Buhari appoints new Executive Secretary and Board for NEITI

President Muhammadu Buhari has approved the appointment of Waziri Adio as the executive secretary of the Nigeria Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (NEITI) and a new National Stakeholders Working Group (NSWG) also known as Governing Board for NEITI. The appointment was announced on Tuesday, February, 23, in a statement by the director of press in the office of the Secretary to the Government of the Federation (OSGF), Bolaji Adebiyi, The Cable reports. According to The Nation, the new governing board includes the Minister of Solid Minerals Development – Chairman, Permanent Secretary, Federal Ministry of Finance – Member, Group Managing Director, Nigeria National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) – Member.

Others on the board are President, Miners Association of Nigeria, representative of the Civil Society Organizations, president, Nigeria Mining and Geosciences Society, President, Nigeria Union of Petroleum and Natural Gas (NUPENG), Hannatu Musa Musawa (Journalist), representative, North-West Geo-Political zone. Lawan Gana Lantaiwa (Consultant), Representative, North-East Geo-Political Zone, Bernard B. A. Ver (Accountant), representative, North-Central Geo-Political Zone, Mrs. Anne Adaeze Onyekwena (Representative, South-East Geo-Political Zone), Emmanuel Chiejina (Lawyer), Representative, South-South Geo-Political Zone, Gbenga Onayiga (Journalist), Representative, South-West Geo-Political Zone, are also members of the board. Adio was a communication consultant and publisher of Metrolope Magazine until his appointment. He held various editorial positions in Thisday Newspaper between 1995 and 2003, and was the special adviser, Research and Strategy, office of the Senate President, from August 2003 to October 2004. He was appointed Communication Specialist by United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) in 2004, a position he held until 2007 when he left to serve as Director of Communications, NEITI from May 2007 to June 2008. 

 Adio graduated with a BSc in Mass Communication from the University of Lagos in 1992, and obtained MSc. (Journalism) Degree from Columbia University, New York, United States in 1999. He also holds an MSc in Public Administration from the Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University, Massachusetts, US, 2009.