US embassy cable - 03LAGOS102

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 02 LAGOS 000102 
 
SIPDIS 
 
 
LONDON FOR GURNEY 
PARIS FOR NEARY 
 
 
E.O. 12958: DECL: 01/09/2008 
TAGS: PREL, PGOV, KDEM, NI 
SUBJECT: NIGERIA; A VISIT TO THE SOUTHEAST - PART 1: ABIA 
 
Classified By: CONSUL GENERAL ROBYN HINSON-JONES FOR REASONS 1.5 (B) AN 
 
 
D D. 
 
 
1. (C) Summary.    Orji Kalu, dubbed the "Action Governor" 
by President Obasanjo for his aggressive style and ability to 
get programs and projects going in Abia state, recently won a 
year-long administrative and political tussle with his 
disgruntled Deputy Governor and half the State legislators. 
Kalu,  a young, rising star of the Peoples Democratic Party 
(PDP) was recently tapped to be the party's gubernatorial 
candidate again, and with a pledge of support from the 
President, he seems set to win another four-year term.  End 
Summary. 
 
 
Background: Political Family Feud 
 
 
2. (C) The political wrangling in Abia State that started in 
2001 arose from an attempt by two rival groups within the 
Abia Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) to hijack the party 
machinery.  One of the two groups is led by the 
current Governor, Orji Kalu.  The other group, sometimes 
referred to as the "Abuja Group," consists of Abia State 
politicians who also hold important federal appointments, 
such as Transport Minister Ojo Madueke, PDP National 
Secretary, Vincent Ogbulafor, and Niger Delta Development 
 
SIPDIS 
Commission (NDDC) Chairman, Onyema Ugochukwu.   This group 
made moves to try to weaken the popularity and influence of 
Governor Kalu, an Igbo of the Bende clan.   Deputy Governor 
H. Enyi Abaribe, an Igbo of the Ukwa Ngwa clan, deserted the 
Kalu camp and teamed up with the Abuja Group, apparently 
hoping for support from them should he challenge his old boss 
for the governorship. 
 
 
3. (C)  Using Port Harcourt in Rivers State as the hub for 
the visit to Abia State, ConOffs traveled by car to Umuahia, 
Abia's capital, for a courtesy and orientation visit with 
officials there.  T. A. Orji, the Chief of Staff of the 
Governor, met with us because the Governor and various senior 
State and PDP officials had been called to Abuja by the 
party's National Executive Committee for a "reconciliation" 
meeting.  Orji spent the first half hour of the meeting being 
the archetypal "spin doctor" and public relations frontman 
for Kalu.  He proudly enumerated the Governor's achievements 
during the past three and a half years and said that his 
(Orji's) book on the achievements, "Unbroken Covenants," was 
due in bookstores by Christmas. 
 
 
Birth of the Dream 
 
 
4.  (C) Orji said that as a young and very successful 
businessman in 1994, Kalu had had "a dream" about the future 
of Abia State while sitting in a "go slow" (traffic gridlock) 
one day.  Since his election, according to Orji, Kalu had 
focused on his dream of eradicating poverty in Abia State by 
promoting the re-development of agriculture with a "back to 
the soil" program featuring cultivation of rubber plants, 
education and modern skills training through a "work to 
learn" program for high school drop-outs, and small business 
programs for women.  "This administration is insuring that 
our people get at least three meals per day," he boasted.  He 
quickly added that the Kalu administration is very "gender 
sensitive":  there are three senior, female appointees in the 
State government--the Minister for Rural Development, the 
Minister for Women and Youth Affairs, and the State Solicitor 
General.  The State government has also initiated and funded 
special loan programs for women, as well as increased funding 
for girls' education.  Orji said Kalu has definitely lived up 
to the title, "the Action Governor," bestowed on him early in 
his tenure by President Olusegun Obasanjo owing to his 
youthful, energetic, and aggressive pursuit of programs for 
Abia State. 
 
 
Friends No More 
 
 
5. (C) Orji's face set in grim lines when the talk turned to 
the rift between Governor Kalu and his Deputy, H. Enyi 
Abaribe.  Orji related a rambling story about how Kalu and 
Abaribe had met by accident at a business meeting.  Kalu was 
so impressed by Abaribe that he immediately asked the 
politically uninitiated Abaribe to join his administration 
and subsequently appointed him Deputy Governor.  Orji 
dismissed with an impatient wave of his hand any possibility 
that Abaribe would challenge Kalu for the top spot in Abia, 
and declared that Kalu will run "unopposed."  He continued 
saying that Abaribe is just a "sweet talker" whose record was 
sullied by allegations of graft, loan fraud and theft of 
government funds.  He dubbed Abaribe and his supporters "the 
Taliban" and predicted they would be as soundly defeated as 
were the Taliban in Afghanistan. 
 
 
6. (C) In a separate conversation, Sir I. K. Daniel, Special 
Assistant (Political) to Governor Kalu, told us on our  visit 
to Abia in November that a party primary held the previous 
week had failed to unseat the Deputy Governor and had further 
aggravated the crisis.  The split within the PDP in Abia 
extended to the State House of Assembly as well as the PDP 
Executive Committee.  "The people feel cheated after this 
primary," he said, "and we are expecting protest petitions to 
be filed after primary results are announced from Abuja.   A 
reconciliatory attempt by the National Assembly on the day of 
ConOff's visit, and a previous move by the PDP National 
Executive, only temporarily succeeded in reconciling the 
warring factions. 
 
 
The "Taliban" 
7. (C) Abaribe and his supporters, all unpaid for the 
preceding eighteen months, were hunkered down holding siege 
at the State Assembly building at the time of ConOff's 
visit.  (Kalu's supporters have moved into offices across 
from the Governor's office at Government House.)  ConOffs 
waited at the gate to the Assembly grounds while armed guards 
and State Security Service men conferred with the Deputy 
Governor; and finally, with the additional efforts of ConGen 
Political Specialist, persuaded him to tell us his side of 
the story.  ConOffs 
managed to meet with the Deputy Governor just minutes  before 
he left for Abuja for the "reconciliation" meeting.  Abaribe 
was even more grim-faced and squint-eyed than Orji when 
discussing his rival, Governor Kalu. 
 
 
8. (C) Abaribe even had a list of complaints about the 
administration including mismanagement of funds and failure 
to provide basic services.  He said it was the "Action 
Governor's" fault that State finances were in such a 
disastrous condition.  The Governor had been overly ambitious 
and had started too many projects never to finish any of 
them.  He criticized Kalu's plans to increase tax revenues, 
saying "We must enhance other sources of revenue and 
distribute the fruits of our democracy before we can increase 
the tax burden."  The Governor has not done anything positive 
on this issue, according to Abaribe.  The State suffers from 
an unemployment rate of 60 percent.  "These people can't pay 
taxes if they don't have income," he pointed out.  "Even the 
20 percent in this State who do pay are underpaying."  He 
went on to add that Abians are "disgusted with bad leaders 
and government corruption" and will not pay taxes to a 
government that is accountable to no one. 
 
 
9. (C) On his decision whether or not to oppose Kalu for the 
2003 governorship, Orji told us during our visit that a 1991 
document signed by the founding fathers of Abia State 
declared that there would be a "sharing of State government 
and political offices among the factions" of Abia State to 
ensure that "everybody is carried 
along and everybody feels that they are part of the 
government."  Abaribe, himself from the Ukwa-Ngwa ethnic 
group that has long complained about its marginalization in 
contravention of the 1991 agreement, recently left the PDP to 
join the All Nigerian Peoples' Party (ANPP).  At the recent 
ANPP convention in the capital city of Abuja, Abaribe was 
tapped to be the party's candidate for Governor of Abia. 
 
 
10. (C) Comment.  In late November,  47 Igbo traditional 
rulers met to try to dispel tension and conflict in Abia and 
other areas of the Southeast.  They urged citizens of Abia to 
back Governor Kalu for the good of the Igbo people.  Abaribe, 
however, being of another clan, felt no special 
responsibility to Kalu and decided to change parties and 
challenge his boss and former friend.  High-level backers he 
may have cultivated in the PDP are gone, first because 
Abaribe changed parties and, second, because these backers 
must support whomever the President and leader of their party 
supports.  That would be incumbent Governor Kalu.  ConGen 
FSNs from Abia, say that while many in the State admire 
Abaribe as an honorable and principled young man, almost no 
one gives him any chance at beating Kalu.  As Obasanjo 
indicated support for any incumbent governor who wants to try 
for a second term, and Kalu still apparently enjoys 
significant voter support in the region, it is likely that he 
will be re-elected.  Although none of the officials we spoke 
to specifically mentioned the possibility that the lingering 
ill-will among Kalu, Abaribe and some State legislators would 
engender election-related violence, Abaribe still travels 
with an armed escort, and he and Kalu are still not at all 
"reconciled." 
HINSON-JONES