US Congress Slams Nigeria’s $9m Lobbying Deal Over Spiritual Freedom Considerations
A United States congressional listening to on international non secular freedom has criticised the Federal Authorities’s reported $9m lobbying contract in Washington, with lawmakers warning that the deal appeared designed to downplay severe human rights and spiritual freedom abuses in Nigeria.
The issues had been raised on Wednesday throughout a joint listening to of the Home Subcommittee on Africa and the Subcommittee on the Western Hemisphere, titled “Defending Spiritual Freedom Across the World.”
The session featured testimonies from former US Ambassador-at-Massive for Worldwide Spiritual Freedom, Sam Brownback, and former chair of the US Fee on Worldwide Spiritual Freedom (USCIRF), Dr Stephen Schneck.
Chairman of the Home International Affairs Africa Subcommittee, Chris Smith, defended the October 2025 determination to designate Nigeria as a Nation of Explicit Concern (CPC) beneath the Worldwide Spiritual Freedom Act, describing the transfer as “lengthy overdue” following years of lethal violence towards Christian communities.
Smith, nonetheless, stated he was troubled by efforts to counter the designation by lobbying.
“I simply wish to say to my colleagues that I’m deeply involved that Nigeria has employed the lobbying agency, DCI Group, to the tune of $9m, $750,000 a month,” he stated.
“And a Nigerian billionaire has entered right into a $120,000-a-month contract with Washington-based consulting agency Valcour, to affect Congress and the Govt Department.
“They rent these corporations; they provide you with their very well-written speaking factors to say nothing to see right here and sadly, how these corporations are simply so good at advocating for his or her shopper for non secular freedom.”
Whereas Smith argued that the CPC designation was essential to stress Nigeria, Rating Member Sara Jacobs criticised what she described as a very slim give attention to Christian persecution.
Jacobs famous that regardless of expressed concern over non secular violence, the USA had lower a whole bunch of hundreds of thousands of {dollars} in international help to Nigeria, together with programmes aimed toward supporting religion leaders and communities affected by battle.
She cited the termination of the Group Initiatives to Promote Peace programme, which she stated had helped scale back violence in components of the nation.
“Regardless of the administration’s obvious curiosity in addressing battle and spiritual tensions in Nigeria, it has lower a whole bunch of hundreds of thousands of {dollars} in international help to Nigeria, together with help to religion leaders and to communities experiencing violence within the Center Belt,” Jacobs stated.
She cautioned towards framing Nigeria’s disaster purely in non secular phrases, stressing that “the violence in Nigeria is complicated, affecting each Christians and Muslims, and the drivers of this violence are multifaceted and can’t be decreased to a single framing.”
Jacobs added that “oversimplistic narratives can additional inflame non secular tensions in communities.”
The lawmaker additionally questioned the influence of current US army motion in Sokoto State, saying, “And but, it’s clear that President Trump solely cares about Christians in Nigeria, and his solely actual motion to handle this drawback, army strikes over Christmas, has not even completed something to materially assist these communities.”
Former USCIRF chair Schneck agreed, warning that the price of the strikes doubtless outweighed funding beforehand allotted to interfaith and humanitarian initiatives.
“Actually, it happens to me that the price of the Tomahawk missiles that had been despatched in all probability exceeded the sum of money that had beforehand been going to Nigeria to enhance interfaith relations and supply humanitarian help,” he stated.
“So, it is vitally regarding to me. Actually, I think, actually, that strikes like that, to the extent that they’ve any impact in any respect, would doubtless drive a few of these extra militant organisations collectively in higher unity and maybe mobilise them sooner or later. So I feel that the strike was a mistake,” Schneck added.
Testifying on Nigeria’s broader safety challenges, Schneck described the state of affairs as a mixture of Boko Haram and ISWAP terrorism, farmer-herder conflicts, banditry, organised crime, mass displacement, and what he referred to as “a corrupt and albeit, a failing authorities” unable to ensure primary safety and justice.
Lawmakers additionally debated whether or not the CPC designation alone was efficient. Rep Jefferson Shreve questioned its influence, prompting Brownback to argue that the label have to be backed by sanctions and concrete measures.
“Till you place some chew into it, most of those dictators are simply going to thumb their nostril at you,” Brownback stated, calling for “Magnitsky sanctions” and focused {economic} penalties.
Schneck supported this place, describing CPC listings as largely “title and disgrace” measures with out direct penalties.
Though Rep Invoice Huizenga stated current US actions had helped refocus “consideration on Nigeria,” Brownback expressed deep distrust of the Federal Authorities, accusing it of abandoning power-sharing traditions and failing to guard susceptible communities.
“This authorities has not given us any purpose to belief them,” Brownback stated, reflecting the scepticism that dominated the listening to and the sharp criticism of Nigeria’s multimillion-dollar lobbying effort.
US President Donald Trump has repeatedly claimed that Christians in Nigeria are going through genocide and has beforehand threatened army motion. The Federal Authorities has rejected the claims, insisting that whereas the nation faces severe safety challenges, there isn’t a genocide.
Regardless of the tensions, US Africa Command, working with President Bola Tinubu’s administration, carried out airstrikes on December 25 towards terrorist targets in Sokoto State.
In January, paperwork revealed that the Federal Authorities entered right into a $9m contract with US-based lobbying agency DCI Group to speak Nigeria’s efforts to guard Christians to the US authorities.