A new report claims Nigeria has funneled over $10 million to a lobbying campaign to hide a decades-long history of violence against Nigerian Christians.
Released by International Christian Concern (ICC), the report titled “Nigeria’s $10 Million Genocide Cover-Up” alleges that these lobbying efforts were designed to influence U.S. policy discussions on Nigeria and improve Nigeria’s image in regard to the increasing reports of Islamic extremist groups targeting and killing Christians, as well as the government’s failure to intercede.
The report claims that Nigeria’s efforts to fix its image has increased since 2025, when the U.S. designated Nigeria as a Country of Particular Concern (CPC), a moniker the State Department uses to flag nations where citizens face “systematic, ongoing, egregious violations of religious freedom.”
The report says that “Currently, the integrity of the United States foreign policy is being compromised internally by former high-level officials who have traded in public service for lucrative foreign contracts.”
Entities tied to the administration of Nigerian President Bola Tinubu paid American influencers millions of dollars to sway policies, and some cases have been disclosed through the U.S. Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA).
Media reports citing FARA disclosures found that DCI Group, a Washington public affairs firm, signed a contract valued at around $9 million. The contract centers on strategizing communications to bolster the appearance of Nigeria’s efforts to halt terrorism and protect Christians.
Under FARA, lobbyists working for any foreign-linked group or foreign governments must disclose their activity and payments publicly.
The report claims that a former U.S. State Department advisor had his firm, Valcour LLC, registered as a foreign agent in December 2025, two months after Nigeria was labeled a CPC. The firm was paid a monthly fee of $120,000 by a Nigerian client to further Nigeria’s image in Washington, the report adds.
“This registration is an estimated attempt to reverse Republican votes on religious freedom matters with the help of his Trump-era qualifications,” the report says. “Ironically, an official who had based his political career on conservative principles is now defending a regime that is responsible for the massacre of Christians.”
The report further says that of at least 190,150 Nigerians who have been killed in ethno-religious killings since 2009, 128,750 were Christians. The slaughter has escalated in the first 78 days of 2026, as some 1,050 Christians have been slaughtered and kidnapped by jihadists, and 1,690 people have been abducted.
An estimated 19,500 churches have been destroyed since 2009, the report says, and more than 400 of those churches have been burned or destroyed the past 16 months.
The report is calling Congress to continue in its designation of Nigeria as a CPC and to use existing U.S. law to freeze the assets of those who are financing terror.
