NIGERIA: ANAMBRA GOVERNOR DISCUSSES ELECTORAL

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 02 ABUJA 001632 SIPDIS DEPT FOR AF/FO, AF/W, INR/AA E.O. 12958: DECL: 07/31/2017 TAGS: PGOV PREL PINR NI SUBJECT: NIGERIA: ANAMBRA GOVERNOR DISCUSSES ELECTORAL REFORM, AMNESTY, PRIORITIES Classified By: Political Counselor James P. McAnulty for reasons in Sections 1.4 (B) and (D) -------------- SUMMARY -------------- ¶1. (C) SUMMARY: Anambra State Governor Peter Obi of the opposition All Progressives Grand Alliance discussed electoral reform, the Niger Delta amnesty program, and state priorities during an August 26 meeting with Charge, PolCouns, and PolOff at the Embassy. Obi expressed pessimism about prospects for the amnesty program, predicting that militants would accept the money offered them and return to business as usual. Obi is unusual in the Nigerian political landscape in challenging -- successfully -- the Nigerian Government (GON) and ruling People's Democratic Party (PDP) both on electoral results and length of term in office. He indicated plans to run for re-election in February 2010 and requested Embassy help in providing monitors. END SUMMARY. -------------- NEGLECT OF NIGER DELTA -------------- ¶2. (C) Obi lamented that authorities had not given proper attention to the Niger Delta a decade or more ago, before the rise of militancy there. He emphasized that Niger Delta inhabitants needed help with development of their educational, health, and road infrastructure, for the benefit of entire communities, rather than distribution of cash payments to individual militant leaders. Simply "settling" individuals by attempting to buy their cooperation has never worked, and, in Obi's view, would not produce lasting peace, without addressing underlying poverty and lack of economic opportunity. Many militants will take the money and return to their criminal activities. Obi criticized the Niger Delta Development Corporation as doing little to nothing for the region and expressed pessimism over amnesty's prospects, given its focus on payments to individuals. -------------- THE LONG JOURNEY TO THE STATEHOUSE -------------- ¶3. (C) Obi recounted his long journey to the Anambra governorship, including his three-year court battle to confirm his electoral victory in the 2003 gubernatorial race. He explained that he collected and submitted ballot tally sheets to prove he had actually won the most votes. At the time, political party representatives at each voting precinct signed sheets containing agreed, tabulated results. His election was the first in which Nigerian courts over-ruled national electoral commission official results. As a result, Obi said, other candidates have stepped forward to challenge results in their races. "Because of me," he joked, "everyone is in court." He lamented, however, that for the 2007 presidential elections, many precincts lacked tally sheets. (N.B., Many tally sheets contained erroneous dates, which rendered them invalid. END NOTE.) ¶4. (C) After winning his case, Obi noted, the GON had initially declared that his four-year term would begin with the originally-scheduled inauguration date, in effect shortening his term to one year before facing re-election. Again, he challenged this decision in the courts, arguing that the Constitution stipulated that governors serve four-year terms upon assuming office. In June 2007, the Supreme Court agreed, ruling that his term would run from 2006 to 2010. He noted plans to run for re-election in February 2010 and asked that the Embassy provide monitors for that election. ¶5. (C) Obi admitted that electoral success did not come cheap. He estimated that he had spent five million dollars of his personal funds from his prior career in banking on the campaign, excluding post-election legal fees. He credited the faculty at the Kellogg School at Northwestern University with awakening in him a call to public service during a ABUJA 00001632 002 OF 002 ten-week executive education seminar that he attended. -------------- NEED FOR WHOLESALE CHANGE IN PRIORITIES -------------- ¶6. (C) Obi decried the priority that most of Nigeria's political elite place on construction of grandiose residences and offices as perks of their positions. Nigerians, he observed, needed to change their political, economic, and social priorities. He commented that his predecessor had expended 10 million dollars on building a massive state-house complex. When he took office, he learned that the state would need another 30 million dollars to complete the project as originally designed. Yet, Anambra State faced tremendous shortcomings in schools, health services, roads, and other sectors. No public secondary school in the state, for example, had any science laboratories or computer classrooms, which he calculated would cost 40 thousand dollars each to equip. He halted the state-house project, choosing to renovate the previous mansion damaged by fire for about 400,000 dollars and to invest funds in the schools. ¶7. (C) As another cost-saving measure, Obi said that he has never stayed at the Anambra Governor's lodge in Abuja during his official visits to the capital. Instead, he stays at the Rockview Hotel owned by an Anambra native, saving 200,000 dollars in operating costs for the lodge. Moreover, according Obi, his state is the only one that has developed a master plan for development. He has set benchmarks for objectives to accomplish during his term. As a result of the change in priorities and investment in infrastructure, Obi calculated that per-capita income has risen four times during his tenure, albeit from an admittedly low base. -------------- COMMENT -------------- ¶8. (C) The case of Anambra demonstrates that the electoral system can be made to work in Nigeria, particularly in the rare instance where an opposition candidate has the personal resources and willingness to expend them on long-shot political bids. While not without detractors, Governor Obi has become a "poster child" for electoral reform in Nigeria. Duplicating such results elsewhere will be a daunting, but not impossible, task. END COMMENT. ¶9. (U) Embassy cleared this telegram with Consulate General Lagos. MCCULLOUGH