It’s now Jonathan’s ball, as Nigeria’s Senate approves new cabinet

Special to USAfricaonline.com, CLASSmagazine and e-group Nigeria360

USAfrica, Abuja: Some new personalities as well as old ones have been approved by the Senate to fill positions in the gradual reorganization of the ministerial and administrative structure of Nigeria’s federal cabinet, as proposed by Acting President Goodluck Jonathan.

The senators approved 38 candidates about 100 minutes ago, USAfricaonline.com correspondent in Abuja reports today Wednesday March 31, 2010.

On March 17, 2010, Dr. Jonathan dissolved the Yar’Adua appointed 42-member cabinet. He has since been putting his own imprints and loyalists (with some carry-overs from the old cabinet) to modestly chart his own path.

The ministerial approval process turned to a dramatic twist when a returned former information minister Dora Akunyili was confronted by a loyalist of former President Umar Yar’Adua who said that Akunyili was not only a close friend of Mrs. Yar’Adua’s but brought food/cooked for her.

Akunyili dismissed it as false but pledged that despite her February 2010 memo (see related USAfrica reports/insight to it) which opposed ailing Yar’Adua’s continued silence and call for his resignation, she said Yar’Adua is her older brother to whom she was loyal to and prayed for.

The appointment of retired general Theophilus Danjuma as chairman of the presidential advisory council seemed a message to tow the establishment line as well as open a window of relative space from Jonathan’s image as retired general Olusegun Obasanjo’s vessel.

The ministerial posts will help define the tenor and style of the Jonathan presidency; not its substance, given Jonathan’s very cautious method to power and politics. One thing Nigeria’s Acting President Goodluck Jonathan has is abundance of his name: good luck! By Chido Nwangwu, USAfricaonline.com