NIGERIA: PRESIDENT OBASANJO PLEDGES FUNDING FOR

C O N F I D E N T I A L ABUJA 003165

SIPDIS


E.O. 12958: DECL: 11/21/2012
TAGS: MASS PREL NI
SUBJECT: NIGERIA: PRESIDENT OBASANJO PLEDGES FUNDING FOR
MPRI

REF: STATE 219766


CLASSIFIED BY AMBASSADOR HOWARD F. JETER FOR REASONS 1.5
(B) AND (D).



1. (C) SUMMARY: During a November 19 meeting with
Ambassador Jeter, President of MPRI Gen. (Ret.) Carl Vuono
and members of the Nigerian defense establishment,
President Obasanjo pledged 3.5 million dollars to continue
MPRI operations. During this meeting and at MPRI's In-
Progress-Review (IPR) on November 18, Nigerian defense
officials, especially Defense Minister Danjuma, expressed
strong support for MPRI and stated that the program had
made important progress in the last year. The President's
commitment to fund Nigeria's portion of MPRI was clear and
unambiguous and the vote of confidence given to MPRI by the
MOD and the Service Chiefs was encouraging. However, given
Nigeria's slow bureaucracy there will be some lag time
between the President's commitment and the actual
disbursement of the funds. END SUMMARY.



2. (C) During a November 19 meeting with President
Olusegun Obasanjo, Ambassador Jeter, Gen. (Ret.) Carl
Vuono, Minister of Defense T.Y. Danjuma, Chief of Defense
Staff Admiral Ibrahim Ogohi, Minister of Finance Adamu
Ciroma, and Presidential Chief of Staff Abdulabi, Gen.
Vuono gave a detailed account of the MPRI program's
progress in 2002. Following Gen. Vuono's presentation,
Ambassador delivered the MPRI funding demarche (REF),
emphasizing that the USG sees the MPRI program to reform
the Nigerian military as the core of the USG bilateral
security assistance program. After a short discussion,
including a forceful plea by MOD Danjuma for the GON to
"pay up", President Obasanjo pledged to fund the full 3.5
million USD the GON owes to MPRI for FY 2002 operations.
Canvassing Danjuma and CDS Ogohi, Obasanjo concluded, "The
value of this program (MPRI) is no longer in doubt."
Minister of Finance Ciroma indicated that the funds for
MPRI would be made available from the GON's "counterpart
funds account". Ambassador Jeter noted that settling the
arrears would be seen in Washington as a very positive
signal of Nigeria's commitment to the reform of and
reprofessionalization of its defense establishment.



3. (C) The first hint that funding for MPRI might be
available came during a conversation between Minister of
State for Defense (Army) Batagarawa and Ambassador on
November 15. After lamenting that the Ministry of Defense
had no money to support the program, Batagarawa commented
that it might be possible to make use of a special GON
"counterpart funds" account that, evidently, was
established to help the GON fund its part of bilateral
assistance projects. Heretofore, the fund had only been
used for civilian aid programs. Batagarawa said he would
raise the matter with the Finance Minister. The sudden
appearance of GON funds for MPRI seems to indicate that
Batagarawa's plan was well received by the Finance Minister
and Danjuma.



4. (C) During the meeting, Obasanjo also inquired into the
status of the "other five OFR battalions". Obasanjo had
previously expressed his desire for additional OFR trained
battalions. In addition to the lack of funding for new OFR
battalions, Ambassador noted that proposed funding of
sustainment programs for the current OFR battalions had
been held up in the Congress due to concerns over the
investigation into the October 2001 civilian massacre in
Benue State.
JETER