ABUJA — Nigeria's Senate on Monday started screening potential ministers picked by Acting President Goodluck Jonathan who recently sacked an entire cabinet in a move seen to signal his quest for change.
Senate speaker David Mark read out five more names adding to the first list of 33 he submitted by Jonathan last week.
The Senate was planning to comb through a partial list of 14 nominees out of 38 sent in following months of political paralysis in the African oil giant, according to an official Senate agenda.
The exercise is expected to last several days.
Jonathan's proposed line-up includes a top banker from Goldman Sachs, Olusegun Aganga, and 14 officials from the 42-member cabinet he dissolved 11 days ago.
It also includes Murtala Yar'Adua, a nephew of President Umaru Yar'Adua, whom Jonathan replaced last month due to his ailing health.
Jonathan dissolved the cabinet as he moved to assert his authority after taking power from Yar'Adua, who only recently returned to Nigeria after three months in Saudi Arabia for treatment for a heart condition.
Former junior finance minister Remi Babalola is set to make a comeback if the Senate clears him.
Two other former junior ministers -- Odein Ajumogobia, who was in the oil ministry, and Godsday Orubebe, who was responsible for the restive Niger Delta region -- are among the 14 Jonathan wants to retain.
Others are ex-information minister Dora Akunyili and former planning minister Samsudeen Usman.
Sanusi Daggash, a former minister of planning in the 1999-2007 administration of former president Olusegun Obasanjo, has also made it onto the list.
Jonathan is eyeing a pro-reform government for the west African giant, where much of the population of 150 million lives in poverty without basics such as water and electricity despite its oil wealth.
AFP
