US embassy cable - 01ABUJA3200

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 03 ABUJA 003200 
 
SIPDIS 
 
 
E.O. 12958: DECL: 12/13/2011 
TAGS: PREL, PINS, PHUM, NI 
SUBJECT: SUBJECT: NIGERIA: ARMY MINISTER OF STATE ON BENUE: 
UPCOMING VISIT TO WASHINGTON 
 
 
REF: PARK-BROWNE E-MAILS 
 
 
Classified by Ambassador Howard F. Jeter.  Reasons 1.5 (b) 
and (d). 
 
 
1. (C) Summary: Minister of State for Army Lawal Batagarawa 
departed Nigeria on 
December 8 on his way to Washington to explain  developments 
in Benue and 
neighboring states.  In Washington, Batagarawa told us that 
the Nigerian 
Embassy has arranged several meetings on the Hill beginning 
December 10. 
Batagarawa will be in Washington until o/a December 18. 
During that time, he 
would like meetings in the Department (AF, DRL) and at the 
NSC. The following 
information is to give Washington interlocutors a preview of 
what Batagarawa 
will likely say. End summary. 
 
 
2. (C) During our conversations with Batagarawa, he 
emphasized that the 
Tiv-Jukun rivalry, which is at the heart of the chaos in 
Benue and unrest in 
adjacent areas of Nasarawa and Taraba, is a long standing 
one.  Violence 
between the two groups goes back many years.  The cause of 
the feud is 
competition for arable land accentuated by Tiv expansionism. 
Both groups are 
agrarian. However, the hard-working Tiv have a much higher 
population growth 
rate; they keep grabbing new land to accommodate their 
numbers.  They are known 
to move to greener fields after farming a parcel until soil 
fertility is 
exhausted.  Tivs also are insular socially and culturally. 
Jukun and other 
ethnic groups feel severely threatened because the Tiv have 
expanded into lands 
formerly not theirs.  This expansion would cause problems by 
itself but is 
further compounded by the alleged Tiv propensity to dominate 
and eventually 
expropriate new areas into which they move. Tension exists 
wherever a Tiv 
presence abuts another ethnic community. Because of their 
appetite for land and control, the Tiv are generally disliked 
by their neighbors. 
 
 
3. (C) The perceived Tiv encroachment has larger political 
ramifications under 
democratic governance than under military rule. Control of 
land often begets 
control of local government administration, i.e., budgets and 
other significant 
resources. Both Tiv and Jukun have been well represented in 
the military (the 
Tiv more so), meaning there are numbers of retired soldiers 
and available 
weapons in the Benue-Taraba-Nasarawa border region.  Both 
sides can count 
relatively well trained people in their informal militias. 
Given the longevity 
and violent nature of this feud, the military was faced with 
a difficult task 
when deployed to halt the ethnic clashes, Batagarawa will 
admit. 
 
 
4. (C) Batagarawa and other GON officials perceive the 
outside world as 
focussing primarily on the military's attacks against the 
civilians and paying 
little, if any, attention to the gruesome murders of the 19 
soldiers. 
Nevertheless, he will refute any suggestion that reprisal 
attacks against 
civilians were ordered by senior GON officials, particularly 
the President.  He 
will state that the situation in Benue is complex -- all of 
the damage after 
the 19 soldiers were killed cannot be laid at the feet of the 
military.  He 
attributes some of the damage and mayhem to Jukun 
counter-attacks. The Minister 
will blame the media for sensationalized reporting that 
brands the military as 
the sole culprit.  Some Tiv politicians have willfully 
abetted the skewed media 
coverage.  These Tiv have been angry at the Obasanjo regime, 
he will say. 
Obasanjo has dismissed many Tiv officers from the military, 
including Chief of 
Staff Victor Malu after he publicly defied the President's 
authority.  Obasanjo 
had also deflected Tiv entreaties for more senior-level GON 
positions.   Some Tiv also blame Obasanjo 
for the sacking of their ethnic brother, recently ousted PDP 
chairman Barnabas 
Gemade, in favor of an ethnic Idoma from Benue State, Audu 
Ogbeh.  While 
moderate Tiv want to calm tensions, hard-line elements want 
Obasanjo to pay a 
political price for what they see as an estranged 
relationship. 
 
 
5. (C) Batagarawa will state that resolution of problems in 
Benue requires a 
dual track approach. First, the GON must quell the violence. 
Reports indicate 
small-scale confrontations still occurring in some isolated 
areas, and that 
several people have been killed recently.  The situation will 
require continued 
military deployment for the near future.  Thus, the 
government is wary of 
taking any action undermining the morale or mandate of the 
deployed troops. 
While not trying to absolve guilty soldiers of blame for the 
violence they 
committed, Batagarawa will assert that investigating the 
reprisals will take 
time and must be done in a way that does not re-ignite armed 
hostilities. 
Although the army was not responsible for all of the reprisal 
violence, a govern 
ment statement indicating that Jukun were partially culpable 
may inspire 
militant Tiv to exact revenge. This is something the GON will 
work to avoid. 
Nevertheless, Batagarawa will state that the GON is committed 
to identifying 
and punishing guilty soldiers and civilians.  But again, the 
government will proceed in a manner that does 
not foment additional unrest. 
 
 
6. (C) Second, the GON must seek long-term solutions to the 
crisis.  Long-term 
solutions involve convincing the Tiv to change land use 
methods and to eschew 
ethnic chauvinism.  The Taraba Deputy Governor also told the 
Ambassador a few 
days ago that local non-Tiv groups will never allow Tivs to 
be a part of their 
traditional and/or political institutions.  The GON must 
convince the Jukun and 
others to accept the  Tiv presence and to accept the ethnic 
dynamics of 
migration in their specific rural setting.  However, neither 
side will 
compromise and work toward these goals if they have been 
publicly fustigated by 
the GON as being the bad guy. 
 
 
7 (C) Comment. The GON is edgy and defensive about Benue. 
Trying to boost its 
international image by amassing a commendable peacekeeping 
record abroad, the 
GON does not want this goal dashed by the military developing 
a sullied 
reputation for "peacekeeping" at home. Also, there is a 
genuine sense of regret 
in the GON for the loss of innocent lives in Benue. In their 
own way, the 
Nigerians will try to address human right concerns.  There is 
a historical 
association between outbreaks of violence in Tiv-land and the 
later onset of 
larger-scale threats to national security and national 
integrity.  Hence, the 
relative weight the GON attaches to human rights 
considerations in this matter 
differs significantly from ours.  Moreover, there has not 
been a loud hue and 
cry raised within Nigeria over the reprisals against the 
Tivs.  Due to the 
macabre execution and gruesome mutilation of the 19 soldiers 
and partly due to 
the general animus toward the Tivs, many Nigerians believe, 
however wrongfully, 
that the Tiv got their due. 
 
 
8. (C) Comment cont. For Batagarawa and the GON, the bottom 
line is internal 
security.  Because its soldiers constitute the last line of 
defense against 
widespread unrest, protecting the army as an institution from 
serious domestic 
fall-out will be a compelling GON imperative. This does not 
mean the GON will 
not punish miscreants; but it will proceed in a manner that 
neither causes 
rupture in the army nor sparks ethnic conflict. Judging by 
what Batagarawa and 
others have said, any investigative or judicial proceeding 
will be tempered by 
political considerations. Nevertheless, Batagarawa's visit 
provides an 
opportunity to underscore our concerns about Benue and the 
need for an 
impartial investigation there. The underlying message is that 
promoting the 
rule of law and human rights, at a moment when these ideas 
are right but 
politically awkward, is a sign of true commitment. Meeting 
Batagarawa also 
demonstrates that our minds are open and that we want to give 
the GON a fair 
hearing on the allegations of military brutality.  End 
comment. 
Jeter