US embassy cable - 05ABUJA14

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 02 ABUJA 000014 
 
SIPDIS 
 
E.O. 12958: DECL: 12/06/2014 
TAGS: PGOV, PHUM, KDEM, NI 
SUBJECT: OGBEH KEPT AS PDP CHAIRMAN, NGIGE AND UBA 
SUSPENDED, NO RESOLUTION TO ANAMBRA VIOLENCE 
 
REF: A. ABUJA 2075 AND PREVIOUS 
 
     B. LAGOS 2592 AND PREVIOUS 
 
Classified By: Charge d'Affaires Tom Furey for Reasons 1.4 (D). 
 
1. (C) SUMMARY: President Obasanjo's effort (Ref A) to fire 
the ruling PDP's National Chairman, Audu Ogbeh, failed at 
least temporarily January 4 with the PDP National Executive 
Committee (NEC) keeping Ogbeh, an ally of VP Atiku, but 
suspending Governor Chris Ngige and his self-styled godfather 
Chris Uba for one month over their role in the protracted 
Anambra crisis.  A 9-man committee headed by PDP Governor 
Olagunsoye Oyinlola of Osun State was set up to investigate 
the crisis and report back to the party within 14 days.  The 
NEC meeting was set up as a test of wills between proxies for 
President Obasanjo and Vice President Atiku, but the two 
worked out a solution before the meeting.  END SUMMARY. 
 
2. (U) The anticipated face-off between President Obasanjo 
and PDP National Chairman Audu Ogbeh reached an 
anti-climactic conclusion yesterday as the ruling People's 
Democratic Party's (PDP) National Executive Committee (NEC) 
met without addressing the issue.  The duo surprised party 
members and reporters when they arrived at the venue of the 
meeting in the President's vehicle and immediately departed 
together at the end of the meeting for a private lunch at 
Ogbeh's residence.  No mention was made of whether Ogbeh 
would continue as the PDP National Chairman. 
 
3. (SBU) When the meeting convened, a delegate from Imo State 
raised the reported corruption charges against Ogbeh and the 
party's NEC, but President Obasanjo cut him short, 
maintaining that the matter "has been settled."  Farouk B.B. 
Farouk, a member of the NEC commented to us that it appeared 
Ogbeh would remain as party chairman until the 2005 PDP 
convention in December, when a new executive is expected to 
be elected. 
 
4. (U) Instead, the NEC members were surprised to learn that 
the issue would be the fate of the PDP members embroiled in 
the ongoing Anambra crisis.  PDP Publicity Secretary Venatius 
Ikem told reporters that Ogbeh had never been on the agenda. 
Rather he said, "We had one agenda at the meeting and it was 
on the Anambra state crisis.  As a step towards resolving the 
crisis, NEC resolved that the two principal (Anambra PDP) 
actors, Governor Chris Ngige and Chris Uba, be suspended from 
the party for 30 days." 
 
5. (U) Additionally, a 9-man committee headed by Governor 
Olagunsoye Oyinlola of Osun State was set up to investigate 
the crisis and report back to the party within 14 days.  The 
Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) also was 
asked to submit a report on the Anambra State gubernatorial 
elections to the committee. 
 
6. (SBU) The meeting was really a test of wills between the 
PDP's two biggest public figures, the President and his Vice 
President.  Farouk told us that "the two opposing camps have 
stockpiled their arsenals and were ready for a showdown when 
we received the news that a compromise has been reached." 
Only then was the Anambra crisis introduced, he said." 
 
7. (SBU) Acting as Atiku's cat's-paw, Ogbeh was able to gain 
the support of a majority of the PDP governors and reached 
out to other interest groups within the party opposed to 
President Obasanjo, including Dr. Alex Ekwueme (the man who 
twice challenged Obasanjo in the PDP presidential primaries 
leading to previous elections), Abubakar Rimi (former 
Presidential aspirant and Governor of Kano state) and former 
Speaker of the House of Representatives Ghali Na'abba.  Along 
with the NEC, Ogbeh appealed to the assembled members and 
convinced them that collectively rebuffing Obasanjo's attack 
would serve their interests.  "All of you here hold party 
positions now.  However, if you allow Obasanjo to use you to 
remove us from office, you may lose those positions, too," 
Ogbeh reportedly told his colleagues during a private meeting. 
 
8. (SBU) Farouk said that Atiku held private talks with 
Obasanjo over the impasse and advised him against removing 
Ogbeh at this critical period when the nation is faced with 
other crises.  He argued that Ogbeh's ouster would further 
divide the party's rank and file and endanger the PDP's 
survival.  Sources said Vice President Atiku, some state 
governors, and President's Chief of Staff, General Abdullahi 
Mohammed were involved in brokering the truce. 
 
9. (C) According to sources, President Obasanjo decided to 
shelve the planned sacking of Ogbeh and his executive 
committee when he learned that Ogbeh had more supporters 
within the National Working Committee (NWC) than Obasanjo's 
men initially thought.  On their pointing out that Ogbeh's 
tenure would be up at the end of the year, President Obasanjo 
relented. 
 
10. (C) Another source said that Obasanjo retreated after 
being advised that his insistence on Ogbeh's removal might 
snowball into another "political embarrassment" for him. 
Obasanjo's associates were concerned that Ogbeh's supporters 
would attempt to "disgrace" the President at the meeting and 
if he was unsuccessful in removing the party chairman, 
Obasanjo's prestige, status and ego would be damaged. 
 
11. (C) COMMENT: Although the ruling PDP has now set up a 
committee to investigate the Anambra crisis, that is not 
quite the same thing as arresting/prosecuting the 
perpetrators of the past months' political violence there -- 
let alone dealing with the PDP's rigging of the 2003 
gubernatorial election that all there now admit.  APGA's 
candidate was the putative winner (Ref B).  It is also 
curious that the ruling PDP is asking the Independent 
National Electoral Commission (INEC) to report to the party, 
not the courts, on the 2003 gubernatorial election in 
Anambra.  INEC is a defendant with Ngige in APGA's court case 
against that election, and has vigorously argued in defense 
of all its 2003 elections. 
FUREY