President Umaru Musa Yar'Adua has concluded arrangements for a major cabinet change which will be announced any moment from tomorrow, presidential spokesman Olusegun Adeniyi has said.

Adeniyi said this follows the successful completion of the rationalisation and restructuring of federal ministries, which was announced last week. He told State House correspondents that having taken a comprehensive look at his cabinet and having assessed the strengths and weaknesses of each cabinet member, he is now poised to carry out the long-awaited reshuffle of his cabinet in a determined effort to take total control of his administration.

By this, he added, each successful member of the new cabinet will be handed over a specific target to be achieved within a given time frame as a way of justifying the president's promises to Nigerians.

Adeniyi pointed out that the reshuffle had become even more necessary with the change in the structure of the current Federal Executive Council which has left some ministers with no portfolios and some ministries without ministers.

"On the current Federal Executive Council, it stands to reason that there will be a reshuffle because the existing structure has changed such that there are some ministers who currently have no ministry," he stated.

Adeniyi said as a prelude to the cabinet reshuffle, the president held several Saturday sessions with all the ministers who, according to him, came with their senior officials to defend government policies and programmes, and that, in the course of the sessions, some ministers were drilled for about five hours. With the benefit of a hindsight, he could now understand what the president was trying to achieve, Adeniyi said, adding: "I can assure you that by now he knows the strengths and weaknesses of every one of them (ministers)."

On the ministerial restructuring, he said it could have been done right from the inception of the administration because some people saw the pitfalls with regards to operational effectiveness but that it had to be suspended because "the president decided there was no point discarding an idea that had not been tested, arguing that if it ended up not working, as it has now happened, there would be useful lessons to learn".

According to him, when the Federal Executive Council is finally reconstituted after the restructuring, the president will give each of the ministers specific targets and timelines for delivery which, he said, would range from one year to two and a half years.

"For the Ministry of Works, for instance, there are some roads the president want delivered through the Build, Operate and Transfer (BOT) model before the end of his administration. These include the Lagos-Badagry express road, Lagos-Ibadan express road, Benin-Ore-Shagamu express road, Abuja-Kaduna-Kano express road and a few others I cannot readily remember.

"Those that are not economically viable, the Federal Government will construct. The president has a programme of action with timelines and deliverables on these roads, which means whoever is handed the works ministry has his work cut out for him," he further pointed out.

As for power, the presidential spokesman said the minister responsible for the portfolio must be able to deliver on 6,000 megawatts by the end of next year and 10,000 by the end of 2010 because the president would not accept any excuses as a result of his determination to achieve those targets.

With the power situation in the country gradually improving, he told newsmen, the president has absolute confidence that, under his tenure, the power situation would stabilise.

For the ministers in charge of petroleum resources, he said they already had a template in the Petroleum Industry Bill which they must see through in the National Assembly and then implement, adding that their mandate would also include the National Gas Grid.

On the Niger Delta Ministry, Adeniyi said it would effectively tackle the challenge of the region in terms of infrastructure, environmental degradation and human development, pointing out that the security aspect was being taken up at the ongoing discussion with the British government.