afrol News, 18 March - Nigeria's Acting President Goodluck Jonathan is expected to send a list of new ministers to the Senate for approval. Mr Jonathan dissolved the cabinet on Wednesday without stating the reasons for the dissolution.

Local news reports have suggested that more than 20 of the cabinet members will be back to continue their work although some will be working under different portfolios.

The dissolution comes only weeks after the president sacked his national security adviser and demoted the former justice minister.

The reports further said the outgoing Minister of State for Petroleum, Odein Ajumogobia, is likely to be chosen as the new oil minister.

Analysts have said the surprise cabinet dissolution has heightened immediate uncertainty, leaving civil servants in charge of ministries until new ministers are screened and approved.

"But the step could allow Jonathan to move ahead more quickly with his own team on his stated priorities including electoral reforms, fighting corruption, implementing the Niger Delta amnesty and delivering reliable electricity supplies," analysts said.

President Jonathan became acting president on 19 February after the ailing president Umaru Yar'Adua, spent more than three months on medical treatment in a Saudi Arabian hospital for a heart problem. He has since returned oil producing state but remains medically incapacitated to lead the country.

Mr Goodluck has been under pressure from advisers to dissolve the cabinet in the manner he did and to begin to consolidate his position and put people into position whereby they would be not just loyal to him but loyal to the agenda that he's going to set.

He is also steering the wheel towards when the elections will be held.

Mr Jonathan, from the southern Niger Delta, is unlikely to run in elections due in April next year because of an unwritten agreement that power rotates between the north and south.

President Yar'Adua is a Muslim from the north and his predecessor, Olusegun Obasanjo, was a Christian from the south.

By staff writer

© afrol News

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