NIGERIA: NO MILITARY GOVERNMENT ACCEPTABLE IN

C O N F I D E N T I A L ABUJA 001655 SIPDIS E.O. 12958: DECL: 09/24/2013 TAGS: PREL GZ NI SUBJECT: NIGERIA: NO MILITARY GOVERNMENT ACCEPTABLE IN GUINEA-BISSAU REF: ABUJA 1654 CLASSIFIED BY CDA ROGER MEECE FOR REASONS 1.5 (b) AND (d). ¶1. (C) In a courtesy call largely devoted to Liberia (reftel),MFA MinState Samaila brought up Guinea-Bissau and stated that Nigeria would not accept any military government there. Specifically, as long as there were military men in the government at any level, no new government would be accepted. Nigeria was prepared to "close its Embassy" in Guinea-Bissau if a civilian government was not put in place after more than a week. Nigeria was fully aware of the previous regime's problems -- not having paid civil servants for nine months, schools for seven months, or hospitals for six months -- but military rule was an unacceptable answer. Samaila commented that Senegal might not take such action on Guinea-Bissau because of Casamance, despite Nigeria's strong effort. ¶2. (C) COMMENT: While Samaila might have blustered a bit about closing Nigeria's Embassy, his firm line opposing continued military rule in Guinea-Bissau is fully consistent with what we are hearing from all sources here. MEECE