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O 132322Z NOV 09
FM SECSTATE WASHDC
TO ECOWAS COLLECTIVE IMMEDIATE
AMEMBASSY ABUJA IMMEDIATE 
AMEMBASSY CONAKRY IMMEDIATE

C O N F I D E N T I A L STATE 117707 
 
 
E.O. 12958: DECL: 11/13/2019 
TAGS: NI PREL PGOV GV ECOWAS
SUBJECT: (C) NIGERIA: MADUEKWE AGREES ON BNC, DISAGREES ON 
IWU 
 
Classified By: AF A/S Johnnie Carson. Reason 1.4 (b),(d) 
 
¶1. (C) SUMMARY: AF Assistant Secretary Johnnie Carson and 
Nigerian Foreign Minister Ojo Maduekwe met in Washington on 
November 10 and agreed to the working groups that will 
comprise an upcoming U.S.-Nigerian Binational Commission 
(BNC), but disagreed on the need to quickly replace 
Independent National Election Commission (INEC) Chair Maurice 
Iwu. Maduekwe agreed that Nigerian political and military 
observers may be needed in Guinea and said he would raise the 
issue with President Yar'Adua.  END SUMMARY. 
 
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ELECTIONS 
--------- 
 
¶2. (C) Maduekwe expressed condolences to Carson for the 
deaths at Fort Hood, and asked for Carson's understanding of 
the situation in Afghanistan.  Maduekwe then presented a copy 
of a new book of his selected speeches to Carson.  When 
Carson joked that he would scour the book for quotes to use 
against him, Maduekwe laughingly obliged by reading aloud a 
passage that warned of dire consequences for Nigeria if it 
did not have credible elections that met universal norms. 
 
¶3. (C) Maduekwe described President Yar'Adua as determined 
to improve elections, saying there was a "national 
consensus" that Nigeria was being denied an international 
role because of past election fraud.  Maduekwe attributed 
election problems not to the country's laws or the attitudes 
of its citizens, but to political actors on a local level, 
citing his home state of Abia as an example.  Maduekwe 
acknowledged that the national People's Democratic Party 
(PDP) organization had a particular interest in setting the 
environment for free elections, saying that as the major 
party "we lose more" than other parties if elections are 
not credible. 
 
¶4. (C) Maduekwe said that he encouraged leaders in the 
National Assembly to move forward with election legislation, 
telling them that inaction on the Electoral Reform Commission 
recommendations reflected poorly on Yar'Adua.  Maduekwe 
noted that he will speak at the Council on Foreign Relations 
on November 30 to offer a "scorecard" for the National 
Assembly on election reform.  He also offered that changing 
laws would not matter without political will of officials to 
refrain from or prosecute fraud. 
 
¶5. (C) Carson pressed Maduekwe about removing Independent 
National Election Commission (INEC) Chair Maurice Iwu, 
arguing that Iwu presided over the flawed 2007 elections. 
Maduekwe acknowledged that the United States and UK had made 
their position clear about Iwu, but there were "bad ways of 
doing the right thing."  Maduekwe described Yar'Adua as 
regarding the rule of law as paramount, saying that if 
Yar'Adua bypassed the required two-thirds majority vote of 
the National Assembly and simply removed Iwu, Yar'Adua 
risked impeachment.  It was better to simply wait until 
Iwu's term expired in June, Maduekwe said.  Carson countered 
that the United States would not invest our prestige in 
Iwu's leadership, just as stockholders would not invest 
money in a failed company.  Carson also noted the 
difficulties in soliciting financial and other support within 
the State Department, from other agencies, and on Capitol 
Hill unless there was a signal from Nigeria of change in INEC 
leadership.  Maduekwe insisted that Yar'Adua had to be very 
strategic about such a change, since removing Iwu could hurt 
Yar'Adua politically.  Maduekwe argued that by asking the 
United States and UK to assist Nigeria with elections -- to 
participate as more than just observers -- Yar'Adua made it 
clear that he has lost faith in INEC.  Carson expressed the 
hope that influential elements of Nigerian government and 
society would come to a similar conclusion on the need for 
Iwu's early departure as a confidence building counterpart 
to international support for elections. 
 
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CORRUPTION 
---------- 
 
¶6. (C) Maduekwe described Economic and Financial Crimes 
Commission Chair (EFCC) Farida Waziri as "energized" from 
her recent trip to the United States.  He noted that Waziri 
secured the longest conviction of any official since the EFCC 
began.  Maduekwe characterized privatization of state-owned 
industries as an "ideological weapon" to attack corruption, 
as it reduced nepotism opportunities for government officials. 
 
--------------------- 
BINATIONAL COMMISSION 
--------------------- 
 
¶7. (C) Maduekwe argued that having standalone working groups 
on Elections and Anti-Corruption as part of the U.S.-Nigeria 
Binational Commission was unpalatable to Nigerians, since it 
implied conversations more relevant to a "failed state," 
and Nigeria was not like Afghanistan and Somalia.  After 
listening to Maduekwe's depiction of the intended goals of 
these conversations as "good governance, transparency, and 
integrity," Carson acceded to Maduekwe's request that the 
two working groups be combined into one, with those goals as 
the title of the working group.  Maduekwe noted that the 
elections portion of the new working group would be led by 
the Secretary of the Government but would have to include 
some participation from INEC.  DeskOff noted that the USG and 
Nigeria had already agreed to the three other working groups: 
Energy and Investment, Food Security and Agriculture, and 
Niger Delta and Regional Security Cooperation. 
 
------ 
GUINEA 
------ 
 
¶8. (C) AF Deputy Assistant Secretary Fitzgerald lauded 
ECOWAS's role in the current Guinea crisis, and suggested 
that Nigeria should offer political and military observers to 
provide an early warning and deterrent to violence in the 
event of a power vacuum.  Maduekwe agreed with the need for 
such unarmed observers, and offered to raise the issue with 
Yar'Adua. 
 
 
CLINTON