LAGOS, Nigeria—The Nigerian Senate confirmed acting President Goodluck Jonathan’s 38 cabinet nominees Wednesday, including a managing director of Goldman Sachs’ London office, effectively sealing Mr. Jonathan’s place at the helm of Africa’s second-biggest economy.

The cabinet overhaul provides further stability to Nigeria, which was left largely rudderless since ailing President Umaru Yar’adua fell out of public view in November and spent 2½ months out of the country for medical treatment. Vice President Jonathan’s appointment as acting president in February was initially resisted by those close to Mr. Yar’adua, who returned to Nigeria later in the month.

“Goodluck is the only game in town,” said Sam Amadi, head of policy at Nigerian lobby group the Good Governance Group.

Wednesday’s confirmations appeared in part aimed to satisfy the Yar’adua camp: Mr. Jonathan’s retooled cabinet included about a dozen reappointed members from his predecessor’s cabinet as well as Murtala Yar’adua, a nephew of Mr. Yar’adua.

It remains unclear exactly what portfolio the younger Mr. Yar’adua or others will take. Nigeria’s Senate approves cabinet nominees, who are only later assigned portfolios.

The key position of finance minister is widely expected to fall to Nigeria-born investment banker Segun Aganga, managing director in hedge funds at Goldman Sachs since 2003.

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Camp of Ailing President Says Vice President Will Rule for Now

By WILL CONNORS

ABUJA, Nigeria—The return of Nigeria’s ailing president after a three-month medical absence sets the stage for a showdown over who will ultimately call the shots in Africa’s most-populous nation.

President Umaru Yar’Adua, who had been receiving treatment in Saudi Arabia, returned home early Wednesday but remains too ill to govern, according to a presidential spokesman.

Mr. Yar’Adua, who didn’t make a public appearance, offered a message of support for his vice president, Goodluck Jonathan, who was appointed acting president earlier this month by the Nigerian National Assembly, to serve until the return of the president.

“President Yar’Adua wishes to reassure all Nigerians that on account of their unceasing prayers and by the special grace of God, his health has greatly improved,” presidential spokesman Segun Adeniyi said. “However, while the president completes his recuperation, Vice President Jonathan will continue to oversee the affairs of state.”

That statement appears to start a clock toward the return of Mr. Yar’Adua, 58, whose absence with kidney and heart problems left the country in political limbo. Stepping into the president’s role earlier this month, Mr. Jonathan has reshuffled the cabinet, made long-delayed government appointments and has held meetings with foreign oil companies to calm international investors and the public.

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LAGOS, Nigeria — This country is trying to remake its international image. Again.

The oil-rich but shaky West African government this week launched a $1 million public-relations blitz to lure tourists and foreign investors and combat what officials say is an outdated depiction of Nigeria and its citizens as hopelessly corrupt.

It’s a tough sell. Africa’s most populous nation has become synonymous with government graft, email scams and drug smuggling. By some estimates, nearly $400 billion in oil revenues was stolen between 1960 and 1999. Former military ruler Sani Abacha alone stole roughly $4 billion over the span of his brutal five-year reign in the 1990s.

Recently, Nigeria has come to be associated with the international drug trade — both as a transit point and as a source of traffickers. On Wednesday, officials in Beijing arrested a Nigerian man they said was carrying nearly 200 pounds of marijuana in his luggage, China Daily reported.

With that sort of publicity to deal with, Information Minister Dora Akunyili unveiled Nigeria’s newest PR counterattack: “Nigeria: Good People, Great Nation.”

“We must shed this toga that says we are untrustworthy, unreliable and ungovernable,” Ms. Akunyili told reporters in the capital, Abuja. Previous efforts to repair the country’s reputation have been largely unsuccessful. The most recent international campaign, “Nigeria: Heart of Africa,” featuring a bikini-clad model, was scrapped last year after officials spent $7 million.

This week’s campaign didn’t get off to an auspicious start. At the news conference announcing the new campaign, one of the members of the re-branding committee, Isawa Elaigwa, told reporters he’d just been pick-pocketed. The thieves got his cellphone.

see the story at the Wall Street Journal online here

Here’s my re-cap of last week’s Supreme Court ruling, for the New York Times.

LAGOS, Nigeria — The last legal challenge to the legitimacy of President Umaru Yar’Adua was quashed by the Supreme Court last week, but he and Nigeria are far from out of the woods.

Although Mr. Yar’Adua, a former governor from a remote northern state, finally has a firm mandate to take charge of Nigeria, Africa’s most populous and oil-rich country, he has accomplished so little in the 19 months since his flawed election that few believe that he can.