NIGERIAN NUGGETS -- FEBRUARY 5, 2010

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 04 ABUJA 000141 SIPDIS STATE FOR AF/FO, AF/W, AF/RSA, AF/PDPA, DRL, INR/AA AMEMBASSY YAOUNDE PASS TO AMEMBASSY MALABO E.O. 12958: DECL: 2020/01/26 TAGS: PGOV PREL PINR SOCI KPAO NI SUBJECT: NIGERIAN NUGGETS -- FEBRUARY 5, 2010 REF: ABUJA 0123 AND PREVIOUS CLASSIFIED BY: James P. McAnulty, Political Counselor, U.S. Embassy Abuja, Political Section; REASON: 1.4(B),(D) ¶1. (SBU) Mission Nigeria provides the following compilation of recent political, economic, and social developments not reported previously. -------------- RENEWED POLITICAL VIOLENCE IN AKWA IBOM -------------- ¶2. (C) Contacts of the Regional Security Office at ConGen Lagos reported the kidnapping of a retired general and Chairperson of the ruling People's Democratic Party (PDP) from his church in Akwa Ibom on January 31. Kidnappers reportedly killed the victim's wife during the abduction. ConGen is seeking additional details, including whether the kidnap victim is a current or former party official. ConGen has heard other reports of political violence in Akwa Ibom, including the alleged assassination of former State Assembly member and PDP candidate for Local Government Area Chairman Udo Nnwa, killed about October 15. Independent businessman and International Visitor Leadership Program participant John Akpan claimed to PolOff in November 2009 that current PDP Governor Godswill Akpabio has attempted systematically to eliminate opposition to his rule within the PDP via kidnapping or other violent means. -------------- MUSLIM OUTREACH AROUND LAGOS -------------- ¶3. (SBU) PolOff and Political Specialist met with Professor Lai Olurode, author of "Glimpses of Madrasas from Africa," on February 2 to discuss Muslim outreach opportunities with ConGen Lagos. Olurode said schools within the Muslim community in Southern Nigeria received insufficient funding. He emphasized the need for better trained and experienced teachers as 60 percent of non-literate Nigerians are Muslim. He noted that low test scores of students who attend Madrasas reflect lack of financial support and educational resources in Muslim communities. Olurode suggested that ConGen Lagos host a sensitization and empowerment workshop and invited PolOff to speak to Muslim youth in communities outside Lagos. -------------- STATUS OF DOWNSTREAM OIL -------------- ¶4. (U) Mobil Downstream Managing Director (MD) Tunji Oyebanji asserted at the February 2 Apapa Diners Club monthly gathering that refineries in Nigeria do not make economic sense. He said the inefficiencies and operating costs of refineries in Nigeria remained high, while larger European refineries operated more efficiently. The cost savings from European refineries more than made up for transport costs to Nigeria. Oyebanji added that, whenever oil travelled in an overland pipeline in Nigeria 40 percent of the oil was lost either through bunkering or leakage. He alleged that police assigned to guard the pipelines actually act as coordinators for those involved in illicit bunkering activity, telling the thieves who can steal, and where, on the pipeline. ABUJA 00000141 002 OF 004 -------------- LAGOS BUSINESS SCHOOL VIEWS -------------- ¶5. (U) Financial Derivatives MD Bismarck Rewane told the monthly February 2 Lagos Business School breakfast meeting that Nigeria's GDP had risen to 8.23 percent as of January, underscoring the strength of the economy. He noted, however, that job creation remained a challenge. Hareema Nigeria MD Peppo Ravelli estimated that companies invested 30 billion dollars into the Nigerian oil services sector and planned to invest an additional 400 billion dollars before pulling out of Nigeria due to Niger Delta instability and anticipated consequences of the proposed Petroleum Industry and Local Content Bills. Rewane remarked that the Asset Mortgage Company (AMC) Act elicited resistance from stockbrokers, who thought the AMC favored bankers. Whether the public or private sector owns the AMC remained a point of contention, he said. If the AMC incorporated private sector interests, Rewane predicted, the act would achieve greater credibility. He noted that Shell's sale of three oil leases in Bayelsa State involved 30 wells producing a total of 50,000 barrels per day. ¶6. (U) Dean of Lagos Business School and former Presidential Candidate Pat Utomi remarked that some Northern leaders want Vice President Jonathan to assume the Presidency while others had concerns over his leadership abilities. He said, however, Cabinet members did not want to cede power to him and, therefore, uncertainty would continue for the rest of 2010. Utomi declared that "The violence in Jos is close to becoming another Rwanda due to the lack of attention and exacerbation of tensions." He noted that violence could easily erupt tomorrow. The Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (MEND),he warned, retained the capability to halt oil operations and could signal their disappointment during the next week or so regarding how the country has treated the Vice President. He commented that the solution to the Niger Delta involved allowing people to create wealth. Lagos Business School Economics Professor Doyin Salami suggested that the people in power are "playing ostrich in order to protect their SUVs," intimating that personal well-being is placed ahead of national -------------- -------------- FOOD SECURITY PROGRAM BENEFITS 1.2 MILLION NIGERIANS -------------- -------------- ¶7. (U) A recent independent assessment of USAID's MARKETS private sector led, value chain, agriculture and food security project concluded that every dollar invested in the project since inception in 2005 generated a four-dollar increase in net income for 400,000 farmers and agro-processors; created over 100,000 short and long term jobs; increased sesame production by 25 percent, and rice production by 250 percent for rice farming from the initial base; extended 50 million dollars in commercial credit to participants, 90% of whom are women; and four value chains between farmers and specific agro-processors had become sustainable without further USG assistance. ¶8. (U) Additionally, over 66,000 women increased their incomes while hundreds of women's organizations now more effectively advocate women's needs to local governments. Total net income generated since 2005 reached 66 million dollars, with a projected increase to 85 million dollars for 1.2 million farmers and processors by December 2010, when the funding for the Fiscal Year 2009 emergency food security program will be fully expended. ABUJA 00000141 003 OF 004 -------------- HIV-AIDS AND TB COP -------------- ¶9. (U) USG-Nigeria PEPFAR team submitted the 2010 annual Country Operation Plan (COP) to the Global AIDS Coordinator January 29. The plan builds a partnership for sustainability with the Nigerian Government to continue strengthening ongoing service delivery to patients; renew focus on HEALTH systems strengthening; and align activities with the Nigerian National Strategic Framework for HIV-AIDS, 2010-2015. The Plan will also intensify and focus prevention efforts; deepen integration of HIV-AIDS response into the broader HEALTH care system; strengthen the HEALTH care system at all levels; and expand access to quality services. USAID's proposed FY2010 PEPFAR budget is 249.9 million dollars. -------------- CORPORTATE SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY PARTNERSHIP -------------- ¶10. (U) USAID-Nigeria and four private sector partners, including Zinox Computer Technologies, Microsoft Nigeria Limited, Ocean Energy Nigeria Limited, and British American Tobacco, Nigeria, launched a Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) partnership at the University of Lagos. A grant from USAID and the British American Tobacco, Nigeria, will fund CSR activities, including redesigning and upgrading of the University's business school curriculum by the Kansas State University. Previously, USAID funded an activity to build the capacity of the University's computer science and business programs to produce graduates better equipped to enter the Nigerian workforce. -------------- HERE'S TO YOU, MR. ROBESON -------------- ¶11. (U)The ConGen Lagos Public Diplomacy Section and the Music Society of Nigeria launched Black History Month activities by hosting a performance of "Call Mr. Robeson," a one-man play with music by Nigerian-born architect-turned-actor Tayo Aluko. Based on the life of American Renaissance man Paul Robeson, the play touched on his academic achievements, his career as an actor, singer and orator, and his activities as a trade unionist, the last resonating especially with the 2010 theme of economic empowerment in the black community. The play also highlighted Robeson's 1956 appearance before the House Un-American Activities Committee. The audience and several local media outlets reacted in an overwhelmingly positive way. -------------- ARRESTS OF DRUG TRAFFICKERS -------------- ¶12. (SBU) The Nigerian Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) personnel arrested three major drug traffickers, Marcel Chibueze Udeze (also known as "Molue"),Chidi Ugbaja, and Monday Paul Edeh, for importing from Lahore, Pakistan, 2.4 kilograms of heroin with ABUJA 00000141 004 OF 004 an estimated street value of about 153,000 dollars. The Murtala Mohammed International Airport (Lagos) NDLEA Commander said the traffickers established a shell business to conceal the smuggling of illicit drugs through the airport and received help from a clearing and forwarding agent who worked in airport's cargo section. NDLEA agents seized the drugs after surveiling consignments delivered to the clearing agent. According to NDLEA, the traffickers formed part of a notorious drug trafficking cell operating in Nigeria with affiliates in Pakistan. SANDERS