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The Jonathan Presidency and the LEVICK Group: When Incompetence meets with Deceptive Public Relations

Such is the caricature Nigeria has become. Nigeria has become such a joke, so much so that the President, his cabal and the even the opposition parties have turned the issue of security of the lives and properties of Nigerians into a political game, and a tool for campaign in the coming general elections.

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The date was Sunday 19 July, 2014, time—10:00 am and the venue was the tiny corner of my room somewhere in Dunedin. I had just woken up from a not too pleasant sleep which was punctured intermittently by the constant reminders of the agony which the 219 abducted Chibok girls were going through somewhere on the border between Borno state, Niger Republic, Cameroon and Chad. I switched on my laptop to monitor developments in Nigeria, spending the time in between the laptop boot-up time praying not to wake up to read the story of another bomb blast in Nigeria, as I have read on a daily basis since January 2014.

But alas! I was wrong, not only had there been numerous bombings in Borno state, but an event, worse more than that had happened. I felt deeply enraged within my spirit. Starring at the dangling mirror hanging on the wall, and looking at myself like someone who had just caught his newly connubial wife and her concubine on his matrimonial bed, 3 days after their wedding. The rage grew so loudly within me, gradually dissolving into small little sobs. Within a twinkle of an eye, the sobs had metamorphosed into a pretty heavy wail, with my eyes suddenly going ‘red’ as I struggled to ask myself why I was weeping when I had not been beaten? And when in real life, I had not caught my wife on our matrimonial bed with another man?

Let me not take you further on this story. I was weeping because Nigeria, my pride, my home, and my heritage had graduated from a once peaceful and united country to another Sodom and Gomorrah. And not only has it become Africa’s newest Sodom and Gomorrah, but the good men (ordinary Nigerians) are simply watching in helplessness on hopelessness while a group of mentally deranged individuals, probably not up to 20,000 have suddenly become more powerful than the government they elected into power. Representatives of these mad men (Boko Haram) had just slaughtered a man, who was unfortunate to be at the wrong place at the wrong time with a knife, slitting his throat, while his killers relish in the joy of their achievements chorusing Allahu Akbar as the young man bade farewell to this sinful world.

That gentleman’s name was Taiwo Dokun; a pastor with one of the leading Pentecostal churches in Nigeria, and his offence was that he refused to renounce his faith and accept the god of Abubarkar Shekau. For that reason, he was downed with a hail of bullets on the back of his head and chest, before being butchered with a knife by the Boko Haram insurgents until he was certified dead. Grippingly, Taiwo was not the only victim in these latest attacks, 45 other helpless Nigerians, resident in Dile, a village in Askira-Uba local government area of Borno state were also murdered in cold blood by Boko Haram, abducting along with them scores of many others, including Taiwo’s three children and wife. After which the village was declared as a conquered territory, hoisting their white and black Jihadist flag in the process.

Ostensibly motivated by this shock, I beamed my imaginary lenses on the Presidential Villa in Aso Rock; I conjectured within my spirit the mood of the President and C-in-C of the Federal Republic of Nigeria. I saw him sitting down in opulence with a royal breakfast in front of him and a heap of national dailies somewhere close by, with Reuben Abati; his spokesman, smiling while handpicking and directing the attention of the C-in-C to the stories which should make his boss happy, and also in turn keep his job, and by extension his future secured.

And then Mr President, who in between having breakfast and occasional sniggering with Abati, Omokri, and Okupe suddenly stumbled on these latest round of wanton killings in the Newspaper he was holding. The C-in-C, turning to the likes of Abati and co, with a changed countenance, but before he could utter a word, Abati, in his usual hysterical style, opened the flood gates of deceits and denial: “Your Excellency, this (killing) is an isolated case, our men (the military) are winning the war, they have dislodged Shekau and his boys from Malmo Forest in Bauchi state. They are on their way to Sambisa as I speak, Musiliu (Obanikoro) and Alex (Badeh), have just informed Labaran (Maku) and uncle Doyin (Okupe) that he knows where the missing girls are, but it is a military secret, and for that reason he would not tell”.

Sir, we have in fact succeeded in repatriating Sadiq Oguche, the ‘master mind’ of the Nyanya bombings from Sudan,”….and he continues his ranting like a broken tap. And I saw the C-in-C, turning to the three of them (Abati, Omokri and Okupe), asking them if they were sure of the facts (lies) he is been told, and asking them to issue a public statement as usual, condemning the killings, and asking Nigerians to be rest assured of their safety and security, and that terrorism is not peculiar to Nigeria, and that he has directed security agencies to ensure the protection of their lives.

Such is the caricature Nigeria has become. Nigeria has become such a joke, so much so that the President, his cabal and the even the opposition parties have turned the issue of security of the lives and properties of Nigerians into a political game, and a tool for campaign in the coming general elections. With both parties struggling to out-do each other in the propaganda and name calling game, while innocent Nigerians are continually hacked to death by Shekau and fellow mad men. Meanwhile, in the midst of all these killings, the Presidency and the PDP are busy toasting glasses of wine to their very recent electoral fortunes in Ekiti state and also possibly rejoicing in advance for the impending victory of their party in Nasarawa state, after Mr. Al-Makura (most likely) would have been impeached from office.  

And just when I was about shutting down my system after developing head-ache that must have stemmed from the gory developments in Borno state in particular and the North-east in general, my attention was drawn to yet another demonstration of executive recklessness, which unfortunately has become the defining characteristics of this government. This contradiction was tilted “The Original LEVICK PR Contract signed between the Federal Government and LEVICK Strategic Communications”.

To be sure, I have heard as grapevine, the existence of a supposed PR contractual arrangement between the Federal government and the LEVICK group, and I have also seen the hast-tag ‘Say No to LEVICK’ trending on twitter, but nothing in me ever believed the story. I had thought (as most Nigerians most probably do) that this was another ploy to discredit the Jonathan Presidency by the opposition APC and the perceived northern elites who are presumably averse to his second time ambition, until I took a closer look.

I was shocked to the marrows when I read the contract, gazing into my mirror again in utter disbelief with two unanswered questions tearing my conscience apart. (1) Why on earth should Mr President stoop so low in his quest to redeem an image that was self-destroyed? And (2) why is this government increasingly taking Nigerians for granted? Indeed in the said contract, the Presidency, hiding under the auspices of one of its parastatals—the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN)—acting with the pseudo name—NAN-Biz Com Ltd had entered into an agreement with an American based Public Relations Management firm named: LEVICK Strategic Communications, LLC.

According to the contract terms, LEVICK is to assist the Federal government of Nigeria with a range of governmental affairs and public relations matters with effect from June 16, 2014 over a 12—month period in the first instance. In return, the Presidency, through the News Agency of Nigeria is to pay LEVICK the sum of $100,000 (#16.5m) monthly for 12 months ($1.2m or #198m) for its professional services, this is besides her been responsible for other costs incurred by the company with respect to paid media, video production, and other web development services. Additionally, the Presidency is to pay a monthly sum of $25, 000 to one Jared Genser of Perseus Strategies, who according to Lisa Santopietro, the Controller for LEVICK, is an international human rights lawyer.

His job will be to assist President Goodluck Jonathan with the task of promoting transparency, deepen democracy, and the rule of law in Nigeria. The contract terms also annoyingly and deceptively notes that it would not charge the Nigerian government any costs associated with in-house photocopying, faxing, scanning, printing, postage, local communications costs, or for access to our on-line media technology and digital services. However, it will bill the Nigerian government a flat rate of 4.5% of monthly fees to cover these costs, including the costs of actual long-distance or conference calling made on behalf of the Nigerian government.

Furthermore, whatever travel related and meal costs which the company undertakes, (estimated at $22,500 per professional [and per trip]) will be shouldered by the Nigerian government. And that should any of its professionals be based in Nigeria, their per diem living expenses and all third party vendor expenses such as private newswires (e.g., PRNewswire), outsourced printing and copy jobs, significant costs for postage and handling etc. will be charged at full cost to the Nigerian government. And more importantly, its professional service fee of $100,000 per month must be paid on a quarterly basis, with another liable payment of 1.5% per month interest on all outstanding balances the Nigerian government fails to redeem at the end of 30 days.

In return for all these bogus payments and expenses to be assumed (or already been borne) by Nigerians, LEVICK claims it will assist the Presidency:

with efforts to find and safely return the more than 200 girls abducted by terrorist organization, Boko Haram in Borno state;
in mobilizing international support in fighting Boko Haram as part of the greater global war on terror, and lastly;
in communicating the administration’s past, present, and future priority to foster transparency, democracy and the rule of law throughout Nigeria.

The above, is what the Presidency has been struggling hard to conceive. It has as a matter of fact through its Ministry of Information denied signing any PR contract with LEVICK, until we saw the Op (ed) supposedly written by President Goodluck Jonathan in the Washington Post of June 26, 2014. Unfortunately, that PR attempt which was meant to booster the image of the Presidency, only succeeded in further ridiculing that exalted office him in the eyes of the international media, with both the Post Editorial comment of New York Times of June 27, 2014, and the Karen Atthia inspired “what Nigeria’s President should have written” mantra of July 2, 2014, finally nailing the coffin of LEVICKs’ supposed first assignment.

To be sure, my concern in this piece is not to fault the decision of the Presidency to engage effective public relations channels to communicate its programmes and plans of action to its citizens. Indeed, every responsible government should, but the question is why LEVICK? Why must it be an American firm? How could a government in all logical sense engage a PR firm to help in its fight against Terrorism? What job would LEVICK have done that the likes of the News Agency of Nigeria, National Television Authority, the Federal Ministry of Information and the National Orientation Agency cannot do? And how could our government be so blind to the terms of engagement and the financial details of the contract?

For instance, the Nigerian government according to the contractual terms will pay LEVICK and its self-appointed lawyer the sum of $125, 000 a month for services it will most certainly not render because there is no image to project in the first instance; this is besides other running costs which the firm has refused to cap or put a ceiling on. Additionally, LEVICK has also made it clear to the Nigerian government that should it decide to send any of its staff to help the Presidency manage its public relations, the bills and the per diem remains the soul responsibility of the government and people of Nigeria. And for every official trip LEVICK undertakes in the name of PR for the Presidency, Nigerians would have to cough out the sum of $22, 500 as a mark of appreciation for their efforts or if you like their ‘estacode’.

This is the same government that has a Presidential spokesman (Dr. Reuben Abati) Senior Special Assistants on Publicity (Dr. Doyin Okupe) and Senior Special Assistant on New Media (Mr Reno Omokri) feeding fat on our Common-wealth.  I remain equally baffled at how LEVICK, an organisation that does not even know where Borno state is, except probably on the map of Nigeria, can claim to be capable of helping the Jonathan Presidency on how best to combat Boko Haram, which kidnapped an estimated 270 girls in April.

To put in  the words of the firm itself, "as the world witnesses the brutality of Boko Haram, and its cowardly tactics of using children as pawns in their terrorist campaign, LEVICK's only mission is assisting the government of Nigeria with its number one priority—the rescue of the girls and combating terrorism." The question then is: how can a PR firm based in Washington, (United States) assist the Nigerian government to combat terrorism and rescue the Chibok girls? Again, in what ways did LEVICK assist the United States in confronting the threats posed by Al-Qaeda in the wake of the 9/11 Bombings or in the rescue of US soldier—Bowe Bergdahl from the Taliban? Does LEVICK think that Nigerians are as gullible or as confused as its employer appears to be?
 
Simply put, what this government has done by hiring LEVICK is a demonstration of its vote of no confidence on its own media institutions, and more importantly, on its array of Special and Senior Special Assistants on Media and Publicity. With the hiring of LEVICK as a PR firm, the Presidency is telling Nigerians that the likes of Abati, Omokri and Okupe are merely instruments of ‘retweet’, and as a result they lack the sophistication to help it mould or manage its public relations with its own citizens. By all intent and purpose, hiring an American PR firm to help reshape the image of the Nigerian government both at home and abroad is an acceptance of failure of leadership by the Presidency itself. A performing government should not require someone else to blow its trumpet on its behalf, that responsibility is borne and executed by its citizens without complaints in instances where such a government is perceived, seen, and believed to be delivering on its promise of good governance.
 
Unfortunately, the reverse seems to be the case in Nigeria. Now that LEVICK seem to have been chosen by the Presidency to help polish its image with respect to its handling of the CHIBOK abduction, Nigerians are waiting for its explanation on why the 219 Chibok girls are still in Sambisa, 100 days after their abduction, and why their chances of been rescued are getting increasingly slimmer by the day. We are waiting for its defence on the Presidency’s request to the National Assembly for its approval to borrow at least $1billon to equip its military after an initial amount of #3 trillion has been spent on the same military over the last 3 years with little or nothing to show for it. And more importantly, Nigerians are waiting for LEVICKs’ explanation as to why some Nigerian soldiers are reportedly deserting the Army and fleeing for their lives when confronted with Boko Haram’s heavy fire power in the battle field.
 
In any case, by the time LEVICKs’ contract officially ends on May 15, 2015, the Presidency would have made a whooping #247.5 million in statutory payments to the LEVICK group for a job not done. The same amount of money that could have: built a standard digital studio for the National Television Authority, or at least sunk 50 portable boreholes in 50 different communities in Abuja or in the nation’s Teaching hospitals where patients are made to buy water to have their bath. How more wasteful and inconsiderate can a government be; particularly in a country where its civil servants are merely paid a meagre #18, 000 a month? Where a vast majority of its people live on less than $3 a day? And where poverty is not only felt in the homes and pots of 70% of its population, but also visibly written on their faces and expressions?    
 

Olumuyiwa Babatunde Amao is a Doctoral Candidate in the Department of Politics at the University of Otago, New Zealand. He tweets @talk2smat and can also be contacted via email on [email protected].