US embassy cable - 04ABUJA1158

UNCLAS ABUJA 001158 
 
SIPDIS 
 
SENSITIVE 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: PREL, KAWC, ELAB, LI, NI 
SUBJECT: NIGERIA LABOUR CONGRESS RHETORIC KNOCKS GON ON 
CHARLES TAYLOR 
 
REF: A. ABUJA 1152 
 
     B. ABUJA 1142 
     C. LAGOS 1333 
 
1.  (U) June 30, local print media reported that during a 
June 29 address to union leaders in Calabar, Nigeria Labour 
Congress (NLC) President Adams Oshiomole threatened that 
union members would hold a "mass rally" in Calabar to protest 
the GON's failure to extradite former Liberian President 
Charles Taylor to the Special Court for Sierra Leone (SCSL). 
 
2.  (U) Oshiomole went on to say that the NLC would 
"collaborate with the American government and other 
governments of the world to ensure that Taylor is released to 
answer for his activities...by the action of our government, 
it remains a sad note that we have not contributed to helping 
African countries to make leaders accountable after their 
reign.  This will only encourage them to commit atrocities." 
 
3.  (SBU) COMMENT: As previously reported, President 
Obasanjo's decision to grant Taylor asylum was an unpopular 
one.  Most Nigerians want Taylor to pay for the violence he 
inflicted upon Nigerians living in Liberia and Sierra Leone 
as well as for the deaths of Nigerian soldiers who 
participated in ECOMOG.  Oshiomole's comments were an attempt 
to capitalize on popular discontent with Taylor's asylum in 
order to gain additional public support for the NLC in its 
fight against Obasanjo's campaign to disband the organization 
(REF C).  Oshiomole's threat of a "mass rally" in Calabar was 
most likely rhetorical.  END COMMENT. 
CAMPBELL