A Washington DC-based PR Firm named Levick today sent out a
statement to the Nigerian media on the meeting with the Chibok
parents and girls. It's now being reported that the PR firm was
hired by persons within the Nigerian government and allegedly paid
$1.2million to help fix the government’s lagging reputation in the
aftermath of the Chibok crisis.
#Bringbackourgirls convener Oby Ezekwili took to twitter this morning
to angrily slam the PR Firm which she says was hired by the
presidency to deceive and alternate the truth for Nigerians. See
more tweets, the report on the new PR contract and the statement
Levick released after the cut...
Statement regarding the cancellation of meeting with parents of
abducted Chibok children and five escapees.. (supposedly sent out
by Levick)
“It now appears that our fight to get the girls of Chibok back is
not only a fight against a terrorist insurgency, but also
against a political opposition.
“It is with great regret that I announce the cancellation of
the meeting with 12 parents of the abducted Chibock children,
as well as five of the brave girls who escaped from the
terrorist organization Boko Haram. I scheduled this meeting,
which was to be open to the media for coverage by Nigerian
and international press, to listen to their stories and to
privately brief the parents and the girls on our efforts to
rescue the abducted girls.
“My priority is not politics. My priority is the return of these
girls.
“Unfortunately, political forces within the Nigerian chapter of
Bring Back Our Girls have decided to take this opportunity to
play politics with the situation and the grief of the parents
and the girls. They should be ashamed of their actions.
“Those who would manipulate the victims of terrorism for their
own benefit, are engaging in a similar kind of evil:
psychological terrorism.
“I want to be clear, this government stands with complete
solidarity with the girls and their parents. We are doing
everything in our power to bring back our girls. Despite the
shameful and disgusting games being played by the Nigerian
chapter of Bring Back Our Girls, as a father of girls, I stand
ready to meet with the parents of our abducted children and
the truly brave girls that have escaped this nightmare through
the grace of God.”
And here's the report from snddenjpic.org that Levick has taken
president Jonathan on as a client..
Washington PR Firm Inks $1.2 Million Deal, Immediately Places
Nigerian President’s Op-Ed In Washington Post
In an op-ed published in the Washington Post on Friday,
Nigerian president Goodluck Jonathan pushed back on
criticisms that his efforts to find more than 200 missing
schoolgirls has been ineffective. This plum placement comes,
however, just days after signing a lucrative contract with a
Washington PR firm to help fix the Jonathan government’s
lagging reputation in the aftermath of the crisis.
“I have had to remain quiet about the continuing efforts by
Nigeria’s military, police and investigators to find the girls
kidnapped in April from the town of Chibok by the terrorist
group Boko Haram,” Jonathan wrote in his op-ed. “I am
deeply concerned, however, that my silence as we work to
accomplish the task at hand is being misused by partisan
critics to suggest inaction or even weakness. My silence has
been necessary to avoid compromising the details of our
investigation. But let me state this unequivocally: My
government and our security and intelligence services have
spared no resources, have not stopped and will not stop until
the girls are returned home and the thugs who took them are
brought to justice.”
Those critiques, as the government has so far been stumbling in
its fight against Boko Haram, have been admittedly harsh at
times. So harsh, in fact, that the Nigerian government has
turned to outside help to shore up its international reputation.
According to documents filed under the Foreign Agents
Registration Act, and as first reported at The Hill, Nigeria has
hired the Washington, DC public relations firm Levick to
promote its image abroad and in Nigeria. Eleanor McManus,
who will be working on the Nigerian case for Levick, confirmed
to ThinkProgress that her firm did place today’s op-ed from
Jonathan in the Washington Post.
Technically, the contract is between Levick and the News
Agency of Nigeria, the country’s state-run news agency. Per
the FARA documents, Levick began charging the Nigerian
government at the rate of $100,000 per month over the course
of the next year for its services starting on June 16. According
to the contract between the firm and Nigeria, Levick will
provide “government affairs and communications counsel with
the primary objective of changing the international and local
media narrative” on a number of issues. These include, as
quoted from the contract:
The Government of Nigeria’s efforts to find and safely return
the more than 200 girls abducted by the terrorist
organization, Boko Haram, in the Borno State of Nigeria
Assisting the Government’s efforts to mobilize international
support in fighting Boko Haram as part of the greater global
war on terror.
Communicating the President Goodluck Jonathan
Administration’s past, present and future priority to foster
transparency, democracy, and the rule of law throughout
Nigeria.
“A more comprehensive approach, using vehicles, such as
public diplomacy and engaging outside experts to enact real
changes, is how the advocacy industry is evolving,” Phil
Elwood, a vice president at Levick, told The Hill. “A
communications strategy alone is not enough to solve the
complex and multifaceted problems facing some of the more
controversial nations.”
In addition, Nigeria is also engaging Perseus Strategies, a law
firm centered around the promotion of human rights, as a
subcontract of its work with Levick to the tune of an
additional $25,000 per month. Jared Genser, the lawyer at
the heart of Perseus, has previously had such clients as
Burmese democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi and currently
represents Chinese human rights activist Liu Xiaobo. This is in
contrast to some of the past associations of Levick vice
president Lanny Davis, who will be working on the Nigerian case
along with several others, who made a name for himself
around Washington for representing more repressive
governments, including Equatorial Guinea’s President Teodoro
Obiang and for a period Ivorian president Laurent Gbagbo.
The use of PR firms to place op-eds and other commentary
from world leaders is not a rarity. Last year, the New York
Times published a controversial op-ed from Russian president
Vladimir Putin critiquing U.S. foreign policy and the threat of
military action against Syria. As Buzzfeed reported, public
relations firm Ketchum was behind the placement of the
piece, as part of its broader contract with the Russian
government. McManus, when speaking with ThinkProgress,
would not confirm whether the Washington Post was the first
outlet contacted for Jonathan’s op-ed.
As for the effect that the new PR blitz will actually have on
changing the narrative, Africa hands are skeptical. Political
parties in Nigeria have previously hired foreign firms to help
manage their reputation in the past, both from Jonathan’s
PDP and the opposition APC. But the timing is really suspect,
one development professional recently returned from Nigeria
told ThinkProgress, due to Wednesday’s explosion in a well-
off neighborhood in Abuja, Nigeria’s capital, that most
observers believe Boko Haram perpetrated. “It’s just a really
inopportune time, hiring a PR firm while Abuja is literally
burning,” she said.
Laura Seay, an assistant professor at Colby College, also
pointed to the Abuja explosion as a reason that the timing of
Levick’s hiring and the Washington Post op-ed is problematic.
“I don’t think any efforts that Jonathan makes in Nigeria will
be effective unless there’s a significant change,” she said.
The audience for Levick’s efforts aren’t Nigerians, she said,
saying that “people on the ground are going to look at
[Jonathan's op-ed] and laugh, they’re going to not believe it,
because it’s not reflective of the reality.”
“I don’t think most Nigerians are going to be very convinced,”
Seay continued, noting that the money spent on hiring Levick
would be better spent equipping the forces in northern Nigeria
combating Boko Haram. In the aftermath of the kidnapping
two months ago, soldiers repeatedly told reporters of the lack
of morale among the army in the face of the much better
armed fighters in Boko Haram. “As one Nigerian told me when
I was there, they hire these guys for the army, so they
recruit,” the development professional said, “So they have
these recruiting drives, then they send the boys up there to
northern Nigeria with no bullets. How can you fight against
against terrorists who have armored personnel carriers with no
bullets?”
As for the declarations of Gesner and Davis that Jonathan
has been taken on as a client because he, as Gesner said, “has
said clearly to us that he wants results,” there’s also
skepticism. “It’s not gonna change a thing,” the development
professional said, adding that Nigerians on the ground are
very distrustful of the government, especially when it comes to
Boko Haram. Such a shift in actions from Jonathan would be a
major change, Seay said, one that would certainly be a
response to international pressure, particularly the
#BringBackOurGirls hashtag. “But Jonathan has allowed this
situation to fester for his entire term in office,” she said,
noting that he hasn’t taken the concrete steps on the ground
that are necessary to fix it.” This, on top of the disparity
between how securely Nigerian politicians live compared to the
average Nigerian who are targeted in Boko Haram’s attack,
causes the idea that reforms are soon coming to “ring hollow,”
Seay said
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