NIGERIA: AMBASSADOR'S MEETING WITH YAR'ADUA ON

S E C R E T SECTION 01 OF 04 ABUJA 001347

SIPDIS

FOR AF A/S FRAZER, AF/W, AND EB
PASS TO NSC PITTMAN

E.O. 12958: DECL: 07/14/2018
TAGS: PGOV PREL ECON EFIN EINV MASS MARR NI
SUBJECT: NIGERIA: AMBASSADOR'S MEETING WITH YAR'ADUA ON
NIGER DELTA, EFCC, RESHUFFLE

REF: STATE 70257

Classified By: Ambassador Robin R. Sanders for reasons 1.4. (b & d).

1.(S) Summary: On the eve of President Yar'Adua's departure
for his state visit to the United Kingdom, the Ambassador
was granted an hour meeting on July 14, where she executed
reftel demarche points and took the occasion to ask about
his plans for a reshuffle and movement on the proposed
U.S.-GON bilateral investment treaty. The key points of his
responses to the demarche were:

-- Niger Delta (ND) - Strong need to address both supply
and demand side of oil bunkering and wishes to step up
military efforts against bunkering and wipe out the
militant camps. He wants to find some international
mechanism to address both sides of the problem, and has
called Niger Delta governors on the carpet about their
complicity with militants, and Delta politicians on their
complicity with criminal elements. If the governors do not
get a handle on the situation and establish law and order, he
stressed, he will declare "emergencies" in their states
allowing for
a greater federal government role in re-establishing law
and order.

-- Niger Delta Summit - Agreed that the Summit and the
Gambari issue had been badly handled and said that Gambari
would not have resigned if he were in the country at the
time (Yar'Adua was at the G-8 Summit). He will be meeting
Gambari in London (as a sidebar to his July 15-17 UK State
Visit) to discuss what could be salvaged as he still
believed that Gambari had the best skill sets to see the
Summit process through. In the meantime, the Summit will be
on hold until he can fully assess the damage done by the
VP's debacle, noting that he had told the Vice President to
stop saying that the Delta was a domestic issue as this was
no longer the case.

-- Military Complicity in Niger Delta Bunkering - He said
he will remove by the end of the week (or right after
London trip) the Chiefs of Defense and Navy operations in
order to send a signal to the military that he is serious
about ending complicity by anyone in his government in oil
bunkering.

-- Mixed Messages on Niger Delta -- In response to
Ambassador,s points that there are not only mixed messages
on
who really has the lead on Niger Delta issues, but a lack
of response from the GON to the USG and others on offers of
assistance, Yar'Adua promised to appoint a special
assistant that USG and others key partners can work with
to improve coordination, and communication,
reassuring partners that their messages are
reaching him. He committed to send us back a formal
response on our training/equipment offers as well as the
reftel reimbursable items. Ambassador noted that the US and
UK were working together to help him finds ways to address
all these pressing issues.

-- Cabinet Reshuffle - Nigerian President said he was not
planning a reshuffle, but does plan in the near future
to move a few ministers around and or out of government.

-- EFCC - In response to reftel points, Yar'Adua said the
international community needs to give Waziri a chance, but
as of now he believes she is doing a good job. Ambassador
noted concern on redeployments of some 40-60 previously
USG, UK and UN trained individuals that could gut the
agency. He took this on board and said he would check on
this and understood international community concerns if
trained investigators were being redeployed, but that we
need to see how the new EFCC chief performs.

To the consternation of his staff, Ambassador squeezed in
an hour with the Nigerian Head of State. He was frank, as
he always has been, and clearly was annoyed at the lack of
capacity in his government not only on follow through, but
of the sheer incompetence in certain sectors. He had no
qualms in admitting the complicity of the military, Delta
governors, and others in oil bunkering and wants to send a

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strong signal by changing the leadership of some of his
service chiefs. Unfortunately for General Ward's visit,
despite efforts, he thinks it is better to keep Ward's
visit within the context of the African Endeavor exercise
and have his ministers meet with him (Post has already secured
meetings with Ministers of Defense and Foreign Affairs). We
would
like to get through the upcoming African Endeavor exercise
with the CHOD before he gets moved, if Yar'Adua follows
through on what he shared in the meeting. End Summary.

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Niger Delta Overall Issues: The Summit, Oil Bunkering
-------------- --------------


2. (S) Ambassador called on Nigerian President Yar'Adua for
one hour on July 14 on the eve of his departure for his
State Visit to the United Kingdom to carryout reftel
demarche (FYI: demarche also conducted July 11 with Foreign
Minister Maduekwe in case the Yar'Adua meeting fell after
the UK State visit. See septel). Ambassador began with
the strong need for Nigeria to reframe the public policy
strategy on Niger Delta (ND) from a purely domestic issue
to a "domestic issue with international implications". She
noted the concern about the capacity of Nigeria, without
its friends, to promote not only a peaceful resolution to
the issues, but also better advance development and
transparency. Ambassador then reviewed what had been
offered to the GON to date to assist on ND issues as well as
other potential reimbursable opportunities as outlined in
the demarche. She went into further detail noting that his
military needs the proper equipment(proper boats, planes,
etc),assets, and spare parts for both the navy and air
force in order to better utilize the training the USG has
provided to date, including the sensors we have
installed to assist with monitoring the coastline 100
nautical miles out. In response, Yar'Adua agreed that his
government needed to reframe the issue as the problems in
the ND region had a larger impact than just in the region.
He added that he was very focused on next steps, was
frustrated that the Niger Delta Summit had turned into such
a mess, and was planning to talk to Gambari in London. He
lamented that he was not in-country and had no opportunity
to talk to Gambari prior to him making a decision to resign
last week; he would talk to Gambari in London to see what
could be salvaged. Ambassador passed on Gambari's message,
sharing with the Nigerian President the former's desire to
still work behind the scenes if Yar'Adua saw this as
helpful. In Yar'Adua's view the concurrent steps to take
wereto go in and wipe out the camps in the Delta creeks,
while at the same time putting the governors, politicians
and the military on notice that he expects results. On the
political side, he said he called in the governors from the
key ND states on July 12, and told them he wanted their
complicity with the militants to cease and for them to take
more responsibility for the law and order in their states; if
not, he would declare "emergencies" in their states, so that
the Federal Government could step in. He said this "struck
fear and rattled" many of them as they do not want
to have their executive powers diminished so he expected to
see results. Yar'Adua also added that he had called in key
Delta politicians over the weekend as well, and ordered
them to stop arming and paying youth gangs which have now
become criminal elements in the region. He believed that
his edict to the governors on improving law and order would
also help get the politicians to fall in line. (Note: Upon
Ambassador's departure from Yar'Adua's private office, the
VP was waiting as was the Governor of Bayelsa to see the
President on ND issues).


3. (S) Ambassador then turned to the hard issues of oil
bunkering, military complicity, and what his vision was to
address these challenges; she also shared the electronic
bill of laden document forwarded by Washington. On oil
bunkering Yar'Adua said that there had to be some
international framework to address both the supply and demand
sides of the equation and he had read documents on Kimberly
and other processes as possible examples from which to draw.
Ambassador noted our concern with a Kimberly-like process
and highlighted the electronic bill of laden option. He
said he would review the document, but at first glance saw
it as being part of a larger international framework, which

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would also include assistance on arresting those involved,
and "signaturing" Nigeria's oil (which is his wording for
fingerprinting). On the supply and security side, he wanted
illegal ships found and
destroyed in order to send a strong signal to countries and
buyers receiving illegal oil that bunkering would no longer
be tolerated. He saw a role for the international community
in helping with aerial surveillance. Ambassador reiterated
that we could help in identifying contractors to assist in
this area, and also help with training as per demarche.


4. (S) Ambassador raised the problem with getting his
government to respond to offers as well the mixed signals
as to who the international community can work with on
Niger Delta issues. She noted that it was important to have
access to him to ensure that messages and offers are
getting addressed, adding that many of the things that were
being highlighted today had been offered in some form or
another to the GON, but with little-to-no response.
Yar'Adua took this on board and offered on the spot to
appoint a special advisor on ND issues that would "report
directly" to him and with whom international friends, such
as the U.S., could engage to offer assistance, suggestions,
and dialogue. Ambassador noted that this was a good start,
and then turned to the complicity issue of the military in
bunkering. The Nigerian President said he was aware of the
problem and said he had plans already
to change some of his service chiefs as he had "evidence"
that some were either "involved or turned a blind eye,
and he wanted this to stop." With out hesitation, he told
the Ambassador that he was specifically looking at removing
the Chiefs of Navy Staff and Defense because "even if they
were not directly involved, it is under their leadership
that this is happening." Yar'Adua added that he had plans
to remove them upon his return from London, if not before
(he departs on July 15 for London) as this would send a key
signal to those in the rank and file that any role in oil
bunkering will not be tolerated. Ambassador noted that the
USG was working very closely with the UK as we were
like-minded on a number of things regarding the Niger Delta
and his leadership on some of these key issues would be
important for him to also share in London.


5. (S) As for stakeholders who have concerns about the
Niger Delta, Yar'Adua was less clear on how to map this out
and had expected the VP's office to have done a lot more.
He opined that a real assessment needed to be done so that
the next time a Summit is announced everyone is at least on
board with having a Summit. On the development side of the
equation, Ambassador highlighted possible reimbursable
technical assistance to NNPC and NDDC, and the need for
more transparency on how they are using and spending
resources. Yar'Adua agreed and said this too is also
something he would welcome. He suggested that the
Ambassador wait until he has appointed a special assistant
to coordinate these offers so that there can be real,
tangible
and practical results.

--------------
EFCC:
--------------


6. (S) Ambassador reviewed demarche points with the
Nigerian President on EFCC. He was not expansive as he said
he had reviewed what he had thought about this issue and
Ribadu in the past with the Ambassador in detail. However,
what he did offer was that in "his view the international
community needed to give the new EFCC chairwoman a chance
to do her job." He added that he thought Mrs. Waziri had
made a good start and was doing what he wanted by
de-politicizing the EFCC. Ambassador noted concerns about the
mass redeployments of previously Western trained (USG, UK,
UN) investigators who had been handling big cases, and that
with such an exodus, the EFCC was losing capacity.
Yar'Adua agreed this could be a problem, and said he would
keep an eye on it overall as he did not want the EFCC's
capacity diminished, but in principle he restated, he
thought Mrs. Waziri was doing a good job at the start and
he would be watching closely what happens at the
Commission.


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Reshuffle, BIT:
--------------


7. (S) Upon departing, Ambassador asked the President whether

he still considering reshuffling his government. Yar'Adua
said he did not see his plans as a reshuffle but would
institute a few changes, moving certain ministers to
different portfolios, and removing others, but as of yet he
had not worked out all his timing. On the BIT, Ambassador
told the Nigerian President that we understood that the
bilateral investment treaty had been returned to the Villa
for approval and that we were keen to move this along as
the lack of such an agreement continued to stymie good
trade and investment between the U.S. and Nigeria. Yar'Adua
said it was the first he was hearing that the BIT had been
returned to his offices, and he would follow-up to see
where it stood. Ambassador left a copy of the principle
demarche points with the President.
SANDERS