NIGERIAN STYLE DEMOCRACY AND THE RULE OF LAW IN

C O N F I D E N T I A L LAGOS 000124

SIPDIS

LONDON FOR GURNEY, PARIS FOR NEARY

E.O. 12958: DECL: 01/15/2009
TAGS: PGOV PREL KDEM PINR NI
SUBJECT: NIGERIAN STYLE DEMOCRACY AND THE RULE OF LAW IN
ANAMBRA - AN UPDATE

REF: A) 2003 LAGOS 2187 B) 2003 LAGOS 1479

Classified By: Consul General Robyn Hinson-Jones for reasons 1.5 (b) an

d (d).


1. (U) Anarchy reigns in the government of Anambra State.
Since the challenged gubernatorial election in April 2003,
the state has countenanced the July abduction of Governor
Chris Ngige (reftel B),a state coup attempt, and the
Governor's questioned resignation. Everyone has accused
everyone else of having been fraudulently elected. At the
federal level, multiple players, including President Olusegun
Obasanjo and Vice President Abubakr Atiku, have tried to use
the courts or the power of their political offices to shape
the government of Anambra to their liking. The 35 other
governors in Nigeria have rallied to the defense of the
beleaguered Ngige. On January 12, Ngige won another round in
the continuing tussle for control when a federal appeals
court reinstated him by overturning an ex parte Enugu state
court order that tried to strip Ngige of the governorship.
The wrangling is not over. The press screams daily
accusations that federal government officials engineered the
coup attempt in the first place, and that the President is
using a weak and corrupt judicial system to accomplish what
brute force and illegal action did not.

The rule of law


2. (U) According to the Nigerian Constitution, Governors are
supposed to be the Chief Security Officers for their states.
The crisis in Anambra is significant for all of Nigeria
because there the Governor himself has been threatened,
chased into hiding and assaulted by both the State Police and
State Security Service (SSS) since the July coup attempt.
President Obasanjo and his Peoples Democratic Party (PDP),
have not moved to support Ngige and re-establish order in
Anambra. They claim to prefer a "political settlement" which
has seen the party careen between supporting Ngige and/or his
political "godfather", millionaire Chris Uba, who proudly
proclaims that he bought the election of every winning
politician in the state. None of the coup plotters,
including Uba, has been brought before a court, though many
Nigerian jurists have said that their actions in July were
clearly treasonous.


3. (U) At times, the godfather has had better protection
than the Governor. In both July and before the recent Enugu
court ruling, Ngige's official State Police bodyguard details
were called off leaving him vulnerable to repeated assaults
and attempts on his life. Based on his July experience, this
time Ngige immediately went into hiding when his bodyguards
deserted him, only to resurface under the protection of
private guards and a favorable appeals court ruling.

Nigerian democracy


4. (C) Comment. Nigeria is a tribal culture and accustomed
to rule by "chiefs", "big men" or "godfathers." It is a
long-deprived people now driven to acquiring as much money as
possible as quickly as possible, and a people who accept
payment of tribute and respect to a leader as an expected
cost of doing business. But while politics is business in
Nigeria, the situation in Anambra is an aberration even for
this country at its current stage of cultural, political and
economic development.


5. (C) Comment continued. Last April, Nigeria completed its
first successful election and transfer of
civilian-to-civilian governments. All observers admit there
was electoral fraud, pay-offs and winners chosen by
"godfathers", but the elections were held, the military did
not intervene and the losers are still taking their
complaints to the courts and not to the streets. Therefore,
the developments in Anambra are all the more galling to
Nigerians who see that situation as a civilian coup
unsanctioned by a Presidency responsible for ensuring that
Constitutional rule is upheld. In fact, critics allege, the
President has encouraged and protected the culprits.
Hypotheses about the President's role generally point to
Nigeria's inescapable skein of personal patronage -- in this
case the godfather's brother is part of Obasanjo's inner
circle. Whatever the reason, Anambra is ground zero for the
worst example of total disregard for rule of law in Nigeria
today. After years of ruthless and greedy military
dictatorships, many Nigerians are determined to work within
legal systems and to build democratic institutions. But the
tangled web of intrigue and political intimidation in Anambra
makes a mockery of rule of law in Nigeria.
HINSON-JONES