US embassy cable - 01ABUJA1072

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 02 ABUJA 001072 
 
SIPDIS 
 
 
E.O. 12958: DECL: 05/11/2011 
TAGS: PGOV, EFIN, PINS, NI 
SUBJECT: BIG PROJECT, BIG PROBLEMS? 
 
 
CLASSIFIED BY CHARGE ANDREWS, REASONS 1.5(B/D) 
 
 
Summary 
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1.  (C) The Senate Public Accounts Committee Chairman plans 
public hearings on the massive sports stadium now under 
construction on the edge of Abuja.  Unbudgeted by the 
National Assembly, but (for now) privately financed by 
contractors eager to please the Obasanjo government (with a 
government loan guarantee attached), the ostensibly 38 
billion naira (USD 330 million) project raises troubling 
questions of the unconstitutional usurpation of legislative 
authority.  The Committee Chairman faces opposition from the 
Executive, from Senate Leadership and from inside his own 
committee in his quest to examine the project.  Suppression 
of his efforts would demonstrate once again that transparency 
and accountability are still lacking in government circles. 
Successful public hearings, while potentially very 
embarrassing for the executive, would begin to establish 
those concepts in the public consciousness.  End summary. 
 
 
Let's Build a Stadium Now (And Find the Money Later) 
--------------------------------------------- ------- 
2.  (C) Poloff met with Senator Idris Abubakar, Chairman of 
the powerful Public Accounts Committee, on May 9.  The 
Committee examines the financial performance of all branches 
of government.  When asked of the status of his Committee's 
efforts to examine the performance of the Executive, Abubakar 
replied that he had that very morning sent a memo forward to 
Senate President Anyim Pius Anyim, setting forth the 
Committee's plans to hold public hearings on the massive 
sports stadium now under construction on the edge of Abuja. 
No provision for the project exists in the FY 2001 budget (or 
any previous budget).  The committee selected the project, 
said Abubakar, as the most egregious example of Executive 
usurpation of the spending authority of the Legislative 
branch. 
 
 
What It Will Cost, Nobody Knows 
------------------------------- 
3.  (C) Abubakar explained that the contract for the stadium 
(not shared with the committee despite repeated requests to 
the Ministry of Public Works) was ostensibly for 38 billion 
naira (about $330 million), "but we really don't know how 
much it will cost."  The huge stadium is being constructed to 
permit Abuja to host the 2003 All-Africa games.  Other 
athletic facilities are part of the overall project, as is a 
nearby "Athletes' Village".  The contractors involved, 
including major international companies long resident in 
Nigeria such as Bouygues and Berger, were privately financing 
the project.  Despite the lack of any legislative approval, 
said Abubakar, the Obasanjo Administration had given the 
companies an open-ended loan guarantee for the project, to 
enable the companies to "shop" the project with lenders. 
"The companies are guaranteed payment no matter what the 
terms they negotiate with the lenders," said Abubakar.  The 
ultimate cost of the project was, then, "unknowable." 
 
 
Let's Cooperate -- You Keep Quiet 
--------------------------------- 
4.  (C) Abubakar said that Senate President Anyim, on the 
express request of President Obasanjo, had previously stymied 
attempts by the Committee to investigate the project. 
Referring to Anyim's clear preference for behind-the-scenes 
communication with the Executive branch (in contrast to his 
predecessor's provocative public disputes with Obasanjo), 
Abubakar said, "this is the new 'cooperation'.  We keep 
quiet, and the President does what he wants." 
 
 
5.  (C) Abubakar said that he expected strong opposition to 
any public hearings from the Executive branch, from the 
Senate President, and potentially from within his own 
committee.  "Most of us (on the committee) are now for the 
hearings, but who knows what will happen.  After all," he 
said with a smile, "the chief fixer (Public Works Minister 
Tony Anenih) is involved.  We are going to call him to 
testify." (Note: Anenih is the principal political hatchet 
man of the Obasanjo Administration, well-known for his 
wealth-spreading habits when key votes or other matters are 
before the National Assembly).  Abubakar acknowledged that he 
planned an entire series of essentially unanswerable 
questions for Anenih.  "What can he say when I ask him where 
in the budget he finds authorization for the project? There 
is no legal authority for it."  Abubakar did not offer an 
opinion on what action the Senate might take in the wake of 
such public hearings.  "Let,s hold the hearing first." 
 
 
We Are Looking, But We Need to Look Forward, Not Back 
--------------------------------------------- -------- 
6.  (C) Abubakar mentioned that his committee planned a 
general audit of all executive accounts, beginning with FYs 
97-99 (the last eighteen months of military rule, and the 
first six months of the Obasanjo regime, employing the 
previous regime's budget).  The Auditor-General of the 
Federation, explicitly tasked by the Constitution with 
auditing all government accounts and presenting them to the 
National Assembly, was being helpful and attentive, and 
assembling the various audits for the committee.  Various 
government agencies were not so helpful, many having 
"difficulty" complying with their legal responsibility to 
give access to their financial statements to the 
Accountant-General (who reports to the Auditor-General).  But 
Abubakar stressed that these "backward-looking" audits were 
politically easy. Everyone could support investigations of 
military governments.   "We need to look forward.  It's time 
we look at ourselves." 
 
 
Comment 
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7.  (C) Abubakar is an opposition All People's Party senator, 
head of a powerful committee with a majority People's 
Democratic Party membership (the PDP controls the Senate with 
sixty-four senators out of 109 total).  In a legislative body 
with very weak party discipline, he is well-respected by his 
PDP and Alliance for Democracy colleagues for his 
intelligence and independent-mindedness.   He is also not 
above making political capital out of what appears to us to 
be a clear usurpation of constitutional authority by the 
executive.  If Senate President Anyim, in league with the 
Executive, squelches yet again the committee's stadium 
investigation, we will have yet another example of how 
accountability and transparency remain mere words with no 
great practical implications in government circles. 
Committee hearings would embarrass the executive, but also 
reassert the essential principle of legislative oversight of 
Executive performance. End Comment. 
 
 
Andrews