By Achile Danjuma
President Bola Tinubu has formally requested the Senate to screen and confirm Mr. Taiwo Oyedele as the new Minister of State for Finance, a role in which he would replace the incumbent, Dr. Doris Uzoka-Anite.
The request was contained in a letter read during Tuesday’s plenary session by the Senate President, Godswill Akpabio, who communicated the President’s desire to effect the change as part of ongoing adjustments within the Federal Executive Council.
In a separate correspondence, the President also urged the upper chamber to confirm former Rivers South-East senator, Magnus Abe, as the new chairman of the Nigerian Upstream Petroleum Regulatory Commission (NUPRC), following the resignation of Gbenga Komolafe.
Mr. Taiwo Oyedele, 50, is an economist, accountant, and public policy expert from Ikaram in Akoko North-East Local Government Area of Ondo State. Until his nomination, he served as the chairman of the Presidential Committee on Fiscal Policy and Tax Reforms, where he spearheaded comprehensive efforts aimed at overhauling Nigeria’s tax system.
His professional career includes a distinguished 22-year tenure at PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC), which he joined in 2001, rising to become the Fiscal Policy Partner and Africa Tax Leader.
In addition to the nomination of Senator Abe for the NUPRC chairmanship, the President’s letter also sought the confirmation of two nominees for non-executive commissioner positions within the commission.
They are Paul Yaro Jezhi, a former chairman of the Trade Union Congress in Kaduna State, and Sunday Adebayo Babalola, a former deputy director at the defunct Department of Petroleum Resources.
Following the reading of the President’s letter, Senate President Akpabio referred the nominations for the NUPRC positions to the Senate Committee on Petroleum Upstream for further legislative action and subsequent reporting back to the plenary.