US embassy cable - 04ABUJA192

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 02 ABUJA 000192 
 
SIPDIS 
 
SENSITIVE 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: PGOV, ECON, KDEM, NI 
SUBJECT: GOMBE STATE: A DIAMOND IN THE ROUGH 
 
 
SENSITIVE BUT UNCLASSIFIED.  NOT FOR POSTING ON THE INTRANET 
OR INTERNET. 
 
1. (U) SUMMARY: Gombe State calls itself "the jewel of the 
Savannah" and was well known as a commercial and agricultural 
center before it was made a state in 1996 by the Abacha 
regime.  It is quickly becoming a real success story for 
development.  Agricultural output is growing, especially in 
commercial farms, and the state has attracted new businesses 
by its crossroads location, agricultural success, and the 
efforts of its new governor, Danjuma Goje of the ruling PDP, 
to improve the environment for business.  Goje has gradually 
won widespread support among Gombe's citizens since his 
disputed election in 2003, and may be worth watching for 
higher office over the next decade.  END SUMMARY. 
 
GOVERNOR GOJE 
 
2. (SBU) PolCouns met with Goje, key political players, civil 
society leaders, businessmen and development officials in 
Gombe and other cities January 12-13 as part of a trip to the 
northeast Nigerian states of Gombe, Taraba (septel) and 
Benue.  Governor Goje's election last April was marred by 
complaints of irregularities.  The Election Tribunal threw 
out his opponent's complaint on technicalities, but many 
claim the election was massively rigged in his favor.  His 
political opponents point to VP Atiku as the man behind 
Goje's election, although Goje has downplayed ties to the VP 
since.  Upon taking office, Goje has employed a combination 
of dexterous political tactics and skillful managerial 
policies to concentrate on state issues.  He blamed most of 
the state's woes on his ANPP predecessor not finishing a raft 
of development projects, and Goje even gave an impudent 
speech in his opponent's hometown recently pointing out 
improvements the audience could see that his predecessor 
promised but Goje delivered. 
 
3. (U)  Goje made similar points to PolCouns, for example 
that roads "neglected by the previous administrations" were 
being repaired.  Sure enough, PolCouns saw bulldozers and 
construction workers busy clearing and expanding all of the 
roads for several miles in each direction from the city.  The 
dust generated by all the construction work, coupled with the 
strong Harmattan haze, has temporarily changed the slogan of 
Gombe "Jewel of the Savannah" to "Hidden Jewel on the 
Savannah." 
 
4. (SBU) Goje was a businessman and former national Minister 
of State for Steel and Power before running for Governor. 
Like most Nigerian politicians, he was a student activist 
during his days at the Ahmadu Bello University.  After 
graduation in 1980, Goje worked briefly for Bauchi State (now 
split into Bauchi and Gombe states) before resigning to win a 
seat in the State Assembly in 1983.  Goje and the other 
elected politicians lost their jobs when Buhari overthrew the 
Second Republic in a bloodless military coup in December 
1983, and Goje devoted his time thereafter to developing a 
Gombe political base as he built his personal business. 
 
5. (SBU) Goje returned to politics, winning a senatorial seat 
under the banned United Nigeria's Congress Party (UNCP) in 
1997.  With the death of Abacha, Goje threw his weight behind 
the PDP when legal political parties were formed and became a 
federal MinState.  He was rewarded with the MinState position 
in 1999 for two years, and Goje made the best of it to 
promote his political structure at home.  His connecting 
Gombe State's major towns to the national electric grid, and 
facilitating the rise of Gombe natives to Federal 
appointments were important political investments in Nigerian 
politics.  PDP top brass and other party supporters in the 
State welcomed his 2003 candidacy, and officially he won a 
slim victory against ANPP candidate and incumbent governor 
Abubakar Hashidu. 
 
BUILDING GOMBE 
 
6. (U) Goje appointed good professionals and allowed them a 
free hand to run their various departments.  Goje gave 
considerable time to a one-on-one meeting with PolCouns, but 
he also made sure a variety of state government professionals 
-- not their politician bosses -- each gave time for separate 
meetings.  The result of this professionalization has been 
great strides in building infrastructure.  State agricultural 
administrators made much of the success they have had in 
attracting banks, now over twenty, to set up in Gombe and 
provide loans to commercial farmers. 
 
7. (U) The banks, in turn, came to Gombe because there was 
sufficient infrastructure for them to take advantage of the 
commercial opportunity.  In addition to connecting Gombe 
cities to the electric grid and building roads, Goje used his 
Abuja connections to improve telecommunications.  He invited 
mobile phone provider MTN to build in Gombe; "MTN told me I 
was the first Nigerian Governor to visit them and made such 
an appeal."  MTN built and ECONET followed, making Gombe one 
of the few rural states to have widespread phone availability. 
 
8. (U) The banks, roads, and efforts to build produce 
marketing infrastructure and farm extension education have 
made Gombe one of the few states in Nigeria where more people 
are starting commercial farms than leaving them.  Gombe 
officials claimed growth in overall farm employment as well, 
and the success of commercial farming was evident as 
PolCouns' party crisscrossed the state from one end to the 
other by road.  Dealers and truckers told PolCouns, during an 
unannounced visit to the refurbished central wholesale 
market, that Gombe is exporting produce to Niger, Chad, 
Burkina Faso and Cameroon, and to most other states in 
Nigeria.  PolCouns saw six trucks being loaded with large 
quantities of beans, sorghum and vegetables for Abia state, 
and the turnaround was roughly one eighteen wheeler every 40 
minutes. 
 
9. (U) Goje lamented that after the discovery of oil, past 
Nigerian administrations have neglected agriculture and 
farmers elsewhere are abandoning farms to chase contracts. 
"Farming has checked the rural-urban migration in Gombe State 
and created successful middle class," Goje proudly 
emphasized.  While other states had been unable to pay for 
most of the seats allocated to them for this year's Muslim 
Pilgrimage, Gombe citizens -- mostly rural farmers -- have 
already paid for 1,970 seats out of 2,000 allocated to the 
State. 
 
REDUCING TENSION & CONFLICT 
 
10. (U) Governor Goje has made some other astute political 
moves.  One was to dismiss the traditional leaders committees 
and limit the Local Government Areas' hiring that had soaked 
up much of the state government budget for what were 
essentially unproductive patronage jobs. 
 
11. (U) He also invested time in healing communal conflict 
that had plagued the state in the past, largely by 
integrating newcomers instead of allowing the continuance of 
"sabon gari" segregated housing districts for them.  People 
who moved to the state for economic opportunities, whom 
Nigerians refer to as "non-indigenes," were seen as a threat 
in Gombe as they are in much of Nigeria.  But leaders of NGOs 
told PolCouns at separate meetings that the now friendly and 
accommodating spirit of the citizens provides comfort and 
security to non-indigenes.  Dr. Alhassan, a medical doctor 
and the Rotary Club District Governor, said he was a case in 
point and felt quite at home despite being a non-indigene. 
Other (assumedly indigene) NGO leaders in the room criticized 
him for even using the term. 
 
FUTURE LEADER? 
 
12. (SBU)  Nothing succeeds like success, and Gombe 
residents' focus has shifted from the controversy over 
Governor Goje's election to acclaim for his administration. 
Goje's office is both small and humble, and he told PolCouns 
he had no political ambitions past succeeding as a governor. 
His age (47), strong local political support base, ties to 
the VP, and success in office would allow him to go farther, 
and we will keep our eye on him as a future leader.  When 
asked about the next generation of leaders in Gombe, Goje 
said he believes Deputy Governor John Lazarus Yoriyo will 
likely succeed him.  Goje said the Christian and non-indigene 
Yoriyo has been quite popular since he too became a state 
assemblyman, and Yoriyo's emerging powerbase in a different 
part of Gombe State meshes with Goje's. 
ANYASO