Acting Nigerian president to appoint new Cabinet

Abuja : Nigeria's Acting President Goodluck Jonathan will nominate a new ministerial team by early next week, and is likely to reappoint around half the Cabinet he has just sacked, presidency sources said yesterday.

Fast appointment of the ministers could do much to alleviate uncertainty in Africa's most populous nation after Jonathan dismissed the entire cabinet on Wednesday, aiming to consolidate his authority a month after assuming executive powers.

"Twenty of the ministers will certainly come back," one of the presidency sources said on condition of anonymity, adding that he expected Jonathan to send his list to the Senate for approval by Tuesday.

Amnesty

Former minister of state for petroleum, Odein Ajumogobia, was likely to be the new oil minister in the Opec member nation, while outgoing defence minister Godwin Abbe, who has overseen an amnesty programme in the oil-producing Niger Delta, would be re-appointed, the source said.

In the capital Abuja, Jonathan's spokesman Ima Niboro told reporters: "The cabinet dissolution is a bid to inject fresh blood and bring in greater vigour to governance." However, he declined to comment further.

Choosing a new cabinet which retains a large number of ministers suggests Nigeria's broad policy direction is unlikely to change and could let Jonathan push ahead more authoritatively with his agenda in the 14 months left of this presidential term.

Jonathan assumed executive powers in early February to try and end government paralysis in the absence of President Umaru Yar'Adua, who had been in a clinic in Saudi Arabia receiving treatment for a heart condition for more than two months.

Consolidation

Yar'Adua has since returned, but remains too sick to govern or even speak with Jonathan. Presidency sources say he is still in a mobile intensive care unit and Jonathan's consolidation of power reinforces the view that he is unlikely to return.

But the acting president's public statements have shown a will to accelerate, not depart from, the policies of Yar'Adua, with electoral reform, fighting corruption, restoring power supply and reviving the Niger Delta amnesty his top priorities.