Compiled by Bolaji Aluko
October 2026
Dramatis Personae
During the military regime of General Sani Abacha (1993–1998), several prominent African American activists, politicians, and lobbying groups in Washington, D.C., defended or advocated for the Nigerian junta.
While mainstream civil rights organizations like Randall Robinson’s TransAfrica heavily protested the regime and pushed for harsh sanctions, a distinct faction of Black leaders argued for a more cooperative stance or actively lobbied on Abacha’s behalf: [1, 2, 3, 4]
Key Activists and Public Figures
Roy Innis: The national chairman of the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE) was one of General Abacha’s most vocal defenders in America. Innis led delegations to Nigeria to monitor local elections, routinely criticized the Western press for “misunderstanding” the regime, and aggressively campaigned against naming a New York street corner after the assassinated pro-democracy activist Kudirat Abiola. [1, 2, 3, 4]
Minister Louis Farrakhan: The leader of the Nation of Islam visited Nigeria on a “World Friendship Tour” in February 1996, just months after the state execution of playwright Ken Saro-Wiwa. Farrakhan urged Americans to “give the Nigerian government a chance,” praised Abacha’s resistance to Western economic control, and famously clashed with mainstream American media when defending Nigeria’s sovereignty. [1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6]
Senator Carol Moseley Braun: The Democrat from Illinois drew massive criticism when she took a private trip to Nigeria in 1996 to visit the Abacha family. In the Senate, she opposed tough sanctions and a civil-rights backed embargo against the military junta. [1, 2, 3, 4]
Maurice Dawkins: A prominent civil rights activist and minister, Dawkins served as a primary public relations point man for the regime, coordinating a multi-million dollar campaign to clean up Abacha’s human rights image and framing the push for foreign sanctions against Nigeria as racially biased. [1]
The D.C. Lobbying Machinery
Washington & Christian: This prominent African American-owned D.C. law firm and its lobbying arm, the Washington Strategic Consulting Group, were paid millions of dollars by the Nigerian government to sanitize Abacha’s image among lawmakers on Capitol Hill. [1]
Kgosie Matthews: A South African-born political strategist and former fiancé of Senator Carol Moseley Braun, Matthews worked directly with Washington & Christian and served as an active link facilitating access between African American political figures and the court of General Abacha. [1, 2]
Jesse Jackson
In July 1994, civil rights leader and U.S. special envoy Reverend Jesse Jackson visited Nigeria on a diplomatic mission ordered by President Bill Clinton to push for a return to democracy. [1, 2]
Key Events of the Visit
Letter Delivery: Jackson traveled to Abuja and met with military ruler General Sani Abacha, delivering a presidential letter urging the release of political prisoners. [1]
Meeting with Abiola: Jackson visited jailed opposition leader Chief Moshood K. O. Abiola on July 28, 1994, which coincided with the opening day of Abiola’s trial on treason charges. Abacha offered to release Abiola conditional on an apology and a rescinding of his presidential claim. [1]
Warning of Civil War: After returning to the United States, Jackson warned at an Atlanta press conference that Nigeria was in a “combustible situation” that risked sliding into a severe civil war. [1, 2]
Controversies and Criticisms
Pro-Democracy Pushback: Nigerian human rights advocates and pro-democracy leaders—including Nobel laureate Wole Soyinka, Beko Ransome-Kuti, and Olisa Agbakoba—strongly opposed the visit. [1, 2, 3, 4]
Allegations of Bias: Critics argued Jackson was too close to Nigeria’s military establishment, noting his past support for former military dictator Ibrahim Babangida’s transition program, and warned that Abacha would manipulate the visit to legitimize his regime. [1, 2, 3]
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World & Nation
Jackson Cites Perils in Nigeria Deadlock :
Africa: Pro-democracy activists are prepared to sabotage oil facilities, he warns. Clinton is asked to send a special envoy.
By GEORGE WHITE
July 31, 1994 12 AM PT
TIMES STAFF WRITER
ATLANTA — The Rev. Jesse Jackson returned Saturday from a White House-backed mission to Nigeria and called on President Clinton to appoint a special envoy to help resolve an increasingly violent political deadlock in that oil-rich West African nation.
He called it a “combustible situation that may soon lead to civil war.”
Speaking at a press conference arranged for a convention of minority journalists, Jackson said that a Nigerian civil war could be imminent because pro-democracy activists in that country are now prepared to destroy oil production facilities in their bid to pressure military ruler Gen. Sani Abacha to surrender power to detained politician Moshood K. O. Abiola, the apparent winner of last year’s annulled presidential elections.
“The various factions are creating tensions that threaten to tear Nigeria apart at the seams,” Jackson said. “The President needs a special envoy to establish links between the (various) power centers in Nigeria.”
Jackson said he delivered a letter from Clinton to Gen. Abacha on Thursday. In that letter, Clinton asked that the votes from the aborted Nigerian elections of June, 1993, be tabulated and announced, Jackson said. It also said that any military-sponsored conference on the future shape of a Nigerian government would be illegitimate unless the results of the 1993 elections are considered.
If civil war erupts, the carnage could dwarf the Rwandan crisis and interrupt Nigerian oil shipments that are crucial to the U.S. economy, Jackson said.
“One quarter of all Africans are Nigerian,” Jackson said. “A war would result in a reduction of the world’s oil supply, and the United States would lose 5% of its supply. Initially, that would create inflation and eventually lead to the loss of some (U.S.) jobs.”
Jackson said he is not interested in serving as envoy to Nigeria but said he is willing to assist the Clinton Administration in any mediation effort. He said he would deliver a report on his Nigerian findings to the White House on Monday.
Jackson said he met with jailed presidential candidate Abiola during his Nigerian visit. Abiola was charged with treason after he declared himself president to mark the first anniversary of the 1993 presidential election, which was voided by the military while ballots were being counted.
Early returns showed Abiola winning by a large margin. Jackson said that Abiola has a moral claim to the presidency.
“Abiola is in no mood to surrender what he won on June 12,” Jackson said.
Economic activity in Nigerian cities has been brought to a virtual halt as the 31-day-old pro-democracy strikes led by oil unions have grounded transportation and shut factories. Scores of demonstrators have been killed in clashes with the military.
Jackson said the situation is now more volatile because large numbers of students have joined the protest and because unionists are now threatening to destroy oil production facilities–Nigeria’s economic lifeline.
Jackson said he met with unionists and other pro-democracy dissidents during his visit. “The unions have asked the multinational oil companies to stop production,” Jackson said. “If they don’t respond, the protesters said they are prepared to stop production through sabotage.”
The military claims there were improprieties in the Nigerian election and leaders said they are planning to hold a constitutional conference and set new elections at some unspecified date.
“At this point the two sides in the conflict are not talking,” Jackson said.
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PRESS RELEASE
The Africa Fund • 50 Broad Street, Suite 711 • New York, NY 10004 • Phone: (212) 785-1024 • Fax: (212) 785-1078
E-mail: africafund@igc.apc.org • Website: www.prairienet.org/acas/afund.html
For Immediate Release
African American Leaders Reject Clinton Policy Toward Nigeria
Call For Oil Sanctions, Political Pressure to Restore Democracy
May 19, 1998
Contact: Michael Fleshman, The Africa Fund (212) 785-1024
Mwiza Munthali, TransAfrica, (202) 797-2301 xl06
A coalition of African American civil rights leaders, elected officials and foreign policy experts
today released a letter to President Bill Clinton rejecting the administration’s “constructive
engagement” accommodation with the Nigerian military dictatorship and calling instead for
economic sanctions on that repressive regime and greater political and diplomatic backing for that
west African nation’s democracy movement.
The letter is signed by a prestigious group of African-American leaders that includes
Congressional Black Caucus Chair Maxine Waters, NAACP President Kweisi Mfume and
NAACP Board Chair Julian Bond, Congressman Donald Payne, Africa Fund Chair Dr. Tilden
LeMelle, TransAfrica head Randall Robinson, American Committee on Africa President Rev.
Wyatt Tee Walker, former U.S. Ambassador to Nigeria Walter Carrington, Congresswomen
Carolyn Kilpatrick and Cynthia McKinney, labor leader Bill Lucy, and human rights attorney Gay
McDougall.
The letter is a major rebuke to the Administration over its Nigeria policy and comes in response to
softening White House support for human rights and democracy and signs of continuing disarray
among policymakers. Those signs include conflicting statements by President Clinton and senior
Administration officials over Nigerian military dictator General Sani Abacha’s scheme to retain
power as the sole candidate in upcoming Presidential elections.
In March President Clinton gave tacit approval to Abacha’s candidacy, saying, “If [Abacha] stands
for election we hope he will stand as a civilian.” Abacha’s election scheme is bitterly opposed by
the Nigerian democracy movement, which has mounted mass protests against Abacha’ s fraudulent
election plan in recent weeks. The Administration failure to develop a policy response to the
worsening repression and political turmoil caused by Abacha’s candidacy was highlighted by the
African American leaders, who called on the President “to immediately make a clear public
statement confirming that the U.S. rejects the current transition process in Nigeria as being fatally
flawed and illegitimate.”
(more) “There is growing evidence that The White House is tilting towards an accommodation with the
dictatorship, an accommodation that is a betrayal of the Nigerian people and an abandonment of
principle in U.S. policy towards Africa,” said American Committee On Africa President Wyatt
Tee Walker. “The African American community cannot and will not stand idly by while our sisters
and brothers in Nigeria are marching and dying for freedom. We support their struggle. The
Clinton Administration should do the same. ”
The letter’s call for oil sanctions challenges the Administration’s refusal to use its considerable
economic influence for human rights and democracy. Oil exports account for over 95 percent of
Nigeria’s annual hard currency earnings and fully 80 percent of government revenue, with U.S.
purchases accounting for nearly half of annual oil output. This leaves the dictatorship extremely
vulnerable to American sanctions.
The International Roundtable on Nigeria, an alliance of U.S. and Nigerian human rights,
environmental, pro-democracy and trade union organizations, of which The Africa Fund is a
member, joins the African American leadership in support of a policy that puts African people and
their inalienable rights to social justice, human rights and democracy at the forefront of U.S.
policy towards Nigeria and not at the back of the foreign policy bus.
Ends President William Jefferson Clinton
The White House
1600 Pennsylvania Ave., NW
Washington, DC 20501
Dear President Clinton,
24 April 1998
In light of the confusion surrounding recent official statements on Nigeria and the lack of a clear policy, we
the undersigned strongly endorse the following course of action.
1. The Nigerian elections scheduled for this August are part of an illegitimate process which is not accepted
by the Nigerian people and should be rejected by the international community. We call on you, Mr. President,
to immediately make a clear public statement confirming that the U.S. rejects the current transition process in
Nigeria as being fatally flawed and illegitimate.
2. The international community must choose sides in Nigeria. We call on the U.S. government to increase
political and financial assistance to the democratic movement, just as this country did in Eastern Europe in
the last decade.
3. We further call on the U.S. to immediately impose unilateral oil sanctions on Nigeria as a means to end the
financing of the repressive regime until the Nigerian dictatorship a) releases all political prisoners, b) repeals
all repressive legislation and c) enters into an irreversible process of democratization in concert with the
pro-democracy movement.
4. Finally, we believe that any dialogue with the Nigerian government should focus on these specific points.
(Signed)
Julian Bond
NAACP
Tilden LeMelle
The Africa Fund
Cynthia McKinney
Member of Congress
Randall Robinson
TransAfrica
Ambassador Walter Carrington
WEB DuBois Institute
Bill Lucy
Coalition of Black Trade Unionists
K weisi Mfume
NAACP
Wyatt Tee Walker
American Committee On Africa
Carolyn Kilpatrick
Member of Congress
Gay McDougall
The International Human
Rights Law Group
Donald Payne
Member of Congress
Maxine Waters
Member of Congress
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