{"id":24073,"date":"2026-01-15T02:21:11","date_gmt":"2026-01-15T02:21:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/24073\/"},"modified":"2026-01-15T02:21:11","modified_gmt":"2026-01-15T02:21:11","slug":"fgs-9m-image-laundering-contract-to-us-firms-is-deceptive-pdp","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/24073\/","title":{"rendered":"FG’s $9m image laundering contract to US firms is deceptive \u2014 PDP"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP)<\/a> has faulted reports of an alleged $9 million public relations and lobbying contract between the Federal Government and a United States-based firm, DCI Group, describing the arrangement as defective, deceptive and embarrassing.\n<\/p>\n

In a statement yesterday, the party\u2019s National Publicity Secretary, Comrade Ini Ememobong<\/a>, said the contract, reportedly facilitated through Aster Legal, was meant to \u201cassist the Nigerian government in communicating its actions to protect Nigerian Christian communities\u201d and was designed to run for six months with an automatic renewal for another six months.\n<\/p>\n

Ememobong expressed concern that a government with a fully fledged Ministry of Information and a retinue of media aides would resort to engaging a foreign firm to manage its image abroad.\n<\/p>\n

According to him, the move suggested a lack of confidence in the Ministry of Information and the administration\u2019s media machinery, despite being led by what he described as seasoned professionals.\n<\/p>\n

\u201cThe revelation is as disturbing as it is shameful,\u201d the PDP spokesman said, adding that the Ministry of Information, under a public relations expert, had in recent years shown \u201cmaturity and responsibility\u201d in the management of government information.<\/p>\n

The opposition party demanded clarification from the Presidency on several issues, including whether the contract was captured in the 2025 budget<\/a>; why it was executed through a private law firm rather than the Federal Ministry of Justice; the specific roles of Information and Public Relations officers in Nigeria\u2019s diplomatic missions; and the key performance indicators for the contract. <\/p>\n

Ememobong argued that no lobbying or strategic communication firm could substitute for the lived experiences of Nigerians, particularly in an era of instant global information flow.\n<\/p>\n

He maintained that if the administration was keen on improving Nigeria\u2019s image abroad, it should prioritise investments in the security of lives and property rather than what he termed \u201cdeceptive communication\u201d.\n<\/p>\n

\u201cThe undeniable truth is that Nigerians have not felt this insecure, even during the civil war,\u201d he said, urging President Bola Tinubu<\/a> to ensure the safety of all citizens, irrespective of religion, and to guarantee freedom of worship while reducing incidents of mass killings.\n<\/p>\n

According to the PDP, genuine improvements in security would naturally shape global perceptions of Nigeria and Nigerians.<\/p>\n

The party called on the President to scale back what it described as an appetite for \u201ceasy public validation through ephemeral optics\u201d and instead focus on providing sustainable solutions to what it identified as the nation\u2019s foremost challenge of worsening insecurity<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has faulted reports of an alleged $9 million public relations and lobbying contract…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":24074,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[45],"tags":[122,1086,1578],"class_list":{"0":"post-24073","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nigeria","8":"tag-nigeria","9":"tag-pdp","10":"tag-tinubu"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24073","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=24073"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24073\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/24074"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=24073"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=24073"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=24073"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}