Proposed Nigerian ministers named, no portfolios

ABUJA, July 5 (Reuters) Nigerian President Umaru Yar'Adua's list of 35 proposed ministers was announced today but their portfolios were not specified, prolonging the suspense over who would get the key oil and finance jobs.

Political insiders said the list showed a strong influence from the ruling People's Democratic Party (PDP), which has former President Olusegun Obasanjo as chairman of the board of trustees.

''Yar'Adua is moving rather cautiously. It would appear that he wants to carry Obasanjo along, at least for now,'' said a senior PDP member who did not wish to be named because he is involved in strategic discussions.

Obasanjo almost single-handedly engineered Yar'Adua's emergence as the PDP presidential candidate last year and many Nigerians suspect the former president of trying to maintain a hold on power through his successor.

However, some party insiders said it would not be clear how powerful the Obasanjo loyalists would be in the new government until the portfolios were announced.

The 35 names were read out in the Senate, which under the Nigerian constitution must screen and approve the nominees before they take up their posts. Senate President David Mark said the screening would start next Tuesday.

It is unlikely that the portfolios will be announced until the end of the screening process.

Yar'Adua came to power on May 29 pledging to accelerate Obasanjo's programme of free-market economic reforms that have won praise from the International Monetary Fund and helped Nigeria obtain an billion debt relief deal.

HORSE-TRADING But his efforts to form a cabinet have been delayed by horse-trading among representatives of the 36 states and members of different political clans. This has left government in limbo since the former ministers stepped down on May 29.

Further delays were caused by negotiations with opposition parties which Yar'Adua wants to include but which are challenging his electoral victory in court. International observers said the April elections were ''not credible''.

The list includes several former ministers, senior officials of the PDP and senior technocrats. Political sources said it was probably not the final list of who would be in the cabinet as a second batch, including some opposition figures, would be named. Shamsudeen Usman, deputy governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria in charge of operations, and Bode Agusto, former head of the Budget Office of the Federation, were both on the list. Both are respected technocrats who have been named as possible finance minister, although sources at the presidential villa said Usman was more likely to get that job.

There were no obvious choices on the list for the all-important oil portfolio. Oil is Nigeria's economic lifeline and newspapers have reported that intense power struggles were going on behind the scenes over who would be the new minister.

Aliyu Modibbo and Hassan Lawal, respectively ministers of commerce and of labour in the previous government, were on the list.

Ojo Maduekwe, PDP secretary, and party spokesman John Odey also made the list. Both are staunch Obasanjo loyalists.

Reuters AGL DB1831