January/February 1998 Issue

Welcome to the NEW! and IMPROVED! Nigeria

Dispatches from a public relations war

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In 1993, the Nigerian military annulled a free and fair general election and seized control of the government. Since then Gen. Sani Abacha, the regime’s leader, has received international notoriety for, among other actions, imprisoning 7,000 people without charge, including the winner of the 1993 election and many journalists; allegedly providing military support and security for Royal Dutch/Shell’s environmentally destructive oil operations in Nigeria; and executing anti-Shell activist Ken Saro-Wiwa and eight others in 1995.

An international campaign to impose economic sanctions now threatens Nigeria’s $12 billion annual take from oil exports. Abacha, meanwhile, has countered with a public relations blitz to the tune of nearly $10 million. He’s recruited high-profile American allies to speak against proposed U.S. sanctions, including Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan (“I will give Abacha a chance to do what he wants to do”) and Illinois Sen. Carol Moseley-Braun (“We have an obligation to see to it that [U.S.] policy…is formulated based on facts and not fiction or prejudice”), both of whom have visited Nigeria. Abacha has also bought the services ($3 million worth in 1995-96 alone) of well-connected U.S. lobbying and PR firms, including heavyweights Symms, Lehn & Associates (headed by former Idaho Sen. Steven Symms) and Ruder Finn (whose clients have included L.L. Bean and the Vatican).


DEMONSTRATION

Lagos youths protest the June 1993
annulment of Nigeria’s general
elections by the military. Gen. Sani
Abacha, the current military leader,
has promised to hold elections in
August of this year.

In April 1997, Nigeria paid an estimated $598,600 for a 16-page advertising supplement in the Wall Street Journal, which featured a self-congratulatory interview with Abacha and lauded the “political, economic, and social stability” of his regime. Designed to appeal to foreign investors, the ad also praised Nigeria’s bank reform and fiscal austerity measures. (Abacha has allegedly siphoned off $1 billion from Nigeria’s oil revenues for his personal profit.)

The PR campaign even has a foothold on the Web. The Nigeria Today Web site is devoted to covering “Nigeria’s positive role in Africa & the World.” The site, maintained for the Nigeria Mission to the United Nations, features the transcript of a 1997 Abacha speech (“We all must imbibe the spirit of give and take, fair play, justice, and respect for the rule of law”), diatribes against U.S. meddling in Nigerian affairs—and upscale real estate listings.

All this is in sharp contrast to these rarely seen portraits of life inside Nigeria’s borders, captured by photojournalist Ray Onwuemegbulem and published for the first time in Mother Jones.

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“Great journalism really does make a difference in this world: it can even save kids.”

That’s what a civil rights lawyer wrote to Julia Lurie, the day after her major investigation into a psychiatric hospital chain that uses foster children as “cash cows” published, letting her know he was using her findings that same day in a hearing to keep a child out of one of the facilities we investigated.

That’s awesome. As is the fact that Julia, who spent a full year reporting this challenging story, promptly heard from a Senate committee that will use her work in their own investigation of Universal Health Services. There’s no doubt her revelations will continue to have a big impact in the months and years to come.

Like another story about Mother Jones’ real-world impact.

This one, a multiyear investigation, published in 2021, exposed conditions in sugar work camps in the Dominican Republic owned by Central Romana—the conglomerate behind brands like C&H and Domino, whose product ends up in our Hershey bars and other sweets. A year ago, the Biden administration banned sugar imports from Central Romana. And just recently, we learned of a previously undisclosed investigation from the Department of Homeland Security, looking into working conditions at Central Romana. How big of a deal is this?

“This could be the first time a corporation would be held criminally liable for forced labor in their own supply chains,” according to a retired special agent we talked to.

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And it is only because Mother Jones is funded primarily by donations from readers that we can mount ambitious, yearlong—or more—investigations like these two stories that are making waves.

About that: It’s unfathomably hard in the news business right now, and we came up about $28,000 short during our recent fall fundraising campaign. We simply have to make that up soon to avoid falling further behind than can be made up for, or needing to somehow trim $1 million from our budget, like happened last year.

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WHO DOESN’T LOVE A POSITIVE STORY—OR TWO?

“Great journalism really does make a difference in this world: it can even save kids.”

That’s what a civil rights lawyer wrote to Julia Lurie, the day after her major investigation into a psychiatric hospital chain that uses foster children as “cash cows” published, letting her know he was using her findings that same day in a hearing to keep a child out of one of the facilities we investigated.

That’s awesome. As is the fact that Julia, who spent a full year reporting this challenging story, promptly heard from a Senate committee that will use her work in their own investigation of Universal Health Services. There’s no doubt her revelations will continue to have a big impact in the months and years to come.

Like another story about Mother Jones’ real-world impact.

This one, a multiyear investigation, published in 2021, exposed conditions in sugar work camps in the Dominican Republic owned by Central Romana—the conglomerate behind brands like C&H and Domino, whose product ends up in our Hershey bars and other sweets. A year ago, the Biden administration banned sugar imports from Central Romana. And just recently, we learned of a previously undisclosed investigation from the Department of Homeland Security, looking into working conditions at Central Romana. How big of a deal is this?

“This could be the first time a corporation would be held criminally liable for forced labor in their own supply chains,” according to a retired special agent we talked to.

Wow.

And it is only because Mother Jones is funded primarily by donations from readers that we can mount ambitious, yearlong—or more—investigations like these two stories that are making waves.

About that: It’s unfathomably hard in the news business right now, and we came up about $28,000 short during our recent fall fundraising campaign. We simply have to make that up soon to avoid falling further behind than can be made up for, or needing to somehow trim $1 million from our budget, like happened last year.

If you can, please support the reporting you get from Mother Jones—that exists to make a difference, not a profit—with a donation of any amount today. We need more donations than normal to come in from this specific blurb to help close our funding gap before it gets any bigger.

payment methods

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