The People’s Democratic Party candidate, Atiku Abubakar, secured a visa to the United States for the first time in 12 years after a reported travel ban due to corruption charges. The ruling All Progressive Congress (APC) had latched on to Atiku’s inability to enter the US to discredit him. Prior to Atiku’s travel, Information Minister, Lai Mohammed, aware that a visa for the former vice president would undermine the APC narrative and possibly affect the outcome of the elections, warned the US to be neutral and not to take a decision that will give the impression that they are endorsing one candidate over the other.
Following his arrival in the US on January 17, where he met with top US diplomats and lawmakers, there were so many unanswered questions on how Atiku was able to waive the ban. Some reports emerged that the former vice president travelled as an aide to Senate President Bukola Saraki for a US Chamber of Commerce event. However, Reuters has exclusively revealed that Atiku secured a visa to the US with the help of two US lobbying firms.
The US administration has not commented on Atiku’s status or his travel, but several US diplomats and others familiar with the visit told Reuters the former vice president has been banned from entering the United States for the past several years after he figured prominently in two corruption cases. Reuters said the visa ban, which is still in place, was linked to decade-old bribery scandals, quoting people familiar with the matter.
Findings by Reuters showed the former vice president personally hired Holland & Knight in December to help him secure a visa, in part by enlisting members of Congress to request one on his behalf, according to a lobbyist for the firm. It has been paid $80,000 so far. Atiku’s political party had also acquired the services of Ballard Partners at a rate of $90,000 per month in September, before he emerged as the party’s candidate, according to a document seen on the US Department of Justice website.
Lobbyists hired by Atiku said they sought to overcome resistance at the State Department by securing support from members of Congress for the visit, as well as arguing that the top US official for African affairs, Assistant Secretary Tibor Nagy, had an obligation to encourage democracy in the seventh most populous country in the world. The firm’s lobbyists worked to set up a meeting with Nagy, arguing it would show that the United States wanted to encourage free and fair elections in a country where corruption is endemic.
“We are not asking the administration or anyone to take sides, but to merely demand the same level of freeness and fairness,” Ballard lobbyist Jamie Rubin told Reuters. “Assistant Secretary Nagy was pleased to meet with him and share the US government’s expectations that Nigeria’s elections be free, fair, transparent, and peaceful, and reflect the will of the Nigerian people,” a State Department official said, stressing the department had not requested the waiver. Aside from Nagy, Atiku met with business leaders at the US Chamber of Commerce and at least two Republican lawmakers in the House of Representatives who specialize in foreign affairs, Rep Michael McCaul of Texas and Rep Chris Smith of New Jersey. Neither requested a waiver for Atiku, spokespeople for the two congressmen told Reuters.
An anonymous source told Reuters that Atiku was allowed to enter because the United States saw little benefit to creating bad blood with the man who might be the next leader of Africa’s most populous nation and the continent’s biggest oil producer.
For Atiku’s supporters, the fact he was able to visit Washington without being arrested was proof that the allegations were baseless. “It is fake news, and we showed that,” said Harold Molokwu, who heads the US chapter of the PDP. Atiku stayed at the Trump International Hotel, owned by President Donald Trump, and met with several hundred Nigerians there. The luxury hotel is the subject of several lawsuits that allege Trump is violating the emoluments clause in the US Constitution that limits the president’s ability to accept gifts from foreign governments. Atiku’s supporters said they chose the hotel because they were able to book rooms at a discounted rate with only a few days’ notice. “I think it was because of the availability of space,” said Uche Udemadu, of the US chapter of the PDP. A spokeswoman for the hotel declined to comment.
Atiku’s visa troubles stem from when he served as Nigeria’s vice president, from 1999 to 2007. He figured prominently in the corruption trial of former US Congressman William Jefferson, who was accused of trying to bribe Atiku in an effort to expand a technology business in Nigeria. According to the Federal Bureau of Investigation, $90,000 in cash found in Jefferson’s freezer was intended for Atiku. Mr. Jefferson had told colleagues of his plans to bribe Atiku with as much as $500,000 in cash, in exchange for business favors in Nigeria. Jefferson was convicted in 2009 and sentenced to 13 years in prison. His sentence was subsequently reduced.
Separately, Atiku and his fourth wife Jennifer Douglas, an American citizen, were indicted in a 2010 US Senate committee report titled “Keeping Foreign Corruption out of the United States.” They were accused of transferring over $40 million “suspect funds” to America from offshore accounts between 2002 and 2008. At least $1.7 million of that money was bribes paid by German technology company Siemens AG, according to Senate investigators. Siemens pleaded guilty to bribery charges in 2008 and agreed to pay a $1.6 billion fine. Atiku has repeatedly denied any wrongdoing. Neither he nor his wife faces any criminal charges in the United States. “These issues have been addressed several times in the past and we do not wish to comment further on them,” a spokesman for Atiku said when asked about the corruption allegations.
Atiku (middle), arrives in US accompanied by Saraki and Osita Chidoka
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