US embassy cable - 02ABUJA3165

C O N F I D E N T I A L ABUJA 003165 
 
SIPDIS 
 
 
E.O. 12958: DECL: 11/21/2012 
TAGS: MASS, PREL, NI 
SUBJECT: NIGERIA: PRESIDENT OBASANJO PLEDGES FUNDING FOR 
MPRI 
 
REF: STATE 219766 
 
 
CLASSIFIED BY AMBASSADOR HOWARD F. JETER FOR REASONS 1.5 
(B) AND (D). 
 
 
1.  (C) SUMMARY: During a November 19 meeting with 
Ambassador Jeter, President of MPRI Gen. (Ret.) Carl Vuono 
and members of the Nigerian defense establishment, 
President Obasanjo pledged 3.5 million dollars to continue 
MPRI operations.  During this meeting and at MPRI's In- 
Progress-Review (IPR) on November 18, Nigerian defense 
officials, especially Defense Minister Danjuma, expressed 
strong support for MPRI and stated that the program had 
made important progress in the last year.  The President's 
commitment to fund Nigeria's portion of MPRI was clear and 
unambiguous and the vote of confidence given to MPRI by the 
MOD and the Service Chiefs was encouraging.  However, given 
Nigeria's slow bureaucracy there will be some lag time 
between the President's commitment and the actual 
disbursement of the funds.  END SUMMARY. 
 
 
2.  (C) During a November 19 meeting with President 
Olusegun Obasanjo, Ambassador Jeter, Gen. (Ret.) Carl 
Vuono, Minister of Defense T.Y. Danjuma, Chief of Defense 
Staff Admiral Ibrahim Ogohi, Minister of Finance Adamu 
Ciroma, and Presidential Chief of Staff Abdulabi, Gen. 
Vuono gave a detailed account of the MPRI program's 
progress in 2002.  Following Gen. Vuono's presentation, 
Ambassador delivered the MPRI funding demarche (REF), 
emphasizing that the USG sees the MPRI program to reform 
the Nigerian military as the core of the USG bilateral 
security assistance program.  After a short discussion, 
including a forceful plea by MOD Danjuma for the GON to 
"pay up", President Obasanjo pledged to fund the full 3.5 
million USD the GON owes to MPRI for FY 2002 operations. 
Canvassing Danjuma and CDS Ogohi, Obasanjo concluded, "The 
value of this program (MPRI) is no longer in doubt." 
Minister of Finance Ciroma indicated that the funds for 
MPRI would be made available from the GON's "counterpart 
funds account". Ambassador Jeter noted that settling the 
arrears would be seen in Washington as a very positive 
signal of Nigeria's commitment to the reform of and 
reprofessionalization of its defense establishment. 
 
 
3.  (C) The first hint that funding for MPRI might be 
available came during a conversation between Minister of 
State for Defense (Army) Batagarawa and Ambassador on 
November 15.  After lamenting that the Ministry of Defense 
had no money to support the program, Batagarawa commented 
that it might be possible to make use of a special GON 
"counterpart funds" account that, evidently, was 
established to help the GON fund its part of bilateral 
assistance projects.  Heretofore, the fund had only been 
used for civilian aid programs.  Batagarawa said he would 
raise the matter with the Finance Minister.  The sudden 
appearance of GON funds for MPRI seems to indicate that 
Batagarawa's plan was well received by the Finance Minister 
and Danjuma. 
 
 
4.  (C) During the meeting, Obasanjo also inquired into the 
status of the "other five OFR battalions".  Obasanjo had 
previously expressed his desire for additional OFR trained 
battalions.  In addition to the lack of funding for new OFR 
battalions, Ambassador noted that proposed funding of 
sustainment programs for the current OFR battalions had 
been held up in the Congress due to concerns over the 
investigation into the October 2001 civilian massacre in 
Benue State. 
JETER