US embassy cable - 04ABUJA1288

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 02 ABUJA 001288 
 
SIPDIS 
 
E.O. 12958: DECL: 07/22/2014 
TAGS: PREL, PGOV, ASEC, NI 
SUBJECT: A SOUTHEAST ROADTRIP - UNDER DEVELOPED AND UNDER 
SIEGE 
 
REF: A. LAGOS 1469 
     B. 2003 ABUJA 1560 
 
Classified By: AMBASSADOR JOHN CAMPBELL.  REASONS 1.5 (B & D). 
 
1. (C) SUMMARY:  PolOff recently embarked on an eight day 
roadtrip through the southeast (and a little of the 
south-south) region of Nigeria.  During the trip, PolOff 
visited about 20 self-help projects and encountered varying 
degrees of success on the projects.  The most striking part 
of the trip, however, was the widespread sense of fatigue and 
helplessness exhibited by virtually every contact, from 
roadside vendors to governors, and the lack of infrastructure 
throughout most of the region.  PolOff visited Kogi, Enugu, 
Imo, Abia, Anambra, Rivers and Akwa Ibom states during the 
trip.  END SUMMARY. 
 
THE HIGHWAYS 
------------ 
 
2.  (C)  PolOff recently embarked on a roadtrip through the 
southeast and south-south regions of Nigeria to visit about 
20 self-help projects.  While some of the roads in the area 
were in passable shape, most of them were in a terrible state 
of repair.  Travelling 100 kilometers routinely took two and 
sometimes three hours.  In many cases the primary roads were 
the most hazardous.  For example, the dual carriageway 
between Enugu and Umuahia overall was in good repair and 
travel was easy at about 65 miles per hour.  However, 
randomly dispersed along the good road were sections that 
required extreme caution.  Without any warning, around 
corners or over hills, the comfortable traveller would 
immediately be confronted with a washout and have to slow to 
15 miles per hour or less to transit the collapsed roadway. 
The hulks of autos and buses, mostly recent vintage but some 
relatively antique, were evident throughout, testimony to the 
danger of driving complacently in Nigeria.  Erosion was a 
common problem on the highways as well as the byways.  And in 
Onitsha, a major city in Anambra state, one pothole remains 
that has its own entrance and exit ramps and space for a 
60-seat bus at the bottom. 
 
3.  (C)  During the trip, Poloff encountered an estimated 
2,000 police and soldiers at roadblocks on the highways. 
Without fail, as the Embassy vehicle with its easily 
recognizable diplomatic plates approached, a scramble ensued 
to move waiting vehicles from the checkpoint and ensure quick 
passage for the Embassy.  Far from altruism, the motivating 
factor seemed to be preventing PolOff from observing money 
changing hands.  In spite of these efforts, at about 90 
percent of the roadblocks, PolOff observed police and 
soldiers accepting cash from hapless travelers.  At the 
remaining ten percent of roadblocks, vehicles had usually 
been pulled over to the side, where any transaction between 
police and driver could go unobserved. 
 
THE BYWAYS 
---------- 
 
4.  (C)  Off the highway, the situation was little improved. 
While no security agents were present through most of the 
trip, the roads were as bad or worse than the highways. 
Years of neglect were evident, and electricity and potable 
water were rare.  In the villages, there was little evidence 
of economic life:  apparently most lived by subsistence 
farming or by sending family members to the cities to support 
the village life.  What was evident, though, was the amount 
of new construction (in various stages of completion) in each 
community.  Unfortunately, the construction projects were not 
schools and clinics, or even markets or other necessary 
infrastructure.  Instead, the grand construction projects 
appeared to be single family dwellings, if sprawling 10,000 
square foot buildings could be so termed.  It was obvious 
that the only economic development in a community was the 
construction of an edifice appropriate to elevate the owner's 
status above all others.  Conspicuous consumption ruled the 
day, even though many of the projects appeared to have been 
abandoned, probably when the owner's fortunes in the big city 
waned. 
 
5.  (C)  Local officials, appropriately circumspect in their 
criticisms, also conveyed the sense of neglect evident in the 
communities.  The official overseeing one self-help project, 
stalled by the washout of the ten-kilometer dirt road to the 
village, pleaded with PolOff to "call someone in Abuja" to 
get a bulldozer to fix the road and clear the site so 
construction could begin.  Another, after promoting the 
community and the project, made a not-so-veiled plea to help 
him exit the country.  "I went on pilgrimage to Jerusalem, 
but could not find my way to the U.S.  Can you help me?" he 
begged.  Each local official complained of the lack of 
funding from either the state or federal government.  Most 
complained that their governors only funded "pet projects in 
their own villages" and paid little attention to the needs of 
the rest of the state.  In fact, the best road in Enugu State 
appears to be the side road leading from the main highway to 
Governor Chimaroke Nnamani's home town. 
THE CAPITALS 
------------ 
 
6.  (C)  If the mood at the village level was bad, 
conversations in the capitals did little to change PolOff's 
impressions.  At stops in Enugu (Enugu State), Owerri (Imo 
State), Awka (Anambra State) and Umuahia (Abia State), 
government officials complained that budget allotments, 
announced by the federal government in Abuja, had yet to 
reach the states.  A governor's assistant in Owerri 
complained that, the pronouncements of the Finance Minister 
notwithstanding, Imo State had received less than half of the 
funding due it under current revenue formulas.  In Anambra 
and Enugu States, officials complained of overbearing 
leadership.  "We can not make decisions without permission 
from the Governor," claimed one in Enugu State.  In Anambra 
State, the same complaint was made, but with reference to the 
President. 
 
7.  (C)  In Abia State, Governor Kalu was much more subdued 
than on previous visits.  Earlier, he was anticipating a 
possible confrontation with President Obasanjo and eagerly 
working Vice President Atiku Abubakar for selection as his 
running mate in 2007.  Now, Kalu appeared almost despondent. 
The long confrontation over the alleged death threats against 
him by Obasanjo's lead political thug Tony Anenih and the 
continued grounding of his airline (reftel A) have taken 
their toll.  He commented that Atiku's will to confront the 
President was slipping and that he thought Atiku's bid for 
the presidency was flagging.  Kalu commented that he would 
still be happy to fight the political battles, but "there is 
no place to go and no backing for the battle."  Concluding, 
he dejectedly commented, "we won't last until 2007." 
 
8.  (C)  The security situation in the capitals was no better 
than the mood.  In Umuahia, virtually the entire town was 
blacked out by nine p.m. in a region where the pleasures of 
gathering in the evenings over a cool drink are widely 
renowned.  The situation in Enugu and Owerri was similar. 
During a high-speed drive through residential areas at about 
ten p.m., PolOff's local driver said that he had to speed and 
pointed out four locations where he had been accosted (within 
the city) by armed robbers in the past few weeks.  Just 
before PolOff's arrival, armed robbers attacked a string of 
hotels in Enugu in the middle of the afternoon, moving from 
one to the next with seeming impunity on a busy market road. 
A local wag commented that it was strange that all the police 
roadblocks had disappeared from the road about an hour before 
the attack began. 
 
9.  (C)  COMMENT:  The neglect of the southeast was evident 
at every turn.  Whether stemming from the civil war or from 
more recent events such as the Ekwueme challenge to 
Obasanjo's ascendancy in 1999 and 2003 (reftel B), the 
citizens bear the brunt of the neglect.  The people in this 
once-vibrant area have been reduced to apathy and the 
infrastructure reduced to rubble. 
CAMPBELL