It’s unthinkable, Nigeria lives in darkness, despite having 200trn cubic gas – Eyesan

…Saidu vows to protect local investments

…as Senate screens replacements for Farouk, Komolafe

Nigeria’s long-running energy paradox, abundant oil and gas resources alongside chronic power shortages, took centre stage at the Senate on Thursday as President Bola Tinubu’s nominees to lead the country’s key petroleum regulatory agencies pledged sweeping reforms anchored on value creation, digitisation, and protection of local investments.

The nominees, Oritsemeyiwa Eyesan, for the position of the Chief Executive of the Nigerian Upstream Petroleum Regulatory Commission (NUPRC), and Saidu Muhammad, for Chief Executive of the Nigerian Midstream and Downstream Petroleum Regulatory Authority (NMDPRA), said this during their screening before the joint Senate Committees on Upstream, Downstream, and Gas.

Eyesan told lawmakers it was “unthinkable” that Nigeria continues to grope in darkness despite sitting on vast gas reserves.

“We struggle with light, and we are sitting on over 200 trillion cubic feet of gas. It is unthinkable,”

Read also: Meet Eyesan, the amazon tapped to lead Nigeria’s upstream oil regulator

“We must translate our valuable resources into value. The oil, the gas, even aviation fuel must be refined into meaningful products for domestic use and export.”

Eyesan, who has over 33 years’ experience in the oil and gas industry and rose from a young procurement officer to become the first female head of corporate planning and strategy at the NNPC, warned that Nigeria was leaving enormous value “on the table” due to weak coordination, manual processes, and poor data.

“The world is transiting at great speed, and we are still manual,” she said.

“Without digitisation, you are losing money, you are wasting money. Without real numbers, you don’t know what you are dealing with.”

She said collaboration would be a core pillar of her leadership if confirmed.

“We must collaborate, not just within the service, but with all critical stakeholders.

“Identify who the key stakeholders are, sit together, look at our pain points, and come up with solutions,” Eyesan told senators.

According to her, asset integrity, data transparency, and stakeholder engagement were critical to effective regulation, stressing that the Petroleum Industry Act (PIA) provides a strong framework to reverse years of inefficiency if properly implemented.

“The PIA is a valuable document. We must leverage it to ensure we achieve our objectives.

“The world will not wait for us; if we don’t move with it, it will leave us behind,” she added.

On his part, Saidu told lawmakers that Nigeria must prioritise domestic refining and energy security before focusing on exports.

“I can tell you as a regulator, first of all, that should be your primary aim should be national interest. If it is deemed necessary to fill a deficit, we must report. If not, we must do what distinguished Adams Oshiomhole said. We have to protect our local investment, because with local refining…we have been yearning for it,” he said.

“So really, that is the joy, that we meet our local requirements and export, certainly. But at the same time, we have to protect our local investment; otherwise, we see them go the way the textiles went. If I’m not mistaken,” he added

A career NNPC staff member who served as deputy managing director of the Calabar depot and played a key role in initiating operations at the Kaduna refinery, Saidu recalled a time when Nigeria’s refineries met local demand and exported surplus products.

“There was a time when the three local refineries were meeting our needs, and the fourth refinery was built for export.

“That was why the Bonny Export Terminal was constructed, and we were exporting,” he said.

Saidu identified weak contract enforcement and a lack of discipline in the gas supply chain as major bottlenecks to reliable power supply.

“Gas is a commodity that is sold before you even start producing it. There must be contracts, from the producer to the transporter to the end user,” he said.

“That is why the power plant enjoying uninterrupted gas supply today is the one in Benin because there are contracts and consequences for default.”

He urged strict enforcement of the gas network code developed during his tenure at the Nigerian Gas Company, warning that without discipline, the system could descend into chaos.

Read also: Saidu Mohammed, the oil executive named NMDPRA chief amid sector turmoil

The NMDPRA nominee also flagged the huge investment gaps in the midstream sector, calling for renewed focus on pipelines, gas processing plants, and quality assurance infrastructure.

“You cannot enforce quality when you don’t have a laboratory,” Saidu said.

“If there is no laboratory in the authority, it will become a key investment that we must immediately make. Regulation without technical capacity will not work.”

The screenings followed two separate letters from Tinubu earlier on Thursday, read by Godswill Akpabio, the Senate President, requesting Senate confirmation of the nominees in line with the Petroleum Industry Act 2021, after the resignation of the immediate past chief executives of both agencies.

The former Chief Executive of the NMDPRA, Farouk Ahmed, resigned on Wednesday, while his counterpart at the NUPRC, Gbenga Komolafe, also stepped down.

Both officials were appointed in 2021 by former President Muhammadu Buhari following the enactment of the PIA.

Ahmed’s resignation came amid heightened scrutiny of the petroleum regulatory space, following a public dispute with Africa’s richest man, Aliko Dangote, in December 2025, over allegations of living beyond legitimate means claims which thrust the regulator into the national spotlight.

Referring to the nominations to the joint Committee on Downstream, Upstream and Gas for immediate consideration, the Senate President cited time constraints and the strategic importance of the positions, stressing the need to avoid leadership vacuums in critical agencies.

Lawmakers commended the nominees’ depth of industry experience but signalled that engagement would continue beyond the screening.

In his comment, Jarigbe Jarigbe, the chairman of the Senate committee on Gas, noted that the Senate would need to interface with the nominees much later in the future when they settle well into their offices.

“We are in serious need of boosting our energy production,” he said, proposing regular meetings between the National Assembly and the regulators “to enrich ourselves and achieve results.”