US embassy cable - 04ABUJA1555

C O N F I D E N T I A L ABUJA 001555 
 
SIPDIS 
 
FOR AF A/S NEWMAN 
 
E.O. 12958: DECL: 09/06/2014 
TAGS: PREL, PGOV, NI 
SUBJECT: RECOMMEND POTUS MEET WITH PRESIDENT OBASANJO 
 
REF: ABUJA 1486 
 
Classified By: Ambassador John Campbell for Reasons 1.5 (B & D). 
 
1. (C) U.S. Mission recommends POTUS, or the Secretary, meet 
with Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo during his 
September 21-24 trip to the United States, to thank and 
encourage Obasanjo on Darfur, Liberia and Nigeria's domestic 
reforms, and to raise the level of our bilateral dialogue on 
oil and terrorism.  President Obasanjo is also president of 
the African Union this year, and is the preeminent leader of 
the West African regional organization ECOWAS. 
 
2. (C) U.S. Mission proposes a 3-subject meeting: 
 
-- Thanks for Darfur and Liberia.  Hope your NEEDS/SEEDS 
economic reform program succeeds in order that Nigeria can 
move ahead. 
 
-- Please tell me (POTUS) about your Gulf of Guinea 
Initiative, which deals with the political, trade and 
security changes affecting this important oil region. 
 
-- I (POTUS) am especially concerned because of the 
continuing violence in Nigeria's Delta region, the fifth 
largest supplier of oil to the U.S., and because of the 
potential for terrorism manifest in Osama Bin Laden's stated 
intent to bring Al Qaeda to Nigeria. 
 
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RATIONALE 
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3. (C) While we need to sound the right notes with Obasanjo 
on Darfur and economic reform, the meeting's overriding 
purpose is to raise and broaden our dialogue with Nigeria on 
oil and terrorism.  As analyzed in Reftel, the violence, 
corruption, environmental damage and sheer lawlessness of 
Nigeria's energy-rich Delta is becoming a threat to U.S. oil 
supplies now and natural gas supplies in the future.  The 
Delta is the fifth largest source of U.S. oil imports, and 
President Obasanjo needs to muster the political will to 
re-establish GON control in the region. 
 
4. (C) Also as analyzed elsewhere, Osama Bin Laden has 
already publicly named target-rich Nigeria, with its millions 
of alienated citizens, as an area for Al Qaeda operations. 
There too, the key point is the GON giving priority to 
grappling with the problem. 
 
5. (C) President Obasanjo's Gulf of Guinea Initiative, still 
nascent, addresses both oil and terrorism, and may well 
contain the seeds for U.S. cooperation on those and other 
important issues.  We need to draw him out farther, and 
indicate both U.S. readiness and priority for grappling with 
these problems. 
 
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SCHEDULE 
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6. (SBU) President Obasanjo expects to arrive in Boston 
September 20 for meetings there September 21.  He will be at 
UNGA in New York September 22-23, where he will have events 
as both President of Nigeria and president of the African 
Union.  His current plan is to leave the U.S. on September 24. 
CAMPBELL