LAGOS GOVERNOR TO THROW HAT INTO PRESIDENTIAL RING

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 02 LAGOS 000889 SIPDIS SIPDIS STATE FOR AF/W STATE FOR INR/AA E.O. 12958: DECL: 06/13/2016 TAGS: PREL PGOV NI SUBJECT: LAGOS GOVERNOR TO THROW HAT INTO PRESIDENTIAL RING Classified By: Consul General Brian L. Browne for Reason 1.4 (D) ¶1. (C) Summary: During a June 11 meeting Lagos State Governor Tinubu told the Consul General he will soon announce his presidential candidacy while still exploring the possibility of being the junior partner on a ticket with Vice President Atiku or former military head-of-state Muhammadu Buhari. A cheerful Tinubu recounted his rebuffs of President Obasanjo's last-ditch attempts to gain his support for term extension. He said the President has lost his footing after the public failure of term extension. Tinubu described Obasanjo's search for a successor among sitting governors as half-hearted and a losing proposition. Tinubu predicted the President would use renewed violence in the Niger Delta as an excuse to delay leaving office. Tinubu also claimed impeachment proceedings were in the offing against Obasanjo, as a way to further weaken him and make his remaining months unpleasant so that schemes to stay in office appear less attractive. End summary. -------------- TINUBU TO ANNOUNCE CANDIDACY; POSSIBLE COLLABORATION WITH ATIKU, BUHARI -------------- ¶2. (C) In a June 11 discussion with the Consul General, an upbeat Lagos State Governor Bola Tinubu said he would soon announce his candidacy for President in 2007. While he desired the executive office, Tinubu realized important cards were stacked against this quest. Chiefly, he is Yoruba and Nigeria would likely not go for another Yoruba as its Chief Magistrate after the eight Obasanjo years. Consequently, his recent talks with Vice President Atiku and former military head-of-state Muhammadu Buhari have transcended their joint efforts to scotch Obasanjo's third term bid, toward discussion of electoral collaboration, with Tinubu being a possible VP running mate for one of the two northerners. ¶3. (C) Tinubu said despite news reports to the contrary, Vice President Atiku and Buhari have agreed to cooperate, and only final details on the deal remain to be resolved. Buhari told Tinubu he doesn't strongly desire the Presidency, and would much rather see Atiku win the job than Ibrahim Babangida, who is Buhari's long-time rival. Tinubu said Atiku will eventually leave the PDP to join the ACD, but currently is content to remain in the PDP in an effort to foment as much internecine conflict as humanly possible before his exit. Tinubu expects the Atiku-Buhari bloc to emerge as the primary electoral magnet for most northerners and for anti-Obasanjo factions in other sections of the country. -------------- TINUBU DECLINES PRESIDENT'S THIRD TERM PLEAS -------------- ¶4. (C) Tinubu recalled President Obasanjo called him several times to enlist him in the term extension caper. Each time Tinubu declined even to meet Obasanjo, until finally a mutual friend of Tinubu and Obasanjo intervened. Once the two met, Obasanjo asked Tinubu to publicly support the third term amendment, but Tinubu refused. Tinubu said the President then asked him to back a 2-year term extension; Tinubu pretended to agree, as a ruse to sustain Obasanjo's optimism and keep him from exerting more pressure and expending more money in the National Assembly to get legislators on his side. -------------- OBASANJO SEEKING A LIFELINE AMONG GOVERNORS -------------- ¶5. (C) Tinubu described the President's attempts to find a successor from among the sitting PDP governors as still born. Peter Odili of Rivers State, an Obasanjo favorite, has neither the popularity nor the ethnicity (Odili is Igbo) to succeed in the South-South where Ijaws are the dominant group. Ahmed Makarfi of Kaduna State has a strong record, but is in poor health. Umaru Y'ardua of Katsina State enjoyed some measure of clout as the brother of the late Shehu Y'ardua, Atiku's political mentor. However, Tinubu argued that the younger Y'ardua was not personally well-liked, and reportedly had health problems as well. Adamu Mu'azu of Bauchi State was "buffoonish," and Nasarawa's Abdullahi Adamu was an outright crook and highly unpopular, Tinubu charged. Saminu Turaki of Jigawa State, who recently jumped from the All Nigeria Peoples' Party (ANPP) to the PDP, was in Obasanjo's good books but had the gravitas of a feather and was simply "no good," Tinubu concluded. Given Obasanjo's unpopularity and his now greatly weakened LAGOS 00000889 002 OF 002 position, his embrace of any of the governors as a presidential candidate would be tantamount to a kiss of death, asserted Tinubu. ¶6. (C) Tinubu vaticinated Obasanjo eventually might team with Babangida and former national security advisor Aliyu Muhammed Gusau, with Gusau fronting as their candidate. This team had money, Tinubu allowed, but lacked a grass-roots party structure and were out-of-touch with popular sentiment. Tinubu predicted voters would view Gusau as Babangida's proxy. Because of Babangida's role in preventing Moshood Abiola's (a Yoruba from the South-West) ascendance to the Presidency, the Babangida-Gusau team could not win the South-West. In the North, the Atiku-Buhari bloc would best Babangida-Gusau, particularly if former Defense Minister Theophilus Danjuma actively joined Atiku-Buhari opposition to Babangida. Danjuma would cart much of the Middle Belt along with him. -------------- TROUBLE IN THE DELTA: LAST RESORT -------------- ¶7. (C) Tinubu opined Obasanjo might use the simmering Niger Delta as a trump card, and cited the President's appointment of Chief Albert Horsfall to head his Delta committee as evidence. Horsfall presided over the failed Oil Minerals Producing Areas Development Commission (OMPADEC),which preceded the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC). Horsfall's recent appointment did not suggest strong Presidential commitment to a meaningful solution to the Delta's problems. Tinubu suggested the President would let tensions boil over as last-gasp justification to delay handing over power to a successor he did not support. -------------- IMPEACHMENT IN THE OFFING -------------- ¶8. (C) Tinubu expected Presidential impeachment proceedings in the next few weeks. The goal was not the President's removal, but rather to occupy him, and prevent him from devising any effective political counter-attack. The opposition simply wanted the President to be willing to vacate Aso Villa in 2007 without causing any more trouble. To that end, while brandishing impeachment in front of him, they would also offer incentives, such as an economic "soft landing" or passing legislation granting the President immunity after leaving office, claimed Tinubu. -------------- COMMENT -------------- ¶9. (C) After the demise of the third-term amendment, Tinubu and other opposition figures are feeling the wind at their backs, while the President is weakened. Tinubu and the opposition plan to allow Obasanjo no respite. The burning question is whether the opposition will stay together until the 2007 elections, or if individual ambitions will drive them apart, thinning their lines and creating an opportunity for Obasanjo to re-assert himself. End comment. BROWNE