IJAW ELDER WILLING TO GIVE OBASANJO'S DELTA

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 02 LAGOS 000668 SIPDIS SIPDIS STATE FOR AF/W STATE FOR INR/AA E.O. 12958: DECL: 05/13/2016 TAGS: PREL PGOV EPET CASC NI SUBJECT: IJAW ELDER WILLING TO GIVE OBASANJO'S DELTA COMMISSION A CHANCE REF: LAGOS 628 Classified By: Consul General Brian L. Browne for Reason 1.4 (D) -------------- SUMMARY -------------- ¶1. (C) Although at first opposed to the recently-established Delta Commission, Ijaw leader Chief Edwin Clark has agreed to Ijaw participation in the body. This agreement came as a result of an initially stormy late April meeting between Clark and Obasanjo. Clark's approval was conditioned on Obasanjo agreeing to expand Ijaw representation in the Commission as well as establishing a parallel informal negotiating track exclusively with Ijaw leaders. If the GON was forthcoming, problems in the Delta could be resolved because the Ijaw militants understood negotiations were the only means to a long-term solution, Clark maintained. End summary. -------------- -- THIRD TERM HAS BEEN OBASANJO GOAL FOR SOME TIME -------------- -- ¶2. (C) Meeting the Consul General during a late April visit to Lagos, Chief Edwin Clark, the most prominent Ijaw traditional leader, discussed his last meeting with President Obasanjo. The meeting was called by Obasanjo to discuss the predicament in the Delta, recalled Clark. However, Obasanjo opened the meeting by grousing that Clark opposed the third term amendment. Clark protested that he thought the meeting was to discuss the Delta and requested to excuse himself from the session if the focus was going to be the third term objective. This rebuff further angered Obasanjo who then complained that he was personally insulted when Clark, who worked for the Obasanjo military administration in the 1970's, lambasted the Presidential Commission as a "jamboree," leading an Ijaw boycott of the effort. How could you publicly criticize the commission without first talking to me, Obasanjo pushed. Pushing back, Clark said he admonished Obasanjo for establishing the commission without first consulting him and the other Delta leaders. Stormy exchanges continued for several minutes before the two calmed down, said Clark. At the end of it, there was rapprochement and a hug between him and the President, Clark remembered. -------------- DELTA COMMISSION IS FLAWED, PRESIDENT SHOULD RECONSIDER ASARI -------------- ¶3. (C) The crux of Clark's problem with the commission was that he and other Ijaw leaders were upset the commission did not include a more numerous Ijaw delegation, since the Ijaws are the largest ethnic group in the Delta and the one most affected by oil operations. Clark stated that landlocked Edo State was included in the commission because the Ijaw enclave in Edo was strongly linked to the Delta militants. However, the Edo State delegation to the commission did not include an Ijaw. Ondo State committed a similar omission, he claimed. Given that both Edo and Ondo have politically hard-line Ijaw leaders, their exclusion would only serve to further radicalize these two important sub-groups. ¶4. (C) Clark told the President the Ijaws were prepared to participate in his commission if they were more fairly represented, and the President agreed to increase Ijaw representation in the future. To secure Ijaw participation in the commission Obasanjo also agreed to open an informal dialogue solely with Ijaw leaders, including representatives from the armed militants. ¶5. (C) Clark related his appeal to President Obasanjo on Dokubo Asari's behalf, saying the jailed Ijaw was an icon to the Ijaw youth. Why jail Asari, questioned Clark, when the President had dealt with him before and Asari had committed no violence for almost a year preceding his arrest? Asari was not and will not attempt to overthrow the GON, asserted Clark. Clark also related he had visited Asari in detention and asked him to tell the boys in the creeks to "quiet down," because the Ijaw leaders were negotiating with the GON. ¶6. (C) Clark discussed with the CG other developments that could benefit the Delta. He championed moving oil company headquarters into the Delta so that those states, not Lagos, would get the tax and other revenue generated by their headquarters operations and that Delta indigenes could find LAGOS 00000668 002 OF 002 more employment. Clark also called on the oil companies to reserve a fair percentage of their staff positions for Delta citizens, to again demonstrate their commitment to the benefit the region that is the source of their mineral wealth. Clark said the Ijaws should also have a say in what jobs to bring to the Delta via the President's commission, rather than simply accepting the construction, military, and other types of employment the President has suggested so far. Clark agreed, however, that the Ijaws had no right to complain about the "peace process" unless they participated in it. While they got the world's attention through kidnapping oil workers, Clark allowed, the militants as well as the wider Ijaw community understood kidnappings could not answer their long-term problems. They must seek the peace and be willing to negotiate with the GON to achieve a lasting settlement. -------------- COMMENT -------------- ¶7. (C) That Clark's meeting with Obasanjo resulted in an agreement for Ijaw leaders to participate in the Presidential Commission is a positive development. We also take Clark at his word that all other important Ijaw leaders and the militants are willing to give the Commission a chance. However, since Clark's meeting with Obasanjo, the President has apparently paid little attention to the Delta. Now that he has recorded success in the Darfur talks and encountered failure in his own third term ambitions, Obasanjo's schedule may be a little less crowded. Hopefully, he will find time for the Delta. If not, it is only a matter of time before Clark and other Ijaws label the commission a failure. End comment. BROWNE