Reports emerging on Wednesday have revealed that the Nigerian government under President Bola Tinubu has significantly outspent Biafran secessionist groups in Washington, D.C., as both sides vie to influence United States President Donald Trump in an intensifying lobbying battle over Christian genocide in Nigeria.
According to a report by the UK-based publication Africa Confidential, the Nigerian government secured a lucrative lobbying contract worth $750,000 per month (renewable, initially for six months) with the DCI Group. DCI Group is a US-based public affairs and lobbying firm.
The firm, which counts close Trump ally Roger Stone among its advisors, is tasked with advocating for U.S. support on issues including visa policy, military cooperation, trade, tariffs, and emphasizing the efforts of the Nigerian government to protect both Christians and Muslims while combating jihadist violence.
This expenditure dwarfs the spending by the Biafran Republic Government in Exile (BRGIE), a separatist entity led from abroad, which pays just $66,000 per month to the smaller Madison & Washington lobbying firm.
The lobbying battle over Christian genocide in Nigeria comes against the backdrop of escalating U.S.-Nigeria tensions. Trump had repeatedly issued condemnations of violence against Christians in Nigeria. In 2025, Trump designated Nigeria a “Country of Particular Concern” under the International Religious Freedom Act. The U.S President also threatened military action in Nigeria if the government fails to secure the lives of Christians in the country.
Trump proved true to his words on Christmas Day, December 25, 2025, by launching airstrikes on Islamic terrorists’ enclaves in Sokoto State. On January 8, 2026, Trump told The New York Times that additional U.S. airstrikes were likely.
Meanwhile, according to a lobbying contract document filed with the U.S Department of Justice, Aster Legal, a law firm in Kaduna state, hired the services of DCI Group on behalf of Nuhu Ribadu, the national security adviser.
It was gathered that the contract totalling $9 million was signed by Oyetunji Olalekan Teslim, the managing partner of Aster Legal, and Justin Peterson, managing member of DCI group, on December 17, 2025.
According to the contract details, the American lobbying firm is expected to lobby on behalf of the Nigerian government to influence Trump as the lobbying battle over the Christian genocide in the country escalates.
It was agreed that the contract would be for six months until June 30, 2026, and would be automatically renewed for another six months.
The deal has also been confirmed by a representative of DCI Group. The representative said: “We are pleased to support the Government of Nigeria in communicating its ongoing efforts to protect Christians and people of all faiths from radical jihadist groups and other destabilising elements, while also strengthening trade and commercial ties that benefit both Nigeria and the United States.”
It was also gathered that the DCI Group fee is higher than what the Biafran Republic Government in Exile is paying the Madison & Washington lobby company. This contract, announced on January 10, is remarkably ambitious, considering the fee of $66,000 and the undisclosed duration.
The Biafran group, by hiring the lobbying company, aims to influence Trump on the details of the Christian genocide in Nigeria. The group is also seeking defence and security arrangements, counter-terrorism cooperation, and engagement with US and international oil and gas companies under a hypothetical ‘new Biafran Administration’.
It argues that Christian-targeted violence in Nigeria is due to the complicity of the state under Tinubu and that a pro-US Biafran administration in south-east Nigeria would better serve US interests in the region and would also offer more favourable terms for US oil companies operating in ‘Biafra territory’. It failed to disclose that in the Southeast zone, Christians are killing multiple Christians in separatist attacks.
Besides, the Pro Christian and Biafran-secessionist groups have been tapping into the religious right and evangelical Christian organisations in the U.S for a couple of decades, winning endorsement from senior Republican figures such as Ted Cruz (Texas R), who chairs the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, and former Secretary of State (during Trump’s first term) Mike Pompeo.
“The filings don’t explain where Aster Legal raises the funds from – but insiders say it would come either from wealthy Tinubu supporters or indirectly from the government. Well plugged into Washington, London is also a commentator and a columnist for Newsmax, whose chief executive, Christopher Ruddy, is close to Trump.
“Insiders in Washington say the DCI lobbyists will focus on the Tinubu government’s moves ‘to protect Christians’. Tinubu is desperate to avoid being defined through a ‘Christian persecution’ lens and to preserve strategic cooperation (counter-terrorism support) and diplomatic alignment (Dispatches 22/9/25, Warlords to Washington).
“DCI’s lobbying rival in Nigeria – Madison and Washington – is a much smaller outfit despite having some influential friends in the US Congress. Its Chief Executive Elias Gerasoulis, 29, formerly a vice president and partner at Moran Strategies in the US capital, set up Madison & Washington and took the firm’s Biafran and Eritrean clients with him, announcing this on social media on 10 January.
“Joining Gerasoulis at Madison & Washington is Arman Dabiri, a Washington-based lawyer who was the legal counsel to Libyan leader Moammar Gaddafi’s regime in the 2003 settlement where it accepted responsibility for the Lockerbie bombing and paid $2.7 billion to compensate the families of the victims (AC Vol 45 No 1, Fresh start for old faces).
“Gerasoulis, a Republican fundraiser who has donated funds to Ted Cruz, is trying to use the Trump administration’s claims of genocide against Nigerian Christians to promote Biafra’s independence. He wants to capitalise on the US’s designation of Nigeria as a country which violates religious freedom on 31 October last year, which prompted Trump’s threats to attack Nigeria,” the report reveals.
