Cablegate: Obasanjo Shelves Plans to Rotate Service Chiefs

This record is a partial extract of the original cable. The full text of the original cable is not available.

UNCLAS ABUJA 002076

SIPDIS

E.O. 12958: N/A
TAGS: PGOV MARR NI POLMIL
SUBJECT: OBASANJO SHELVES PLANS TO ROTATE SERVICE CHIEFS

REF: A. IIR 6 871 0001 5
B. ABUJA 2075
1. Post reported in ref A that President Obasanjo was
planning to replace the military service heads by year's
end. A daily newspaper, The Vanguard, reported on December
12 that Obasanjo has shelved those plans and asked the
service chiefs to stay on for now. Sources within the
Presidency claim the change was the result of the succession
squabbles the planned retirement have generated and "the
absolute loyalty (the service chiefs) were believed to have
shown to the Obasanjo administration."

2. Comment. If Obasanjo is concerned about the stability
of his regime and the threat of a military coup (ref b), as
he (and we) should be, this could be a move to maintain his
cadre of loyalists in the military.

CAMPBELL

© Scoop Media