NIGERIA: NOT SUMMIT BUT DEVELOPMENT, JOBS, JTF

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 02 LAGOS 000233

SIPDIS

DOE FOR GPERSON,CHAYLOCK
TREASURY FOR DFIELDS,RHALL
COMMERCE FOR KBURRESS
STATE PASS USTR FOR ASST USTR FLISER
STATE PASS OPIC FOR ZHAN AND MSTUCKART
STATE PASS TDA FOR LFITT
STATE PASS EXIM FOR JRICHTER
STATE PASS USAID FOR GWEYNAND AND SLAWAETZ

E.O. 12958: DECL: 06/25/2016
TAGS: EPET ENRG PGOV NI
SUBJECT: NIGERIA: NOT SUMMIT BUT DEVELOPMENT, JOBS, JTF
WITHDRAWAL NEEDED FOR NIGER DELTA PEACE

Classified By: Acting Consul General Helen C. Hudson, Reasons 1.4 (B,D)


1. (C) Summary: Chief Edwin Kiagbodo Clark said he has worked
to bring "relative peace" to Delta and Bayelsa States ever
since President Yar'Adua attached the Niger Delta to his
seven point plan. Clark believes the Niger Delta needs not
another summit conference but development and jobs,
especially the return to civilians of jobs that have been
taken over by the military. Clark listed three conditions
for lasting peace in the Delta: 1)development of the Niger
Delta's physical infrastructure; 2) involvement of Niger
Delta youths in productive income-earning activity; and 3)
gradual withdrawal of the armed forces. The solutions Clark
is calling for are simple, straightforward, and require only
political will to carry them out. Whether or not a summit is
held, it remains to be seen whether the Government of Nigeria
will exercise that will to relieve the suffering of the Niger
Delta people. End Summary.


2. (C) Chief Edwin Kiagbodo Clark told Acting Consul General
June 23 that he appealed to the youths who attacked the Bonga
offshore facility and succeeded in persuading them to agree
to a unilateral "ceasefire", announced June 21, after
President Yar'Adua announced that he would send the military
after the perpetrators. The youths recognized his influence,
and credited his interventions as the reason for the
ceasefire in their remarks to several newspapers, Chief Clark
said. (Note: On June 26, the press reported that a coalition
of groups calling itself the Joint Revolutionary Council
(JRC),including the Movement for the Emancipation of the
Niger Delta (MEND),the Reformed Niger Delta People's
Volunteer Force and the Martyr's Brigade had lifted the
ceasefire. We also note that the original call for a
cease-fire may not have had the blessing of all the reported
aggressive militant groups tin the region. End Note)


3. (C) Because President Yar'Adua attached the Niger Delta to
his seven point plan, Clark said, he has spent a whole year
overseeing and encouraging the success of a joint committee
between the Federal Government and some youth leaders. His
efforts have resulted in a "relative peace", in Delta and
Bayelsa States, but not in Rivers, where Clark called the
situation "peculiar". (Note: Clark's remark may refer to the
refusal of Rivers State's Governor Rotimi Amaechi's highly
publicized refusal to "negotiate with militants." End Note)
Despite his efforts in maintaining peace over the past year,
the government has done nothing but plan for yet another
conference, Clark said. The summit that is being planned can
accomplish nothing that has not already been covered by the
numerous commissions and reports issued in the past. All the
reports, from those issued by commissions in colonial times
to recent UNDP reports, say the same thing: that the Niger
Delta needs development. The choice of Ibrahim Gambari to
head the summit adds insult to injury; Gambari "tormented"
the Ogoni people "who are part of us, and we have not
forgotten", Chief Clark said. (Note: Gambari is reported to
have called slain Ogoni activist Ken Saro-Wiwa a "common
criminal." End note)


4. (C) The solution to the Niger Delta problem is a political
one, not a military one, Chief Clark said. He praised the
remarks made by Lieutenant General Luke Nyeh Yusuf, Chief of
Army Staff, who in January said that he did not believe that
the Niger Delta problem has reached a stage where it
threatens the unity of the country. Henry Okah is just one
part of a perverse system that has grown up in the Niger
Delta; his trial cannot be kept isolated from that system,
Clark said. (Note: Okah is being tried for treason in closed
proceedings about which even his lawyer is forbidden to speak
publicly. End Note) He went on to say the Niger Delta is an
occupied territory, and the presence of the military fuels
other problems. The military and ex-military are all deeply
involved in illegal bunkering. The military wants trouble so
that they have a reason to stay in the Delta and continue to

LAGOS 00000233 002 OF 002


make money. Whenever there is relative peace in an area, and
the people begin to think about asking that the military be
withdrawn, the military provoke confrontation or otherwise
stir up the youths, Clark said.


5. (C) Another way the military makes money in the Delta is
that they take jobs once performed by the indigenous youths.
At one time, the indigenous people did all the petty jobs
required by the oil companies around installations; now,
however, those jobs are taken up by moonlighting soldiers.
Local contractors are all run by the military. Even security
services at the flow stations, once jobs held by local
people, are now handled by the military. In the past, local
families carried on a proud heritage as ship pilots, boarding
ships to guide them safely into the harbors. Now, however,
all such jobs have been taken over by moonlighting naval
personnel.


5. (C) If not a summit, then what would bring peace to the
Niger Delta, Acting Consul General asked Chief Clark. Three
elements are essential, he said: 1) development of the Niger
Delta's physical infrastructure; 2) involvement of Niger
Delta youths in productive income-earning activity; and 3)
gradual withdrawal of the armed forces. But instead, the
people of the Niger Delta continue to be cheated by the
Government of the benefits of the oil which is extracted from
their back yards. Among many examples of this problem, he
said, was the Petroleum Trust Development Fund (PTDF) which
funds doctoral studies for students overseas; of over 1000
candidates shortlisted for these grants, only 14 are from the
Niger Delta, including two from Delta State and one from
Bayelsa, Clark pointed out. The people in the Niger Delta are
without water to drink, they have no schools, no hospitals or
functioning health centers; they are bitter, Chief Clark
said. And when they see that their fathers cannot help them
to obtain from the Government these minimal concessions,
these basic necessities of life, they lash out at their
oppressors.


6. (C) Comment: Throughout the year, the fragile peace in
Delta and Bayelsa has, for the most part, held, unaided by
any indications of progress toward economic development of
the region. The solutions Clark is calling for are
reasonable, simple and straightforward; they require only
political will to carry them out at all levels of government.
Whether or not a summit holds, it remains to be seen whether
the Government of Nigeria will exercise that will to relieve
the suffering of the Niger Delta people.
HUDSON