US embassy cable - 03ABUJA1853

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 02 ABUJA 001853 
 
SIPDIS 
 
 
SENSITIVE 
 
 
STATE FOR EB AND AF 
TREASURY FOR OFFICE OF AFRICAN AFFAIRS (ALEX SEVERENS) 
 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: ENRG, EAID, ECON, EFIN, ETRD, KPRV, NI 
SUBJECT: FINANCE MINISTER ON REFORM: EITI ONLY A FIRST STEP 
 
SENSITIVE BUT UNCLASSIFIED, NOT FOR PUBLICATION ON THE 
INTERNET OR INTRANET. 
 
 
1. (SBU) Summary: CDA met October 24 with Minister of Finance 
Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, to discuss the Extractive Industries 
Transparency Initiative (EITI) and her upcoming trip to the 
U.S.  Okonjo-Iweala stressed that the GON sees EITI as just 
one step of many that must be taken to bring about full GON 
transparency.  She displayed a recently compiled matrix of 
steps the GON plans to take, saying that it was in large part 
a response to legitimate criticism that the GON did not have 
concrete measures specified in its reform plan.  She asked 
that we consider how we might provide political support to 
the reformers.  Technical assistance, she said, is nice, but 
she needed more concrete support.  End summary. 
 
 
Okonjo-Iweala: Concrete reform proposals to be presented 
--------------------------------------------- ----------- 
 
 
2. (SBU) Okonjo-Iweala will travel to Washington and New York 
beginning October 25 for a series of meetings with 
multilateral and private organizations.  She said that she 
initially had no plans to meet with USG officials.  "We have 
moved forward," she said, "since Dubai."  She showed CDA a 
recently completed matrix of planned reform measures, which 
she said she may show U/S Larson and others in the U.S.  She 
said the best way to convince a skeptical world of the GON's 
determination to achieve government transparency is to show 
them the plan and then produce the results. 
 
 
Okonjo-Iweala: Concrete U.S. political support needed 
--------------------------------------------- -------- 
 
 
3. (SBU) Okonjo-Iweala is still prickly about what she 
considered U.S. hesitation about her reform plans, which she 
said she sensed in Dubai in September.  She also remains 
miffed that her planned meeting in Dubai with Treasury 
Secretary Snow fell through. 
 
SIPDIS 
 
 
4. (SBU) While acknowledging that the foreign skepticism is 
born of experience with Nigeria, she said that the U.S. would 
be of great assistance if it would provide some concrete 
political support.  The technical assistance the U.S. and 
others can provide is useful, she said, but what she really 
needs is for the U.S. and others to promise certain concrete 
responses in return for concrete Nigerian reform steps. 
 
 
5. (SBU) Okonjo-Iweala repeated her usual complaint that the 
USG had two years ago raised hopes that a debt swap could be 
arranged, then backed away.  (Comment: She understands the 
difficulties in the debt swap, and we suspect her complaint 
is, at least in part, simply a way of convincing us to more 
seriously entertain her pleas for other forms of assistance. 
End comment.) 
 
 
Okonjo-Iweala: EITI part of a broader plan 
------------------------------------------ 
 
 
6. (SBU) Okonjo-Iweala said that EITI is only one step, of 
many, toward full GON transparency.  She stressed that the 
GON was not signing up to a British plan any more than it was 
signing up to a U.S. plan.  Rather, the GON had its own plan, 
which includes ambitious goals and a broad range of specific 
and general steps to get there.  The Ministry of Finance, she 
said, is in control of the reform agenda now, and she has the 
full support of President Obasanjo. 
 
 
7. (SBU) Obasanjo, she said, is fully committed to the reform 
agenda.  As an example of Obasanjo's commitment, she pointed 
to the recent debate over deregulation of the downstream 
sector of the oil and gas industry.  Obasanjo, she said, had 
fully adopted her policy recommendations and had put the 
policy into effect in ways he felt most politically 
effective.  She said that outsiders may be a bit confused by 
all the political maneuvering, but downstream deregulation is 
now an accomplished fact. 
 
 
8. (SBU) She complained mildly that Nigeria had not been 
recognized in the international press or by foreign 
governments for having accomplished downstream deregulation. 
Ambassador responded that there is some lingering confusion 
about exactly what has happened.  (Note: Okonjo-Iweala also 
mentioned in a recent meeting with Econoff that a unit had 
been formed within the Ministry of Finance to monitor all oil 
and gas industry payments to the GON.  End note.) 
 
 
Comment: Political support is necessary 
--------------------------------------- 
 
 
9. (SBU) There is a consensus view among IFI, diplomatic, 
Nigerian and independent observers that Okonjo-Iweala is 
knowlegeable and strongly committed to genuine reform.  She 
and the new economic team represent the best chance that 
Nigeria has had for years for some real movement forward. 
The question is whether the necessary political backing is 
there for her to realize essential parts of her program.  She 
will continue to push for more than she probably expects to 
get.  That is her style.  Looking past that, we see in her a 
new and effective advocate of change, who ought to receive 
whatever support we can give.  This trip is a chance to make 
clear that we have heard her.  Providing rhetorical support 
is good, but that will not go too far with the very direct 
and down-to-earth Okonjo-Iweala.  Better and more effective 
will be whatever can be identified in the way of concrete USG 
support for measurable GON progress in the area of 
transparency and other reforms. 
MEECE