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EVENT: President Babangida reshuffled his cabinet on December 21.
SIGNIFICANCE: Continuity is likely to characterise the administration's approach, despite increased political tension and resistance to further economic reforms.
ANALYSIS: Six ministries are affected by the reshuffle. Foreign Minister Bolaji Akinyemi is dropped altogether. His replacement is Major-General Ike Nwachukwu, who moves from Labour. Chu Okongwu takes charge of National Planning as well as of Finance. The former Planning Minister, Kalu I Kalu, moves to Transport, where his role is further diminished by creation of a new Ministry of Aviation under Air Vice-Marshal Antony Okpere, former Managing Director of Nigerian Airways. The new Minister Labour is Abubakar Umar, who is succeeded at Works and Housing by Brigadier Mohammed Kontagora, formerly Director of the army's engineering corps.
The fall of Akinyemi was long expected. He had not lost his attachment to assertive foreign policy, acquired when he directed the Nigerian Institute of International Affairs in the buoyant 1970s, and...