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Under Pressure For Results, Obasanjo Reshuffles Cabinet
ABUJA, Jan 24 (News Agencies) - Under pressure to improve the performance of his government 19 months into a four-year term, Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo dissolved his cabinet Wednesday and prepared to announce a new team.
After two previous minor reshuffles failed to improve the performance of his lackluster team, Obasanjo's third cabinet changes were expected to be more sweeping, aides said.
The names of ministers forced to go and those likely to be recalled were not immediately made public.
Speculation has been rife for weeks about who is likely to be replaced with, among names regularly mentioned, those of the ailing finance minister and the under-performing ministers for power, communications and health.
Cabinet ministers were not alone among those dismissed.
A series of aides were fired, including the president's spokesman, Doyin Okupe.
He was immediately replaced by Tunji Oseni, a long-serving Nigerian journalist who worked as editor-in-chief of the news agency of the oil cartel OPEC.
"The cabinet has been dissolved. A new list has been sent to the Senate," or upper house of parliament which has formally to approve the new ministers, an aide to Ufot Ekaette, the secretary to the government, said.
In an earlier statement, Ekaette said Obasanjo had Wednesday met the cabinet and announced his plan to carry out a major reshuffle at the end of the meeting.
"At the end of the meeting of the council of ministers today, the president, Chief Olusegun Obasanjo, gave notice of the... change in the composition of the council and in the body of advisers," he said.
"The president used the occasion to reiterate how critical and important the year 2001 is to the administration, to advancement of democracy and to Nigeria as a nation," he added.
The president also "thanked all members of the council for their services and urged them to remain loyal to the cause of Nigeria ... no matter where they find themselves in the service of the country," he added.
Since he came to power in May 1999, the press and political commentators have criticized the performance - or lack of it - by the cabinet named by Obasanjo.
Clement Nwankwo, head of the Transition Monitoring Group named to monitor the country's moves to democratic rule, criticized Obasanjo for this.
"The old cabinet lacked vision. Most of them benefited from political largess having contributed to Obasanjo's election campaign," he said.
What was needed was a team with solutions to the country's many problems, he added.
"There is a need to raise a team that understands Nigeria's problems. He should forget about politics in considering his selection," he said.
Obasanjo was reported earlier this month to have decided to run for re-election in 2003 and believed he needed to shake up the government to do that.
The president admitted recently that the lives of ordinary Nigerians had yet to improve since he came to power and said that the year 2001 would be crucial if his administration were to be a success.
The economy is still performing badly with unemployment high and public utilities and services offering abysmal levels of service.
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