Swearing-In Of Nigeria's Cabinet Ongoing; Ministers Being Sworn-In In Batches

Okechukwu Enelamah (Abia), Muhammadu Bello (Adamawa), Udo Udo Udoma (Akwa Ibom), and Chris Ngige (Anambra) being sworn-in (Screengrab from NTA)

The new 36-member Nigerian cabinet is being sworn in today, more than seven months after the presidential election. It has been an extraordinary wait, but but finally the cabinet is to start the job of governing. President Muhammadu Buhari vetted the appointments to try to ensure the new ministers will not use their offices for personal gain. As for the all-important oil ministry, which provides the government with most of it revenue, the president has decided to oversee it himself.

BBC News reports:

Despite taking months to announce his cabinet, the former army general retains widespread public support as an honest leader. He has promised a different way of governing but in this case that does not extend to a raft of new faces.

Even President Buhari cannot completely side-step the realities of Nigerian political life where patronage plays a large role.

Fixing an economy that's been battered by falling oil prices, and tackling the Boko Haram insurgency are among his challenges. But perhaps President Buhari's biggest challenge will be managing the sky - high expectations placed on his shoulders.

Many Nigerians see him as a rare leader who can finally get to grips with rampant corruption and, in turn, unleash the country's full economic potential.

Babatunde Fashola, Lai Mohammed and two others (Screengrab from NTA)

Meanwhile TheCable reports that after 165 days of presiding over the affairs of the country without a cabinet, President Muhammadu Buhari unveiled his team on Wednesday. The president inaugurated the federal executive council at a ceremony that held at the council chambers of the presidential villa in Abuja.

Garba Shehu, senior special assistant to the president on media and publicity, who anchored the programme, announced that the oath of office will be administered in nine batches.

The first set of ministers to take oath were Okechukwu Enelamah (Abia), Muhammadu Bello (Adamawa), Udo Udo Udoma (Akwa Ibom), and Chris Ngige (Anambra).

They were followed by Heineken Lokpobiri (Bayelsa), Adamu Adamu (Bauchi), Audu Ogbeh (Benue) and Mustapha Shehuri (Borno).

Vice-President Yemi Osinbajo, Senate President Bukola Saraki and Yakubu Dogara, speaker of the house of representatives, John Oyegun, chairman of the All Progressives Congress (APC), are among the guests at the occasion.

Unlike the past when family members and friends of the ministers thronged the villa to witness the ceremony, each of them was allowed to bring only two guests.

The ceremony is still going on.