therefrom that event. Now, I’m not so much enamoured of the debate as I’m of the nuances surrounding that unfortunate episode and the role of Gowon in it, given my takeaway from that Idiodi encounter some two decades ago.
Does Gowon, now a nonagenarian really believe that presenting a pious, if not saintly account of himself to the world as snippets of his book, which I picked up here and there suggests, truly suffices for the atrocities of that period?
Take the Asaba massacre for example. Was that the handiwork of Odumegwu Ojukwu, the Biafran leader, whom the former Head of State seems to blame for everything that went wrong. Was he also the one that commanded that mass slaughtering of innocent men?
Under your nose as Head of State, you watched citizens slaughtered mercilessly like infested herds in the streets – you watched young girls corralled into leprosy colonies and wantonly raped before being wasted – you watched as train coaches bearing people fleeing the scene were stopped and their human cargoes thrown alive into River Benue like rotten goods for fishes to feast on – you watched all these and didn’t lift a finger.
Then as Head of State, you not only supervised but watched millions of children with distended stomachs, tiny feet, glazy eyes, heavy heads on ropelike necks, practically begging for death to come quickly and save them from further punishment.
You supervised and watched the cataclysmic eruptions from the blitzkrieg on churches, markets and hospitals – all to keep Nigeria together. In your mind the brutal and merciless butchery of innocent people who were not soldiers and had nothing to do with the war could be explained away just like that?
O! It was Ojukwu that caused it. Ojukwu was the one who released the bombs, caused the blockades that led to the kwashiorkor that killed millions or other atrocities thereof? What a pity!
Now, I return to Idiodi. How else could anyone interpret today’s Nigeria without introducing the law of retributive justice that the Amok leader spoke of? How do you fault the link of the commander who massacred over 2,000 souls dying by the barrel of the same gun, even as Head of State?
How could anyone fail to relate what is happening to our Gowon today with the past? This is a Geneal that wakes up to see hundreds of his brothers and sisters being buried in mass graves as was done during the onslaught he supervised against another people and he still thinks it has nothing to do with him?
Now, the story you told at that event in Abuja on Tuesday, is not new. You simply repeated yourself. My interpretation of that event is that you’re a man undergoing daily torture. You wouldn’t be a human being otherwise, given what is before you, which didn’t start today.
You’re probably trying to escape your fate by appealing to public sympathy. How helpful could that be in the face of the clear evidence of your culpability in the deliberate wasting of more than three million souls? Nobody would believe you.
Yes! They could humour you. But that’s the best anyone could do for you. I hear money rained like a fountain and that you left the scene with billions of naira in your kitty. At 90? Haba General!
Now, here is the thing General. None of these would help.
None would work. You have tried prayers. But you forget that the prayer of sinner is an abomination and a reproach before God, unless he repents. You have also written the book. Surely, this too would end up in the trashcan of history – meaningless piece of conjectures, propaganda, half-truths and outright lies – perhaps!
But, why don’t you try the one thing you have been running away from, for more than five decades – go on your knees in total supplication and surrender, repentance and penance – then rise, call all Nigerians and empty yourself with the truth.
Thereafter openly apologise to the millions of souls whose tormenting wailing you probably hear every day during your disturbed sleep and in your quiet moments, but choose to suppress with these baby tales. Ask them for forgiveness, genuinely and see. There may lie the answer you seek.
Try that and see if it wouldn’t be a more efficacious cure for this decades-old wound than this Ojukwu-bashing and those wasted prayer sessions. You might not only have atoned for the past, but saved the future. May God guide you.
My name is Sunny Igboanugo, I’m The Tiny Voice
“Now that the court has ruled against it, we are sure that, in the coming days, we will witness a mass exodus from the ruling party,” were the words with which the African Democratic Congress (ADC) welcomed Wednesday’s ruling of the Federal High Court, Abuja reversing the deadline for party primaries, among others.
Bolaji Abdullahi, spokesman, who conveyed the party’s excitement over the development, said it viewed the ruling as vindication of its objections to key aspects of the electoral body’s guidelines at the time they were issued.
Recalling its specific objections to the strict timelines on membership registration as well as the conduct of party primaries, the statement, said: “The decision of the court on these issues, including those that directly contradict the constitution, is therefore a welcome vindication of our position.”
Stressing that the ruling, which removed the impediment placed by the guidelines on politicians who wished to seek alternative platforms to contest elections, was a positive development that would promote freedom of association, the statement, added: “We believed at the time that that particular restriction was designed to prevent people from leaving the ruling party, APC.”
Secretary of State Marco Rubio warned Cuba on Thursday that the United States was laser-focused on changing the communist system, after the island was stunned by a US indictment of its former president Raul Castro.
The US military announced that the USS Nimitz aircraft carrier and its escort warships had entered the Caribbean, although President Donald Trump, asked if the deployment was meant to intimidate Cuba, said, “No, not at all.”
Rubio, a Cuban American and vociferous opponent of Havana’s government, described the island 90 miles (145 kilometres) from the US shore as a “failed state” as it suffers a major economic crisis.
“Their economic system doesn’t work. It’s broken, and you can’t fix it with the current political system that’s in place. What they’ve gotten used to all these years is just buying time and waiting us out.
“They’re not going to be able to wait us out or buy time. We’re very serious. We’re very focused. The US preference is always a diplomatic solution, but President Donald Trump has other options at his disposal.”
Stating that Cuba had tentatively accepted an offer by the United States of $100 million in aid in return for reforms, he said it was unclear if the United States would accept Cuba’s terms, as Washington insists on circumventing the military-backed conglomerate GAESA, which dominates the island’s economy.
Rubio said Thursday that the GAESA chief’s Florida-based sister, Adys Lastres Morera, had been arrested and was being held by US immigration authorities, adding in an X post: “Managing real estate assets…while also aiding Havana’s communist regime, until I terminated her permanent resident status.”
The charges against Raul Castro — younger brother of Fidel Castro, the late iconic US nemesis who led Cuba’s communist revolution that culminated in 1959 — stem from the deadly downing of two civilian planes manned by anti-Castro pilots in 1996.
Cuban authorities called on citizens to protest the “despicable” indictment, with the official newspaper Granma urging Cubans to gather outside the US embassy in Havana on Friday at 7:30 am (1230 GMT).
“This isn’t really an accusation, something from more than 30 years ago, but rather a public attack on a public figure,” Fabian Fernandez, a 30-year-old accountant, told AFP in Havana.
Trump in January seized on a US domestic indictment of Venezuela’s leftist leader Nicolas Maduro to send in US forces to depose him and take him into custody.
“The idea is to say, we can do to you what we did to Nicolas Maduro,” said Christopher Sabatini, senior fellow for Latin America at Chatham House.
The Maduro operation led to the end of free oil from Venezuela to Cuba, which relied on its ally for nearly half its needs.
Cubans have suffered power outages of up to 20 hours a day and taps running dry.
Runaway inflation has caused the price of basic goods to soar and mountains of trash have piled up on the streets of Havana.
In addition to murder, Castro has been charged with conspiracy to kill Americans and destruction of aircraft.
The Cuban government called the 1996 shootdown was “legitimate self-defense” against an airspace violation.
China and Russia both criticized Trump’s steps on Cuba, which come as he tries to end an unpopular war he started with Israel against Iran.
Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Guo Jiakun told a press briefing that Washington “should stop brandishing the sanctions stick and the judicial stick against Cuba and stop threatening force at every turn.”
In Moscow, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said: “We believe that under no circumstances should such methods — which border on violence — be used against either former or current heads of state.
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