A United States congressional hearing on global religious freedom has criticised the Federal Government’s reported $9 million lobbying contract in Washington, with lawmakers warning that the move appeared designed to downplay serious human rights and religious freedom violations in Nigeria.
The concerns were raised on Wednesday during a joint hearing of the House Subcommittee on Africa and the Subcommittee on the Western Hemisphere, titled “Defending Religious Freedom Around the World.”
The session featured testimony from former US Ambassador-at-Large for International Religious Freedom, Sam Brownback, and former chair of the US Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF), Dr Stephen Schneck.
Chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Africa Subcommittee, Chris Smith, defended the October 2025 decision to designate Nigeria as a Country of Particular Concern (CPC) under the International Religious Freedom Act, describing the move as “long overdue” given years of deadly violence against Christian communities.
Smith said he was deeply troubled by efforts to undermine that designation through lobbying.
“I just want to say to my colleagues that I am deeply concerned that Nigeria has hired the lobbying firm DCI Group to the tune of $9 million — $750,000 a month,” Smith said.
He added that a Nigerian billionaire had also signed a $120,000-per-month contract with Washington-based consulting firm Valcour to influence Congress and the Executive Branch.
“They hire these firms; they come up with very well-written talking points to suggest there’s nothing to see here. Unfortunately, these firms are extremely effective at advocating for their clients on religious freedom,” Smith said.
While Smith framed the CPC designation as necessary pressure on Nigeria, the Ranking Member of the subcommittee, Sara Jacobs, criticised what she described as an overly narrow focus on Christian persecution.
Jacobs noted that despite stated concerns about religious violence, the US had cut hundreds of millions of dollars in foreign assistance to Nigeria, including funding for programmes supporting faith leaders and conflict-affected communities.
She cited the termination of the Community Initiatives to Promote Peace programme, which she said had helped reduce violence in parts of the country.
“Despite the administration’s apparent interest in addressing conflict and religious tensions in Nigeria, it has cut hundreds of millions of dollars in foreign assistance, including support for faith leaders and communities experiencing violence in the Middle Belt,” Jacobs said.
She cautioned against framing Nigeria’s crisis solely in religious terms, stressing that the violence affects both Christians and Muslims and is driven by multiple factors.
“The drivers of this violence are multifaceted and cannot be reduced to a single framing,” Jacobs said, warning that oversimplified narratives could further inflame religious tensions.
Jacobs also questioned the effectiveness of recent US military strikes in Sokoto State.
“It is clear that President Trump only cares about Christians in Nigeria, and his only real action to address this problem — military strikes over Christmas — has not materially helped those communities,” she said.
Former USCIRF chair Schneck agreed, arguing that the cost of the strikes likely exceeded previous funding for interfaith and humanitarian programmes and warning that such military action could strengthen militant groups.
“It occurs to me that the cost of the Tomahawk missiles probably exceeded the amount of money previously going to Nigeria to improve interfaith relations and provide humanitarian assistance,” Schneck said.
“I suspect that strikes like that, to the extent that they have any effect at all, may actually drive militant organisations closer together and mobilise them further. I think the strike was a mistake.”
Testifying on Nigeria’s broader security challenges, Schneck described a complex mix of Boko Haram and ISWAP terrorism, farmer-herder conflicts, banditry, organised crime, mass displacement, and what he called “a corrupt and frankly failing government” unable to provide basic security and justice.
Lawmakers also debated whether the CPC designation alone was sufficient. Rep. Jefferson Shreve questioned its effectiveness, prompting Brownback to argue that the designation must be backed by sanctions and concrete measures.
“Until you put some bite into it, most of these dictators are just going to thumb their nose at you,” Brownback said, calling for Magnitsky sanctions and targeted economic penalties.
Schneck supported this view, describing CPC listings as largely “name and shame” measures without direct consequences.
Although Rep. Bill Huizenga said recent US actions had helped refocus attention on Nigeria, Brownback expressed deep mistrust of the Federal Government, accusing it of abandoning power-sharing traditions and failing to protect vulnerable communities.
“This government has not given us any reason to trust them,” Brownback said.
US President Donald Trump has repeatedly claimed that Christians in Nigeria face genocide and has previously threatened military action. The Federal Government has rejected those claims, insisting that while Nigeria faces serious security challenges, there is no genocide.
Despite the tensions, US Africa Command, working with President Bola Tinubu’s administration, carried out airstrikes on December 25 against terrorist targets in Sokoto State.
In January, documents revealed that the Federal Government had entered into a $9 million contract with US-based lobbying firm DCI Group to communicate Nigeria’s efforts to protect Christians to the US government.
Filings with the US Department of Justice showed that Kaduna-based Aster Legal retained DCI Group on behalf of the National Security Adviser, Nuhu Ribadu. The agreement was signed on December 17, 2025.
Separately, documents seen by AFP revealed that billionaire Matthew Tonlagha signed a $120,000-per-month contract with US lobbying firm Valcour to lobby US media, Congress and the Trump administration for six months “for the purpose of strengthening the bilateral relationship between the US and Nigeria.”
The contract was published on a US government platform where lobbyists are required to disclose ties to foreign governments.
Valcour was founded in 2023 by Matt Mowers, a former State Department adviser during Trump’s first term. Tonlagha is vice-president of Tantita Security Services, an oil infrastructure protection firm owned by a prominent former leader of the Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta, Oweizidei Ekpemupolo.
