THE TWO FACES OF RIVERS STATE

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 02 LAGOS 000058 SIPDIS STATE FOR AF/W STATE FOR INR/AA E.O. 12958: DECL: 01/16/2016 TAGS: PREL PGOV EAID NI SUBJECT: THE TWO FACES OF RIVERS STATE Classified By: Consul General Brian L. Browne for Reason 1.4 (D) -------------- SUMMARY -------------- ¶1. (C) Consul General toured numerous development projects around greater Port Harcourt during a recent visit to Rivers State. Power generation and roads are being improved around Port Harcourt. We saw government-funded housing and some evidence of micro-credit initiatives (taxi-cab operators) in Port Harcourt. Some of these improvements are noteworthy but also are tardy. Southern Nigeria's second most important city, Port Harcourt remains an urban morass. Moreover, NGOs who focus on the rural areas described the state government as apathetic to rural development. Additionally, many in the significant Ijaw population in Rivers oppose the arrest and trial of former Bayelsa State Governor Alamieyeseigha, seeing it more as ethnic persecution than a justifiable prosecution for unjustifiable official impropriety. End summary. -------------- DEVELOPMENT PROGRESS AROUND PORT HARCOURT -------------- ¶2. (U) During a December visit to Rivers State, Consul General toured several development projects around Port Harcourt and called on Governor Peter Odili. The development projects are mostly new or improved infrastructure, such as roads, gas turbine power plants, towers for power transmission lines, new housing developments, and school renovations. Expansion of power generating capacity appeared to be the linchpin of the Rivers State development philosophy, and construction is underway to meet all Rivers State current needs as well as produce excess electricity for sale to neighboring states such as Bayelsa and Abia. Although the projects visited were all in the Port Harcourt area, Rivers State officials beamed that housing, school renovation, and power transmission projects were going on all over the state. ¶3. (C) During their meeting, Governor Odili spoke to the CG energetically about economic development, particularly the need to meet his electricity production and road construction goals. Odili spoke in extremely positive terms about the tripartite London meeting in early December and lauded the USG contributions at the session. He expressed the desire to work closely with the USG to accelerate economic development in Rivers State. ¶4. (C) Odili lamented that the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC) was not fulfilling its strategic role in the quest for economic development, acerbically joking that the only efficiencies the NDDC had were an uncanny ability to spend funds on inappropriate projects and then fail to complete even the wrong-minded projects it started. Nevertheless, he saw it as a major cog in the Delta's development scheme and also viewed it as not beyond redemption. He thought it could be made to do a credible job once it understood the proper division of labor between it and the states and if provided proper guidance by the federal government and international development community. The CG, emphasizing the need to link development with social stability, stressed that Rivers and all those interested in progress in the Delta needed to focus on finding meaningful employment for youth, especially young men between sixteen and thirty. These men will either be the backbone of your workforce and development efforts for years to come or will be the fodder for the local militias, he told Odili. (Comment: Incongruent with the theme of the discussion was the guided tour of the gilded government house, construction of which was just completed days before the visit. In a word, the complex was opulent. End comment.) ¶5. (C) Representatives of NGOs working in the Niger Delta who met the Consul General painted a less enthusiastic picture. They groused Rivers State development projects were concentrated on the urban areas, while the more remote areas and population that suffered so much environmental damage and lack of opportunity were overlooked. Annkio Briggs of AGAPE Birthrights was strident about the appalling conditions in the Delta, and shared photographs of spoilage caused by oil spills and fires over the years. The environmental degradation has severely impacted the indigenes economically, as the ruined land can no longer support them. The NGOs also related the very poor condition of democratic processes in the state. Representatives from the Movement for the Survival of the Ogoni People (MOSOP) explained the average citizen had no understanding of their rights as citizens to hold elected leaders accountable for their performance. -------------- -------------- ALAMIEYESEIGHA TRAVAILS AN ATTACK ON THE IJAW NATION -------------- -------------- ¶6. (U) The NGO representatives indicated that the turmoil in neighboring Bayelsa State over Governor Alamieyeseigha had not spilled over into Rivers State. However, the prevailing viewpoint of Ijaws in Rivers State was that the action against Alamieyeseigha was due to his Ijaw ethnicity and his political ambitions. While Alamieyeseigha was recognized as being corrupt, he was not viewed any worse than others who remain free and continue to siphon government funds. Most Ijaw have concluded that his arrest was to punish him for aspiring to national office and for advocating that the states, not the federal government, should control the revenues generated from the states' natural resources. -------------- COMMENT -------------- ¶7. (C) The developmental problems of Rivers State are myriad. This is a multi-ethnic state with teeming Port Harcourt as its center but with hundreds of villages positioned like remote, obscure satellites around it. Even given the best team and development plan, development in Rivers would not be a simple task. While Odili has done some things, he has neither had the best team nor plan. He has had significant resources during the years and much of those resources do not seem to have been employed for the purpose for which they were intended. Whether real or political myth, there is a close association between corruption and Rivers State government in the minds of Governor Odili's critics. ¶8. (C) Comment continued: For a variety of reasons, Governor Odili appears to want to turn over a new leaf. He has ambitions that transcend the governor's mansion and thus needs to position himself accordingly. He recognizes a way to silence his critics is to manifest examples of development and progress in his state. Additionally, bringing greater development to the state could only improve his image and popularity in the state. This is his best insurance and hedge against the real possibility that he will no longer be an office holder after 2007. ¶9. (C) Comment continued: In practical terms, Rivers State is important to US interests in Nigeria given the state's role in oil production. Although Odili is far from a knight in shining armor, most other local politicians suffer this same infirmity. It may be in our interests to see to what extent he is serious about tackling the development problems that plague the Delta and that, if unchecked, could cause the type of unrest that will do injury to our interests there. End comment. HOWE