By Joshua Timi
The Lagos State chapter of the All Progressives Congress (APC) has launched a robust defence of the Federal Government’s $9 million foreign lobbying contract, labelling opposition criticism as either ignorant or deliberately misleading.
In a strongly-worded statement issued on Friday and made available to TheWest Newspaper, party spokesman Seye Oladejo framed the deal with Washington-based firm DCI Group as a routine and necessary instrument of modern statecraft, accusing political rivals of attempting to “demarket” Nigeria on the global stage.
“The criticism by the opposition shows either grave ignorance of modern governance or a deliberate attempt to mislead the public,” Oladejo stated, dismissing a unified critique from the African Democratic Congress (ADC), Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), New Nigeria Peoples Party (NNPP), and Labour Party.
The contract, signed in December 2025 and brokered by Kaduna’s Aster Legal firm on behalf of the National Security Adviser, is designed to communicate Nigeria’s counter-terrorism and Christian protection efforts to US policymakers. Oladejo argued this is standard international practice, not an anomaly.
“Countries across North America, Europe, the Middle East, Asia and Africa deploy such firms to influence policy, boost trade, secure development assistance and protect strategic assets,” he said. “It bears restating that lobbying is a universal, lawful and widely deployed instrument of statecraft.”
The APC’s defence positions the Tinubu administration as proactively engaging with the world, in contrast to what it describes as the opposition’s destructive negativity. Oladejo claimed the opposition is “unsettled” because the contract would end their ability to control Nigeria’s international narrative.
“The Federal Government is not unaware of the enormous resources the opposition has historically deployed to talk the country down internationally, while paradoxically remaining disappointed that their repeated predictions of doom and Armageddon have failed to materialise,” the statement read.
Oladejo positioned the deal as a corrective to “false narratives,” ensuring Nigeria’s story is told from what he called “a positive, factual and forward-looking perspective, not by those driven by cynicism, misinformation and a destructive political agenda.”
“The discomfort of the opposition does not stem from concern for probity, but from the realisation that Nigeria has chosen confidence over apology, engagement over silence and leadership over provincial thinking,” he concluded. “Strategic international advocacy is not a crime; it is a necessity in a competitive global order.”
The statement marks an escalation in the political war of words over the controversial contract, reframing the debate from one of fiscal priority to one of national image and diplomatic sophistication. The Lagos APC urged Nigerians to defend the nation’s interests internationally, squarely backing the federal government’s strategic choice.
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