Wikileaks CABLE: Yar'Adua asked Ibori to turn himself in, says Saraki

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15 March 2010

Wikileaks CABLE: Yar'Adua asked Ibori to turn himself in, says Saraki

[ID:171266 Cable dated:2008-09-24T07:37:00] ====================================================

1. (C) Summary: During Ambassador,s first trip to Kwara State in western Nigeria, she had an opportunity to have several meetings with Kwara State Governor and head of the powerful Governor,s Forum (GF), Bukola Saraki September 21-22. He met with the Ambassador just after finishing a 3-hour session with Yar,Adua, where he said they were "finishing up touches on personalities in the next cabinet."

In the hour long one-on-one with Ambassador, Saraki reviewed the current state of play in Nigerian Northern and national politics, President Yar,Adua,s health issues and the impact on the atmosphere in Nigeria, the upcoming cabinet reshuffle and Niger Delta issues, and made comments about some of the key people around the President such as National Security Advisor Muktar, and (in response to the Ambassador,s questions) about the President,s Aide de Camp (ADC).

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Niger Delta Next Steps

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6. (C) Ambassador decided to move on and take the Ibori issue one step further by asking Saraki if the rumors that the government was considering making Ibori the Minister of the new Niger Delta Ministry were true. Saraki laughed, stating that the international community has to accept that hyperbole is the foundation of the Nigerian press, including blogs like Sahara Reporters. Given that he had just left Yar'Adua's three hour meeting on choices for the next cabinet, Saraki said that "picking a good candidate for the Niger Delta Ministry was what was holding up progress on announcing the new Ministers." The Kwara Governor said that he and others working on the new cabinet list had provided the President with several criteria for this position: no previous involvement in politics, no ex- or current governor; and no EFCC skeletons. "What we are looking for is a technocrat from the region, who has credibility among regional leaders

-- this has not been easy to find," Saraki said. (Note: The Saturday, September 20 Vanguard reported that the President "was believed" to have picked Albert Okumagba, an ethnic Urhobo who is Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of BGL Limited, an investment banking firm. Okumagba, like several others whose names are being discussed, appears to meet the criteria Saraki describes above. End Note)

7. (C) On other Niger Delta issues, Saraki informed the Ambassador that an informal agreement had been reached with the factional Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta People (MEND) to announce a ceasefire until such time that all parties to the conflict could find a good candidate for the Niger Delta Ministry. (Note: Two days after the Ambassador-Saraki meeting, the Nigerian press reported that MEND had agreed to a temporary cease-fire with the goal of stemming the violence in River State in particular. In addition Secretary to the Federation (SFG) Ahmed told Ambassador September 15 that he would be meeting with Tom Polo's people and others to try to find a way to work out a deal so that things could move forward. End Note.) Ambassador mentioned that the United States and the UK had worked jointly together on a paper that could support GON efforts and that we had delivered an operational assistance non-paper to the President back in July. To date, she added,we have not gotten a response to the July demarche, while the US-UK paper had been delivered to the Foreign Minister and the Secretary of the Federal Government. Right now, Saraki said, people are still "smarting" over the U.S. behavior on the EFCC, so responses to overtures by the U.S. on the Niger Delta are probably lukewarm, Saraki said. "If we make a step the U.S. doesn't like on the Niger Delta are you going to pull your support, as you did on the EFCC?", he asked.

Ambassador emphasized that the offers to assist on the Niger Delta are genuine.