US embassy cable - 04LAGOS124

C O N F I D E N T I A L LAGOS 000124 
 
SIPDIS 
 
LONDON FOR GURNEY, PARIS FOR NEARY 
 
E.O. 12958: DECL: 01/15/2009 
TAGS: PGOV, PREL, KDEM, PINR, NI 
SUBJECT: NIGERIAN STYLE DEMOCRACY AND THE RULE OF LAW IN 
ANAMBRA - AN UPDATE 
 
REF: A) 2003 LAGOS 2187 B) 2003 LAGOS 1479 
 
Classified By: Consul General Robyn Hinson-Jones for reasons 1.5 (b) an 
 
d (d). 
 
1. (U)  Anarchy reigns in the government of Anambra State. 
Since the challenged gubernatorial election in April 2003, 
the state has countenanced the July abduction of Governor 
Chris Ngige (reftel B), a state coup attempt, and the 
Governor's questioned resignation.  Everyone has accused 
everyone else of having been fraudulently elected.  At the 
federal level, multiple players, including President Olusegun 
Obasanjo and Vice President Abubakr Atiku, have tried to use 
the courts or the power of their political offices to shape 
the government of Anambra to their liking.  The 35 other 
governors in Nigeria have rallied to the defense of the 
beleaguered Ngige.  On January 12, Ngige won another round in 
the continuing tussle for control when a federal appeals 
court reinstated him by overturning an ex parte Enugu state 
court order that tried to strip Ngige of the governorship. 
The wrangling is not over.  The press screams daily 
accusations that federal government officials engineered the 
coup attempt in the first place, and that the President is 
using a weak and corrupt judicial system to accomplish what 
brute force and illegal action did not. 
 
The rule of law 
 
2. (U) According to the Nigerian Constitution, Governors are 
supposed to be the Chief Security Officers for their states. 
The crisis in Anambra is significant for all of Nigeria 
because there the Governor himself has been threatened, 
chased into hiding and assaulted by both the State Police and 
State Security Service (SSS) since the July coup attempt. 
President Obasanjo and his Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), 
have not moved to support Ngige and re-establish order in 
Anambra.  They claim to prefer a "political settlement" which 
has seen the party careen between supporting Ngige and/or his 
political "godfather", millionaire Chris Uba, who proudly 
proclaims that he bought the election of every winning 
politician in the state.  None of the coup plotters, 
including Uba, has been brought before a court, though many 
Nigerian jurists have said that their actions in July were 
clearly treasonous. 
 
3. (U)  At times, the godfather has had better protection 
than the Governor.  In both July and before the recent Enugu 
court ruling, Ngige's official State Police bodyguard details 
were called off leaving him vulnerable to repeated assaults 
and attempts on his life.  Based on his July experience, this 
time Ngige immediately went into hiding when his bodyguards 
deserted him, only to resurface under the protection of 
private guards and a favorable appeals court ruling. 
 
Nigerian democracy 
 
4. (C) Comment.  Nigeria is a tribal culture and accustomed 
to rule by "chiefs", "big men" or "godfathers."  It is a 
long-deprived people now driven to acquiring as much money as 
possible as quickly as possible, and a people who accept 
payment of tribute and respect to a leader as an expected 
cost of doing business.  But while politics is business in 
Nigeria, the situation in Anambra is an aberration even for 
this country at its current stage of cultural, political and 
economic development. 
 
5. (C) Comment continued.  Last April, Nigeria completed its 
first successful election and transfer of 
civilian-to-civilian governments.  All observers admit there 
was electoral fraud, pay-offs and winners chosen by 
"godfathers", but the elections were held, the military did 
not intervene and the losers are still taking their 
complaints to the courts and not to the streets.  Therefore, 
the developments in Anambra are all the more galling to 
Nigerians who see that situation as a civilian coup 
unsanctioned by a Presidency responsible for ensuring that 
Constitutional rule is upheld.  In fact, critics allege, the 
President has encouraged and protected the culprits. 
Hypotheses about the President's role generally point to 
Nigeria's inescapable skein of personal patronage -- in this 
case the godfather's brother is part of Obasanjo's inner 
circle. Whatever the reason, Anambra is ground zero for the 
worst example of total disregard for rule of law in Nigeria 
today.  After years of ruthless and greedy military 
dictatorships, many Nigerians are determined to work within 
legal systems and to build democratic institutions.  But the 
tangled web of intrigue and political intimidation in Anambra 
makes a mockery of rule of law in Nigeria. 
HINSON-JONES