Senate receives Tinubu’s request to confirm Oyedele, Abe for key appointments

President Bola Tinubu has asked the Senate to screen and confirm Taiwo Oyedele as the Minister of State for Finance, replacing Doris Uzoka-Anite.

The President also nominated former Rivers South-East senator, Magnus Abe, for confirmation as the Chairman of the Nigerian Upstream Petroleum Regulatory Commission (NUPRC).

The requests were conveyed in separate letters read during plenary by Senate President Godswill Akpabio on Tuesday.

In his communication, Tinubu urged lawmakers to consider Oyedele’s nomination as part of ongoing adjustments within the Federal Executive Council (FEC).

Until his nomination, Oyedele, who hails from Ikaram in Akoko, Ondo State, served as Chairman of the Presidential Committee on Fiscal Policy and Tax Reforms, where he led several initiatives aimed at restructuring Nigeria’s tax system.

The 50-year-old economist, accountant and public policy expert previously spent 22 years at PwC, joining the firm in 2001 and rising to become Fiscal Policy Partner and Africa Tax Leader.

In another request, the President asked the Senate to approve the appointment of Magnus Abe as chairman of the Nigerian Upstream Petroleum Regulatory Commission, following the resignation of Gbenga Komolafe.

Tinubu also nominated Paul Yaro Jezhi, a former Trade Union Congress chairman in Kaduna State, and Sunday Adebayo Babalola, a former deputy director at the defunct Department of Petroleum Resources, as non-executive commissioners of the commission.

After reading the letters, Akpabio referred the nominations to the Senate Committee on Petroleum Upstream for further legislative consideration and screening.