President Bola Tinubu has appointed Dr Mulisiu Oseni as chairman of the Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC), formalising a leadership change at the power sector watchdog after the Senate confirmed the commission’s reconstituted board.
Oseni’s appointment signals the quiet removal of Abdullahi Ramat, whose name Tinubu had forwarded to the Senate in August but who ultimately failed to secure confirmation.
Ramat, a former chairman of Ungogo local government area in Kano state, was nominated on 7 August to replace the outgoing NERC chair, Sanusi Garba, according to a statement at the time by the president’s spokesperson, Bayo Onanuga. Despite being just 39, Ramat moved swiftly to assume office, turning up at NERC headquarters in Abuja on 8 August with political associates and security personnel, including an individual in military uniform captured in widely circulated videos.
His premature appearance at the regulator, where he was received by Oseni at a brief handover ceremony, triggered unease among industry operators and public criticism. Ramat later withdrew, but his nomination stalled in the Senate, where the committee on power declined to confirm him, citing multiple petitions.
The delay was accompanied by allegations from Ramat’s supporters that senators had been paid $10m to block his confirmation. The Senate committee on media and public affairs dismissed the claim as unfounded, with its chair, Yemi Adaramodu, saying the upper chamber acted in response to what he described as a “barrage of public and private complaints”.
Announcing Oseni’s appointment on Thursday, Onanuga said the decision took effect from 1 December 2025 and would run until the completion of Oseni’s 10-year tenure at the commission, in line with the Electricity Act 2023. Oseni had been vice-chairman of NERC and stepped in as acting chair after Garba left office in August.
Tinubu also approved the appointment of Dr Yusuf Ali as vice-chairman. Ali, who joined the commission as a commissioner in February 2022, assumed his new role on 1 December 2025 and will serve until the end of his first term.
Other members of the reconstituted board include Nathan Shatti and Dafe Akpeneye, both serving second terms after their initial appointments in January 2017, and Aisha Mahmud, who is also on a second term following her first appointment in December 2020.
Dr Chidi Ike, appointed in February 2022, continues his first term, while Dr Fouad Animashaun joins the board for his first term from December 2025. Animashaun, according to the presidency, is an energy economist with extensive experience in the power sector and most recently served as executive commissioner and chief executive of the Lagos State Electricity Regulatory Commission.
The president charged the new NERC board to deepen and consolidate reforms in Nigeria’s electricity industry, urging it to act “in strict alignment with the letter and spirit of the Electricity Act, 2023”.
