The $9m Mirage: Why Nigeria is Chasing Ghostly Influence in Washington

Shola Adebiyi

In the high-stakes game of navigating the 47th presidency, there is a right way and a wrong way to play the hand. One country recently faced a total diplomatic meltdown and fixed it with a single phone call. The other just signed a $9 million-a-year check to a man famous for wearing top hats and causing spectacles, but who possesses zero actual power to stop an incoming policy storm.

The contrast between Colombia and Nigeria isn’t just a difference in diplomacy; it’s a lesson in the difference between a strategic masterstroke and an expensive mistake.

Nigeria’s decision to hire the DCI Group—and by extension, the self-proclaimed “agent provocateur” Roger Stone—is a move that screams desperation. At a staggering $750,000 a month, the Tinubu administration is effectively paying for a seat at the “cool kids’ table” in the Trump ecosystem. But here is the problem: Roger Stone is a master of the “dark arts” of name-calling and media stunts, not the heavy lifting of international relations.

In the world of MAGA politics, “access” is a commodity sold to the highest bidder, but “influence” is earned through leverage. By tethering their national security to DCI and Stone, Nigeria has ignored a fundamental truth: Stone has no pedigree in the actual policy-making machinery of this administration. He is a survivor and a showman, but he is not a legislator.

In Washington, lobbyists like those at DCI and operatives like Stone have a specific business model. They don’t get paid to solve your problems quickly; they get paid to keep you worried enough to keep the retainer coming. If the threat of U.S. intervention in Nigeria disappears, so does the $9 million paycheck.

By hiring a “charlatan” of the old school who specializes in rhetoric over results, Nigeria hasn’t bought security; they’ve bought a very expensive megaphone that will likely only increase the noise without changing the signal. Stone’s specialty is keeping his clients in the news, but Nigeria’s goal should be to get out of the President’s crosshairs.

Look at Colombia’s President Gustavo Petro. Only a few months ago, Petro was public enemy number one in Washington. Trump had revoked his visa, accused him of drug-trafficking ties, and threatened to treat Colombia like a hostile state. Petro didn’t respond by hiring a flamboyant PR man to shout back. He did something much smarter: he found a “Trump tamer.”

Petro realized that Donald Trump, while often guided by his own instincts, is also a man of transactions who respects the power of the U.S. Senate. Instead of pouring millions into DCI’s bank account, Colombia utilized Senator Rand Paul. As a libertarian-leaning Republican, Paul holds a golden ticket—a vote that Trump needs to pass his domestic agenda.

Because Rand Paul opposes foreign wars and invasions, his interests aligned with Colombia’s. He brokered the phone call that changed everything. In one conversation, the “bitter enemies” became “cordial partners.” The threat of invasion vanished. Cost to Colombia? Zero dollars in lobbying fees. Total gain? Everything.

Nigeria’s mistake is thinking that “closeness” to Trump equals “influence” over Trump. Even figures like Paul Manafort—who at least had the discipline to go silent when necessary—or even the erratic Rudy Giuliani, would have been more logical choices than Stone. Stone thrives on being the center of attention, but in the current Washington climate, the President only listens to those who can deliver a legislative “win” or a political “loss.”

The Nigerian government’s approach looks less like diplomacy and more like a classic case of “business as usual”—where public funds meet a corrupt lobbying culture that specializes in selling access that doesn’t actually exist.

Nigeria is treating a constitutional crisis like a public relations exercise. While millions are paid to figures linked to the Trump-era ecosystem through firms like DCI to lobby on Nigeria’s behalf, place op-eds, and flood social media, the real decisions are being made elsewhere: inside Senate offices, where the legislative power brokers actually operate.

Until Nigeria stops chasing the ghosts of the Trump ecosystem and starts building real leverage in the halls of Congress, it will remain an easy target. You cannot purchase security with a $9 million lobbying contract but you can buy a very expensive, front-row seat to your own diplomatic decline.

*Shola Adebiyi is a political research analyst focusing on US foreign policy, lobbying dynamics and Africa–US relations