It is a well known fact that David Axelrod was the architect of Barack Obama’s election and re-election campaign.
What is less known is that the same Axelrod was hired by Nigeria’s opposition party, APC, to ensure victory for it’s Presidential candidate, Muhammadu Buhari, a man with a horrible history of Human Rights abuses to his name.
In the last year, Nigeria sought aid from the White House for many initiatives, including the fight against Boko Haram.
The Obama administration refused to do anything but play lip service to Nigeria’s requests. However, it used public and private channels to internationally magnify every failure Nigeria’s government experienced.
In the last year, since the involvement of Axelrod’s firm, relations between the two nations have significantly deteriorated, with the US refusing to sell arms to Nigeria, a significant reduction in the purchase of Nigeria’s oil, and the cancellation of a military training agreement between Nigeria and the USA.
In turn, the Buhari led Nigerian opposition, used the US Govt’s position as validation for their claim that the Nigerian government was a failure.
In a February 9th article in the Washington Free Beacon (http://goo.gl/guDlSH), the extent of Axelrod’s involvement in manipulating Nigeria’s affairs is revealed.
“A political consulting firm founded by Obama administration confidante David Axelrod has been far more involved in backing controversial Nigerian presidential candidate Gen. Muhammadu Buhari than previously disclosed…
Axelrod’s firm, the Chicago-based AKPD, has admitted to doing work on behalf of Buhari’s All Progressives Congress (APC) party in the past, but claimed to have ceased its ties in March 2014 after the Islamist terror group Boko Haram kidnapped hundreds of Nigerian schoolgirls.
However, emails sent between senior APC party members and advisers show that contrary to the firm’s claims, AKPD has quietly continued to perform political work on Buhari’s behalf as he fights to unseat current President Goodluck Jonathan.
In a series of messages between senior APC officials and advisers from September 2014 to late January 2015, AKPD polling and other work are repeatedly discussed.
“The meeting went well and the report well received. [Gov. Rotimi Amaechi] will meet with the AKPD team tomorrow to discuss the facilitation of the event but no dates fixed yet,”
APC member Olubunmi Adetunmbi wrote in one September 23 email to top Buhari adviser Kayode Fayemi.
AKPD’s work is again mentioned in a separate chain of emails sent between Buhari’s running mate, Yemi Osinbajo, and adviser Fayemi.
“I also think the AKPD surveys also clearly showed that the South West is the battle ground for this election,” Osinbajo writes in a discussion about boosting election turnouts for the APC.
A third email chain from Jan. 21 shows APC leader Nasir El-Rufai discussing an “October 2014 AKPD poll” that he hoped to disseminate to “the team.”
Other sources on the ground and familiar with the APC’s campaign say that the party has been trying to keep AKPD’s ongoing work quiet. It is rumored that AKPD employees are being housed in an APC compound located in Lagos, according to multiple sources.
“The sense is they’re being hidden currently in Lagos,” said another insider on the ground who would only speak on background. “They’re trying to keep a very low profile.”
AKPD’s close ties to the Obama administration also has given rise to criticism from those who see the White House as meddling in the elections.
“They have been particularly careful not to be seen at all because of the perception of the connection between Axelrod and the president and what that would convey,” said one of the sources quoted above.”
It is shameful that the United States has chosen to blatantly involve itself in Nigeria’s partisan politics, not based on any sort of foreign policy principle, but on a need to ensure that Axelrod’s company got to deliver on one of it’s most lucrative foreign contracts.