New administration in Nigeria means new lobbyists in D.C.

A new administration brings new work for lobbyists to Washington, even when that administration is headquartered in Abuja, Nigeria, rather than the White House.

Watts Consulting Group has signed a preliminary contract with the new Nigerian government in the hopes of inking a longer-term deal, according to records the Justice Department posted online last week. After eight years in office, President Olusegun Obasanjo left power in the wake of his country’s April elections. Goodworks International, a firm with long-standing ties to the Nigerian politician, saw its contract end that month.

{mosads}“The call just came out of the blue,” a senior partner at J.C. Watts Companies, Steve Pruitt, said of the current government. He was soon whisked to New York to meet with the new foreign minister, Ojo Maduekwe.

Watts Consulting Group is a subsidiary of J.C. Watts Companies, named for the former Republican congressman from Oklahoma.

Goodworks plans to work with the new government as well, according to the firm’s chief operating officer, Wallace Ford. Its contract is up for renewal and a new proposal sits before President Umaru Yar’Adua.

The African continent continues to have a solid lobbying presence in the District through a variety of agreements between various countries and top firms. For example, Ford said Goodworks has opened up branch offices in Angola, Ghana, Tanzania and Rwanda during the past two years.

The contentious spring elections in Nigeria led to a lobbying battle between opposing factions here in Washington. Several candidates, including then-Vice President Atiku Abubakar, complained of voter fraud in favor of Obasanjo’s chosen pick Yar’Adua in an election heavily criticized by international non-governmental organizations. J.C. Watts’s firm has lobbied for Abubakar in the past.

Pruitt, a former Democratic staff director for the House Budget Committee, credited his long-standing ties to Nigerian officials for the contract. Having lobbied on and off for the Nigerian government during the past two decades, Pruitt was very familiar with Maduekwe.

As a young government aide 15 years ago, the foreign minister allowed Pruitt to make international calls to his daughter in the U.S. while the lobbyist was in Africa.
“I consider him an old and dear friend,” Pruitt said.

Still “in the midst of ongoing negotiations,” according to the contract filed with the Justice Department, the firm is coordinating meetings between Nigeria’s new government and lawmakers as well as administration officials “in order to secure a more formal, long-term agreement with the government.”

Pruitt is planning to take Nigeria’s foreign minister on a tour around Capitol Hill in late October and introduce him to key members of the Congressional Black Caucus. The lobbyist characterized the meetings as “introductory” in nature.  
Nigeria’s election troubles grabbed the world’s attention due to the nation’s prominence in the energy arena: It was the fifth-largest exporter of oil to the U.S. in July this year, according to the Energy Information Administration’s most recent estimate.

But many lobbyists and consultants who spoke to The Hill said they want to help move the continent beyond the fuel market and into other goods. Trade is the dominant issue, emerging from recent lobbying contracts filed by African countries.

The chief executive at the Whitaker Group, Rosa Whitaker, contends that much of her work for African clients on Capitol Hill concerns the trade and investment sector.

“We think Africa’s capital needs to stay in Africa,” said the former assistant U.S. trade representative for Africa during the Clinton and George W. Bush administrations. Whitaker points to her firm’s assistance in helping to lift the U.S.’s ban on exports of Nigerian shrimp in January.

Several lobbyists attended the African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA) forum held in Ghana this July. The act provides several incentives for companies located on the continent or that export certain goods, such as textiles, from Africa, according to Ford.

“There is tremendous business opportunity there in Africa. We see ourselves as a catalyst … triggering the necessary development,” the Goodworks executive said.

The firm signed a $300,000 annual contract with the government of Benin to help find opportunities under AGOA in late November 2006. To help facilitate that discussion, Goodworks President and Chief Executive Carlton Masters hosted a dinner at his residence attended by Benin’s president and the assistant U.S. trade representative for Africa, Florizelle Liser, in December last year.

Under a $350,000 contract for its first year, the firm also is working on the Millennium Challenge Account with another new client, Cameroon’s Ministry of Economy and Finance. The program, created by the Bush administration in 2002, awards foreign aid to countries based on their meeting certain democratic and civil-society standards.

Lobbyists hope to find a receptive outlet on Capitol Hill, where a number of caucuses are centered on Africa. Pruitt plans to work with the relatively new West Africa Caucus, which he consults for, to help his new client of Nigeria.

Whitaker also appreciates the support of another caucus specifically dedicated to one of her clients, the government of the Ivory Coast. For example, the caucus encouraged the Bush administration to provide funds for elections preparations last year, according to Whitaker.

With Africa emerging as more of a common destination for lobbyists, Nigeria’s new federal government may also sign more firms other than just J.C. Watts’s group, Pruitt said. 

“We will be positioning Nigeria to work with the next administration here in America,” he said.