US embassy cable - 03ABUJA1012

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 02 ABUJA 001012 
 
SIPDIS 
 
 
DEPARTMENT FOR INL/AAE - EFLOOD; AF/W FOR CUNDIFF 
LAGOS FOR DEA 
 
 
E.O. 12958: 6/10/03 
TAGS: PGOV, KDEM, KCRM, PREL, NI 
SUBJECT: NIGERIA: MEETING WITH MINISTER OF JUSTICE 
 
 
REF: ABUJA 856 
 
 
Classified by: Ambassador Howard F. Jeter. Reasons 1.5(b) and (d) 
 
 
1. (C) Summary: During a May 2 meeting to deliver the 
non-paper on narcotics and law enforcement 
certification to the Minister of Justice Kanu Agabi 
(Reftel), Ambassador Jeter took the opportunity to 
discuss the April elections with the Minister.  The 
blunt, straight-talking Agabi decried the manipulation 
and vote tampering that affected the elections in some 
states.  Agabi opined that the electoral tribunals 
should overturn some of the most egregious actions. 
For the longer term, he said that the Independent 
National Electoral Commission needed a major overhaul 
to improve its political impartiality and technical 
competence. End Summary. 
 
 
2. (C) Minister Agabi thanked the Ambassador for the 
congratulatory message from the White House to 
President Obasanjo.  Agabi said Obasanjo was very 
pleased.  Ambassador Jeter replied the United States 
recognized the elections were occasioned by serious 
irregularities in some areas of the country but still 
the process yielded some positive results.  He pointed 
out that Nigeria has a growing consensus on the 
electoral law, there is now the beginnings of a 
computerized voter roll, eligibility requirements for 
political parties are now clear, voter turn out was 
encouraging, and the conduct of the elections was 
generally peaceful.  He pointed out, however, that 
INEC needed significant reform, starting with the 
appointment process.  (INEC National and State 
Commissioners are appointed by the President).  Agabi 
agreed but predicted INEC reform would be unlikely 
because the election had further weakened the 
opposition in the National Assembly that would have 
been the element to advocate this reform.  Ambassador 
Jeter responded that "a PDP super majority in the 
Assembly may not be such a good thing either."  The 
Ambassador expressed hope the new National Assembly 
would perform better than its predecessor.  He 
observed that some of the newly elected lawmakers were 
"reformers" who could improve the Assembly and that 
the Embassy would try to work with them.  Agabi 
responded by saying, "democracy is an experiment in 
Nigeria, 75 percent of the resources are spent on 10 
percent of the people."  The National Assembly is too 
large and the Cabinet is bloated with too many 
Ministers, he asserted.  When asked to assess the 
prospects for reforms in the second Obasanjo 
Administration, the Minister responded that one of the 
President's problems was that he followed the last 
advice given; this was compounded by the fact that he 
had too many advisors. 
 
 
3. (C) The Ambassador asked the Justice Minister for 
his thoughts on the next President of the Senate and 
Speaker of the House.  Agabi replied that under the 
current arrangement of zoning key positions to 
specific geopolitical regions, the Senate Presidency 
would go to the Southeast, but he then complained 
"there are no viable candidates from that region".  He 
continued, "there are very inexperienced people in the 
National Assembly.  They are often very active but on 
the wrong subjects." 
 
 
4. (C) The Ambassador expressed deep concern regarding 
electoral irregularities and hoped the electoral 
tribunals would look seriously at the results of 
elections in several States, including Rivers, where 
there were allegations of widespread irregularities 
and fraud.  He recounted seeing photographs of full 
ballot boxes that had been thrown into a ravine. 
Ambassador Jeter also mentioned Cross Rivers, Anambra, 
Enugu, Edo, and Plateau States as other places where 
gross irregularities occurred.  He further stated that 
the tribunals should look at the gubernatorial and 
National Assembly contest or problems could be 
expected, especially in the Southeast and part of the 
South-South. 
 
 
5. (C) At this point, Agabi said that he would 
"insist" to the President that action be taken.  He 
stated that there were "instances of gross malfeasance 
because no elections were held in Cross Rivers". 
"Crimes have been committed by high officials", he 
asserted.  He also stated that there were similar 
reports from foreign observers.  He commented that the 
observers were invited to observe and their opinions 
should be heard.  When asked if the President could do 
anything about this, the Minister replied that he 
would tell the President to instruct the Tribunals 
that some election results should be thrown out. 
 
 
6. (C) Agabi briefly mentioned the status of GON 
efforts to recoup stolen government funds from the 
family of the late Head of State Sani Abacha.  So far, 
efforts to recover approximately 1.5 billion dollars 
have been futile, Agabi said.  While the funds have 
been frozen, the GON is no closer to getting them 
returned.  Ambassador Jeter asked Agabi about the 
assassination case of former Justice Minister, Bola 
Ige.  Agabi's only remark was that the people 
currently on trial were probably not the real killers, 
an admission that he said he would not make public. 
 
 
JETER