USA Africa Dialogue Series - Could this be happening right now?

SUBJECT: SOUCRE CLAIMS "SABOTAGE CAMPAIGN" MAY BE IN THE 

WORKS 

 

 

Classified By: CHARGE D'AFFAIRES THOMAS P. FUREY. REASONS 1.5 b, c, and 

 d. 

 

 ¶1. (S)  Poloff met with a contact on December 23 to discuss 

the recent Appeals Court decision and other related topics. 

The source, Aliyu Adamu Jimeta, claimed that "a group" of 

political activists had considered sabotaging government 

infrastructure during the COJA games and the CHOGM meeting in 

Abuja in late 2003.  Those plans had been shelved, he said. 

However, he commented that the same group of between five and 

ten individuals were "thinking that the time may be ripe to 

commence."  The example he gave was the bombing of a wing of 

Lagos' Murtala Mohammed International Airport.  He stated 

that the device would be "small enough to limit damage, but 

should scare travelers away from Nigeria." 

 

¶2.  (S)  Poloff commented that "this is not the tactic" he 

would choose and changed the subject. 

 

¶3.  (S)  Comment:  Poloff has known Jimeta for over two years 

as a political operative from Adamawa state, home of the 

current Vice President Atiku Abubakar.  He has never raised 

this topic previously and Poloff has had reason to question 

his motivation and speculated whether he could be working for 

the Nigerian government.  His comments raise one of two 

concerns.  The first possibility is that a group of 

dissidents, frustrated with the continuing corruption and the 

lack of resolution of the rigged 2003 elections, is ready to 

attack the Obasanjo regime.  A campaign of this type was 

carried out in 1995-1998 during the Abacha regime.  At that 

time, Embassy had doubts as to whether it was truly staged by 

dissidents intent on forcing out Abacha or if the regime was 

managing the "attacks" to bolster internal support for their 

unpopular government. 

 

¶4.  (S)  Comment, cont.:  The second possibility is that the 

increasing inability of the Obasanjo regime to maintain 

control of Nigeria's internal security and manage its image 

abroad is forcing Obasanjo to look for enemies outside in an 

effort to shift the blame for his unpopularity.  Setting up 

and expelling a U.S. diplomat could, in the GON analysis, 

create some sympathy for an Obasanjo increasingly convinced 

of his own importance as the "saviour of Nigeria." 

FUREY

 

Daniel Elombah

Publisher: www. Elombah.com

(A Nigerian Perspective on World Affairs)

+44-7958588018

"The last hope for a nation state melts away when corruption and politics also engulf the very core of law interpretation and enforcement. Without interpretation and enforcement there could be no law and without law there could be no order, and without order there could be no system. What can stem a collapse once it starts if the judiciary cannot command respect? May the gun never again become our arbiter" - Justice Oputa, rtd CJN