US embassy cable - 04ABUJA2041

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 02 ABUJA 002041 
 
SIPDIS 
 
E.O. 12958: DECL: 12/06/2014 
TAGS: PREL, PGOV, KCOR, CVIS, PHUM, NI 
SUBJECT: PRESIDENTIAL PROCLAMATION 7750 VISA BAN -- JOSHUA 
DARIYE 
 
REF: A. ABUJA 1927 
     B. STATE 45499 
 
Classified By: Ambassador John Campbell for Reasons 1.5 (B & D). 
 
1. (C) SUMMARY:  Post is entering the name of Joshua Dariye, 
present Governor of Plateau State, into the visa system as 
P212F for corruption under Presidential Proclamation 7750. 
Part of the corruption case against Gov. Dariye has been made 
publicly by the GON, and the GON statement text was in Ref A. 
 In addition to that public GON case related to his not 
reporting illicit income and assets as required by Nigerian 
law, post believes Dariye has been involved in both extensive 
corruption and abetting communal violence in his state since 
becoming governor in 2003.  Post expects extensive public 
comment from a visa ban on Dariye, who is akin to former 
Kenyan Minister Biwott in public notoriety for corruption and 
violence, albeit for fewer years.  Also unlike Biwott, Dariye 
is of Nigeria's present ruling party, although President 
Obasanjo now seeks Dariye's impeachment and Obasanjo's 
Attorney General prepared the case above and made it public. 
Post will send SAO septel to revoke the tourist visa issued 
10 December 2003 to Dariye.  End Summary. 
 
2. (C) Post has sent several reporting cables touching on 
Governor Dariye's involvement in corruption and violence. 
The GON has made the case publicly for Dariye's removal from 
office on corruption charges, and Nigeria's Attorney General 
said the only reason Dariye has not been charged with the 
crimes is the immunity of governors to prosecution under 
Nigeria's constitution.  The charges in the Attorney 
General's public brief largely concern Dariye laundering 
illicit proceeds from corruption into assets in Nigeria and 
the UK, and not reporting those assets as required by 
Nigerian law.  The UK detained Dariye for questioning 
concerning funds he was bringing in at Heathrow, and that 
incident is one of the foundations of the Attorney General's 
public accusations.  Post believes the public charges by the 
GON against Dariye to be similar in weight to the GOK 
investigation report made public against Kenyan former 
minister Nicolas Biwott, and sufficient on their own to 
warrant Dariye's exclusion and visa ineligibility under 
Presidential Proclamation 7750. 
 
3. (C) Also like Biwott, the reasons for action against 
Dariye go much further than the publicly made charges. 
Dariye is widely believed to have been stealing funds from 
the Plateau State government and its constituent Local 
Government Areas, and post tends to agree.  GON Finance 
Minister Ngozi has publicly accused more than one governor, 
whom she refused to name, of such theft.  Moreover, it seems 
likely that some of the money stolen was used to foment 
communal violence in Plateau state that claimed hundreds of 
lives in 2003 and 2004. 
 
4. (C) Essentially, Dariye has used existing competition over 
land and water rights between cattlemen and dirt farmers in 
his state to build his own political base.  The cattlemen and 
dirt farmers mostly are of two different ethnic groups. 
Dariye publicly urged one of the ethnic groups to leave his 
state, and privately appears to have urged the other ethnic 
group to throw them out.  Hundreds died in attacks and 
counterattacks within the state.  And because one of the 
groups is almost entirely Muslim while the other is 
predominantly Christian, a massacre of Muslims within Plateau 
state led to attacks by Muslims in other states, notably 
Kano, on Christians in general that left hundreds more dead 
and injured.  President Obasanjo then declared a state of 
emergency in Plateau, and accused Dariye of doing nothing to 
stop the violence.  Indeed, Dariye's public call for one 
ethnic group to leave his state probably instigated some of 
the violence. 
 
EXPECTED REACTIONS 
 
5. (C) As with the Biwott ban in Kenya, action against Dariye 
will be a very public stand against corruption and violence. 
Also as with Biwott, some will see it as taking political 
sides -- although in this case it would be taking the 
government's side against a member of the ruling party, 
instead of against a prominent opposition party member. 
Obasanjo has been working to engineer the Plateau State 
Assembly's impeachment of Dariye.  The Attorney General's 
public statement accusing Dariye of corruption and other 
violations of Nigerian law is part of that effort.  But the 
corruption accusations stand on their own merits, and in our 
view merit the ban on their own. 
 
6. (C) We expect the visa ban on Dariye, and revocation of 
his 24-month tourist visa, to be controversial in any case. 
Dariye and Obasanjo are both Christians, which should dampen 
any objections that a visa ban on Dariye is religiously 
motivated.  Thus our public diplomacy strategy will be 
similar to what we have seen of the Biwott ban: 
 
-- While we will note the Attorney General's public 
accusation of specific corruption acts by Dariye, we will not 
address the reasons or process for his ban under Presidential 
Proclamation 7750. 
 
-- We will emphasize that the Dariye action is part of an 
overall effort to deter corruption world-wide. 
 
7. (C) In addition, we will note that the U.S. and Nigeria 
agreed in the Sea Island Summit's Nigeria-G8 Compact, signed 
by Presidents Bush and Obasanjo this past June on 
transparency and anti-corruption, to deny safe haven to 
public officials guilty of corruption by denying them entry. 
CAMPBELL