US embassy cable - 02ABUJA1727

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 02 ABUJA 001727 
 
SIPDIS 
 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: PREL, NI 
SUBJECT: NIGERIA: PARTIAL TEXT OF 6/2/02 GEN MALU INTERVIEW 
 
 
1.  Para 2 contains an excerpt from a June 2, 2002 interview 
given by dismissed Chief of Army Staff  Samuel Victor Leo 
Malu to  "This Day" newspaper. His May 27  testimony before 
the Commission investigating last October's violence in Benue 
(to which Malu family members and property fell victim) had 
placed the outspoken Malu in the public eye once more and the 
interview in "ThisDay" sought to capitalize on his currency. 
A friend to controversy and ally of unfounded statements, 
Malu makes good copy for Nigeria's sensationalist press. 
Malu claims Obasanjo fired him because he opposed Operation 
Focus Relief (OFR) while Obasanjo favored the program to 
curry favor with the USG.  Malu also alleges  OFR was a USG 
pretext to collect intelligence about the Nigeria military. 
In another gross misrepresentation, Malu claimed Ambassador 
Jeter wrote a report that stated Nigeria's peacekeeping 
performance in Liberia was better than what U.S. units could 
have done. While his rancor was directed mostly at Obasanjo, 
Malu tried to cause us collateral damage, still holding a 
grudge at our perceived role in his removal.  Most 
knowledgeable Nigerians realize they must take Malu's 
statements with a grain of salt.  For example, because of the 
ample media coverage given OFR, Malu's statement that OFR's 
purpose has never been divulged, rings patently untrue. 
However, Nigerians who dislike the U.S. will choose to 
believe Malu , not because he is right but because they want 
to. 
2.   
 
 
Q:   Now can you situate this incident with your relationship 
with President Obasanjo when you were chief of army staff? 
 
 
A:   Yes, I opposed President Obasanjo on a lot of issues, 
and this was not because I was being rude.  The man is my 
commander in chief.  I was the professional head of the army 
and had to advise him on matters relating to the army.  He 
can claim to have been a General and I do not grudge him 
about it.  But when you look at the whole thing, Obasanjo 
served for eighteen years and got to the rank of General, I 
served thirty three years and got to the same rank.  If you 
know the history of my army commands you will know that I did 
not get the rank as some kind of favor.  So if at that stage, 
I could not advise on the service that I was heading, then he 
needed to find a stooge.  I could not just go and say "yes 
sir" to everything because he was my commander in chief.  I 
should have an imput particularly with things that border on 
the country's security especially with the coming of the 
Americans. Till today, President Obasanjo has not explained 
what those people came to do.  But I will tell you that they 
came to gather intelligence that they could not get through 
the years especially during the period of the late General 
Abacha.  They could have got some through sattelite but not 
much. 
 
 
They needed to know how a third world country with all such 
sanctions on it by then succeeded in peace keeping operations 
where the superpower Americans can not.  And they came, we 
gave them this information.  Nobody is afraid America will 
attack us, they will not do that.  But in international 
relations, you do not have permanent friends but permanent 
interests. America can use a country like Republic of Benin 
to embarrass us so badly when it pleases them.  Because this 
man believes it was America that gave him the presidency, he 
decides everything should be given to them. 
 
 
In the case of peace keeping operations in Liberia, the 
present American Ambassador to Nigeria, Howard Jeter, was in 
Liberia by then as their representative to the Liberian 
crisis.  If you see the report he wrote to the American 
government and advised them that if they wanted to assist a 
few third world countries with regional bodies like ECOMOG, 
they should not bother about giving them troops, but should 
give them logistics and they will excel as we did in Liberia. 
 He even went further to say that what we did in Liberia was 
beyond anybody's comprehension and that he does not think 
American Army would have done that.  Because he saw what we 
did.  We opened roads, and were working with machetes, 
cutlasses.  Roads that had not been used in eight years, so 
that electioneering and free movements could be achieved.  My 
soldiers became like labourers.  But as a mission we tasked 
ourselves and we had to do it.  That is why, if I go to 
Liberia now, they treat me like a head of state, it is not as 
if they like me.  I used to use the most foul language on 
them. They hated my guts, but they respected me. 
 
 
 
 
 
3. Comment.  The report by Ambassador Jeter that Malu refers 
to possibly was one written several years ago for a 
presentation Ambassador Jeter made at a conference on 
regional peacekeeping. The report commended ECOMOG for its 
efforts and recognized its valuable contribution to the peace 
process in Liberia.  However, the report also mentioned 
ECOMOG shortcomings and that the international community had 
to provide assistance so that ECOMOG could adequately 
implement its mandate.  What the report did not do was state 
that the Nigerian army's peacekeeping capabilities were 
superior to the U.S army's. That claim can be solely 
attributed to the butcher of Odi's inflated ego and gross 
disregard for the truth. 
 
 
4.  The following contains some commentary from the 
accompanying front page article. 
 
 
 
 
 
Olusegun Obasanjo removed him from office last year mainly to 
curry favor from the United States.  He fell out of favor 
from the President following his (Malu's) persistent 
opposition to the presence of the United States military team 
that was drafted to Nigeria for what he called unexplained 
reasons. 
 
 
"Till today, President Obasanjo has not explained what those 
people came to do.  But I will tell you that they came to 
gather intelligence that they could not get through the years 
especially during the period of the late General Sani Abacha. 
 They needed to know how  a third world with all such 
sanctions on it by then succeeded in peace keeping operations 
where the superpower Americans can not.  "And they came, we 
gave them this information.  Nobody is afraid America will 
attack us, they will not do that. 
 
 
Advancing more arguments to support his opposition of the 
presence of the United States Military on the country, he 
said: "America can use a country like Republic of Benin to 
embarrass us so badly when it pleases them.  Because this man 
believes it was America that gave him the presidency, he 
decides everything should be given to them." 
 
 
 
ANDREWS