US embassy cable - 02ABUJA1346

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 02 ABUJA 001346 
 
SIPDIS 
 
 
AF FOR DAS PERRY; AF/W FOR BOOTH, EPSTEIN 
E FOR ANN PENCE 
DAKAR FOR POL/ECON 
 
 
E.O. 12958: DECL: 05/02/2012 
TAGS: PREL, EFIN, ECIN, ECON, EAID, PGOV, NI 
SUBJECT: NIGERIA: A PARTICIPANT'S PERSPECTIVE ON NEPAD 
 
 
REF: A. STATE 35582 
     B. PERRY-JETER FAX 03/29/02 
     C. ABUJA 1027 
 
 
Classified by Ambassador Howard F. Jeter; Reason 1.5 (b/d). 
 
 
1. (C) SUMMARY: PolMilOff met on April 9 with Egyptian First 
Secretary Gamal Metwally for a read-out on the NEPAD meeting 
 
SIPDIS 
in Abuja March 26.  While the achievements of the young 
organization have been more rhetorical than real, some 
progress has thus far apparently been achieved in defining 
the group's organizational structure and in refining the 
various mandates that will ultimately be NEPAD's task to 
fulfill.  END SUMMARY. 
 
 
========= 
STRUCTURE 
========= 
 
 
2. (U) Organizationally, NEPAD consists of three main bodies, 
the NEPAD Secretariat, a Steering Committee and an 
Implementation Committee.  The Secretariat (www.nepad.org) is 
based in Pretoria, and logistical support for the 
Secretariat's operations is the responsibility of the SAG. 
 
SIPDIS 
The Steering Committee is composed of five countries (Egypt, 
Algeria, Nigeria, Senegal and South Africa).  Each member of 
this quintet has been tasked with developing policy papers 
and proposals on various aspects of NEPAD's development 
mandate: 
 
 
--Egypt: Market Access, Diversification of Products and 
Agriculture 
--Algeria: Human Development (education, health, etc.) 
--Nigeria: Economic Governance and Capital Flows 
--Senegal: Infrastructure (energy, IT, etc.) 
--South Africa: Political Governance: Peace, Security and 
Democracy 
 
 
3. (U) Fifteen countries comprise the Implementation 
Committee; three from each of the five African sub-regions 
(as decided by the Lusaka Summit in July 2001).  This 
Committee is responsible for reviewing and making 
recommendations based upon the papers by the Steering 
Committee.  The breakdown is as follows: 
 
 
-NORTH AFRICA: Egypt, Algeria and Tunisia 
-EAST AFRICA: Ethiopia, Mauritius and Rwanda 
-WEST AFRICA: Nigeria, Senegal and Mali 
-CENTRAL AFRICA: Cameroon, Gabon and Congo 
-SOUTHERN AFRICA: South Africa, Mozambique and Botswana 
 
 
In addition to holding a separate Implementation Committee 
gathering on the margins of the Dakar Private Sector NEPAD 
Meeting (15-17 April), the Committee plans to conduct similar 
sidebars at the Rome World Food Summit (10-13 June), the 
Ottawa G-8 Meeting (26-28 June) and the Durban OAU Summit (8 
July). 
 
 
4. (C) COMMENT: Ref B sparked some concern in Washington, 
particularly the document listing Liberia, Libya and Sudan as 
members of a Committee on Peace, Governance and Democracy 
(Political Governance).  The Egyptian explained that the 
groupings in reftel B were ad hoc formulations for the 
meetings at the World Economic Forum in New York only.  While 
the designation of the chairmen of the committees (i.e. South 
Africa's Thabo Mbeki for Political Governance) is firm, the 
rest of the committees' membership remains a work in 
progress.  Those that helped fill the Political Governance 
Committee during the World Economic Forum will likely not be 
replicated when NEPAD permanently fills the committee, 
particularly those countries that have not participated in 
any NEPAD deliberations thus far.  END COMMENT. 
 
 
========== 
HIGHLIGHTS 
========== 
 
 
5. (C) Prior to the Summit, the Steering Committee met March 
23, and agreed on the need for a code of standards on good 
governance, human rights, democracy and freedom of 
expression.  The group also agreed that they should propose 
that the OAU/AU establish a special committee that would 
undertake a peer review every three years, and would report 
its findings and recommendations to NEPAD. 
 
 
6. (C) According to the Egyptian diplomat, there were six 
significant points raised at the Summit itself. 
 
 
a) Nigeria urged the attendees that NEPAD should rebuff any 
donor attempts to interfere in African domestic affairs as a 
precondition for supporting NEPAD (i.e. Zimbabwe). 
 
 
b) The assembly agreed on the need for African civil society 
to participate in the work of the Implementation Committee. 
 
 
c) The attendees agreed to expand NEPAD to include 
participation of all African countries. 
 
 
d) They decided that NEPAD was not a new, independent 
organization, but that it falls under the aegis of the OAU/AU. 
 
 
e) The Summit identified as priority the need to develop an 
assessment paper to distribute at the G-8 Summit explaining 
the goals of NEPAD. 
 
 
f) Summiteers stressed the utility of regional and 
sub-regional organizations' participation in implementing the 
NEPAD program. 
 
 
7. (C) During the Summit, Algerian President Bouteflika 
proposed the establishment of an African Penal Court, which 
will be discussed further at the OAU Summit in July in 
Durban.  Additionally, Nigeria presented a draft declaration 
on democracy and good governance, and requested the document 
be endorsed by NEPAD. 
 
 
======= 
COMMENT 
======= 
 
 
8. (C) Nigeria and other African states were somewhat rattled 
by Washington's linkage of our support for NEPAD to African 
Governments' positions on the Zimbabwean election. As stated 
to us by a Canadian diplomat reflecting on PM Chretien's 
visit to Nigeria April 4-7, Obasanjo sees himself as one of 
the good guys in Africa, and thus expects additional latitude 
from his partners such as the United States when dealing with 
African issues.  He also expects strong Western support for 
NEPAD. 
 
 
9. (C) The Egyptian diplomat confided that while African 
leaders had a tradition of making grand statements while 
doing little to implement their ideas, they now appeared to 
understand the importance of doing the necessary but 
difficult work of making NEPAD a reality. 
JETER