NIGERIA LABOUR CONGRESS RHETORIC KNOCKS GON ON

UNCLAS ABUJA 001158

SIPDIS

SENSITIVE

E.O. 12958: N/A
TAGS: PREL KAWC ELAB LI NI
SUBJECT: NIGERIA LABOUR CONGRESS RHETORIC KNOCKS GON ON
CHARLES TAYLOR

REF: A. ABUJA 1152


B. ABUJA 1142

C. LAGOS 1333


1. (U) June 30, local print media reported that during a
June 29 address to union leaders in Calabar, Nigeria Labour
Congress (NLC) President Adams Oshiomole threatened that
union members would hold a "mass rally" in Calabar to protest
the GON's failure to extradite former Liberian President
Charles Taylor to the Special Court for Sierra Leone (SCSL).


2. (U) Oshiomole went on to say that the NLC would
"collaborate with the American government and other
governments of the world to ensure that Taylor is released to
answer for his activities...by the action of our government,
it remains a sad note that we have not contributed to helping
African countries to make leaders accountable after their
reign. This will only encourage them to commit atrocities."


3. (SBU) COMMENT: As previously reported, President
Obasanjo's decision to grant Taylor asylum was an unpopular
one. Most Nigerians want Taylor to pay for the violence he
inflicted upon Nigerians living in Liberia and Sierra Leone
as well as for the deaths of Nigerian soldiers who
participated in ECOMOG. Oshiomole's comments were an attempt
to capitalize on popular discontent with Taylor's asylum in
order to gain additional public support for the NLC in its
fight against Obasanjo's campaign to disband the organization
(REF C). Oshiomole's threat of a "mass rally" in Calabar was
most likely rhetorical. END COMMENT.
CAMPBELL