Gabriel Aduda

Gabriel Tanimu Aduda is a former Nigerian federal Permanent Secretary and a former Governor for Nigeria on the Board of Governors of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC). He retired from the Federal Civil Service on 18 August 2025, on completing the mandatory eight-year tenure as a Permanent Secretary, with his final posting at the Federal Ministry of Defence. He serves on the Advisory Board of the Africa Energy Technology Centre (AETC).

Aduda’s public service began in anti-corruption and governance reform. He was a member of the pioneer board of the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC), constituted in 2000, and later headed the Strategy and Reorientation Unit of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC). He then served as Director of Civil Service Transformation in the Office of the Head of the Civil Service of the Federation before becoming a Permanent Secretary in 2017, first in the Political and Economic Affairs Office of the Secretary to the Government of the Federation.

As Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Youth and Sports Development from December 2019, he established and implemented the ₦75 billion Nigeria Youth Investment Fund. He took office at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs on 31 December 2020, received the title of Ambassador in January 2021 and coordinated the evacuation of Nigerians from Ukraine in 2022. He moved to the Ministry of Petroleum Resources in October 2022, where he worked on implementing the Petroleum Industry Act 2021, served as Nigeria’s OPEC Governor and was named Alternate Chairman of the OPEC Board of Governors for 2024. He later served at the Ministry of Women Affairs and, from January 2025, at the Ministry of Defence, where he pursued reforms of defence procurement and the local defence industry.

Aduda holds a BSc in Geography and Planning from the University of Jos, a Master of Urban and Regional Planning from the University of Ibadan and a postgraduate certificate in corruption studies from the University of Hong Kong, and has completed executive education in public policy at Harvard Kennedy School. Since retiring he has written on energy policy, arguing in August 2026 that Nigeria should use its return to the World Energy Council to present a credible national energy proposition, with predictable regulation and investment-ready projects, and to turn global access into domestic action.