US embassy cable - 04ABUJA1394

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 02 ABUJA 001394 
 
SIPDIS 
 
EUCOM FOR USAFE 
 
E.O. 12958: DECL: 08/27/2014 
TAGS: PREL, MOPS, NI 
SUBJECT: GENERAL FOGLESONG'S VISIT 
 
 
Classified By: Ambassador John Campbell for Reasons 1.5 (B & D). 
 
1.  (C) Embassy hosted 8-10 August a visit to Abuja by 
General Robert H. Foglesong, Commander, U.S. Air Forces in 
Europe (USAFE).  His purpose in his first-ever trip to 
Nigeria was to establish personal contact with senior 
Nigerian military officials and set the stage for greater 
security assistance initiatives with the Nigerian Air Force. 
General Foglesong and delegation, accompanied by the 
Ambassador and DATT, paid office calls August 9 on National 
Security Advisor (NSA) Aliyu Mohammed, Minister of Defence 
(MOD) Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso and Minister of State for Defence 
Dr. Rowland Oritsejafor, Chief of Defence Staff (CDS) General 
Alexander O. Ogomudia, and Chief of Air Staff (CAS) Air 
Marshal Jonah D. Wuyup.  The Ambassador also hosted a 
reception for senior Nigerian military officials and officers 
with ambassadors and defense attaches from ECOWAS member 
states. 
 
GULF OF GUINEA SECURITY 
 
2.  (C) During the office call, NSA Aliyu Mohammed emphasized 
that the Gulf of Guinea is Nigeria's "livelihood," and 
asserted that its vast petroleum resources established its 
considerable and growing importance to the United States.  In 
light of the Gulf's mutual import to both countries, the NSA 
expressed the GON's desire to collaborate with the United 
States on securing the Gulf of Guinea.  In doing so, the NSA 
went further forward than other GON officials in requesting 
U.S. assistance in the Gulf.  CAS Wuyup also stressed Gulf of 
Guinea security, against the backdrop of increasing 
instability in the Middle East threatening world and U.S. 
access to that region's petroleum reserves.  CDS Ogomudia 
described the many threats to stability in the Niger Delta 
region, including economic and ethnic, but emphasized the 
most dire as the criminal, in the form of smuggling, illegal 
oil bunkering and kidnapping. 
 
COUNTERTERRORISM 
 
3.  (C) The NSA underscored that Nigeria's porous borders 
made the country vulnerable to the threat of international 
terrorism.  Minister Kwankwaso also highlighted the fight 
against terrorism as a shared, mutual priority with the U.S., 
as did CDS Ogomudia.  The CDS emphasized that 
counterterrorism intelligence sharing and what he called 
"denial of funds" are important priorities in the mutual 
efforts of Nigeria and the United States in the war against 
terrorism. 
 
STABILITY IN LIBYA 
 
4.  (C) The NSA claimed to have visited Libya over 100 times 
in the past few decades.  The NSA said Libyans had become 
tired of their isolation from the rest of the world.  He 
described a mellowed President Muammar Qaddafi as now grown 
beyond his earlier "revolutionary" days, in part because of 
the influence of his Western educated children -- 
particularly one daughter attending university in London. 
The NSA felt the next stage for Libya in the coming years 
would include elections with independent parties; but 
whatever came, he firmly held that change would happen only 
gradually. 
 
CAPACITY BUILDING IN THE NIGERIAN MILITARY 
 
5.  (C) Raising Gulf of Guinea stability and Nigeria's border 
vulnerabilities, the NSA requested further U.S. assistance in 
securing them both, specifically suggesting enhancements in 
Nigerian peacekeeping operations capability, and humanitarian 
aid and airlift capacity.   The CDS saw a need for U.S. 
assistance in improving Nigeria's military capacity to 
stabilize the Niger Delta region, including improved Nigerian 
airlift, C-130 spare parts, buoy tenders and more joint 
training.  Citing the recent transfer of former U.S. Coast 
Guard buoy tenders to the Nigerian Navy, the CAS declared 
that now is the time to improve the Nigerian military's 
capacity and capability to handle the sources of instability 
in the Gulf of Guinea and the Delta.  He described improving 
Nigerian-U.S. military-to-military relations as a key point 
of mutual interest. 
 
6.  (C) COMMENT:  The meeting with Aliyu Mohammed was the 
most substantive, and the National Security Advisor went the 
furthest in outlining a possible enhanced U.S.-Nigeria 
security relationship.  In subsequent remarks to the press, 
General Ogomudia, too, foreshadowed an enhanced security 
relationship.  However, the presence of U.S. security 
personnel in anything other than the smallest numbers will be 
deeply controversial with President Obasanjo's legion of 
critics, and could clearly affect the longer term prospects 
for his government.  The President is already seen as in our 
pocket, and the U.S. is seen as a primary prop for his 
government.  For that reason, the President and those around 
him may be less forward leaning than Aliyu Mohammed or 
Ogomudia. 
 
7.  (U) General Foglesong and party were unable to clear this 
cable prior to departure. 
CAMPBELL