/ 30 June 1999

OBASANJO NAMES GOVERNMENT

NIGERIAN President Olusegun Obasanjo appointed a 49-member government on Wednesday, in a key step to launching his political programme a month after taking office. As widely predicted, Obasanjo named former chief of defence staff retired general Theophilus Danjuma as defence minister and former central bank governor and agriculture minister Adamu Ciroma as finance minister. Northerner Sule Lamido was named foreign minister, and Bola Ige, also a prominent politician but from the southwest, was named to the power and steel ministry. Kanu Agabi, a lawyer, was assigned the justice ministry. The heads of the powerful oil and planning ministries have yet to be named.