Biafra and Eritrea opposition have hired American firm Moran Global Strategies for US help in seizing power.
Jim Moran, a Democrat from Virginia who served in US Congress from 1991 until 2015, has signed on to represent Biafran and Eritrean activists, according to newly disclosed filings with the US Department of Justice. The firm’s vice president, Elias Gerasoulis, is the registered foreign agent on both accounts.
These are the first African clients for Moran Global Strategies since Moran registered the firm in March 2023 after leaving Washington law firm Nelson Mullins Riley & Scarborough last year. He tells The Africa Report that he hopes to sign on more African clients.
Battling for independence in Biafra
Located in Nigeria’s southeast, the predominantly-Christian Biafra was a secessionist state at the centre of a three-year civil war from 1967 to 1970 that claimed an estimated 500,000 to three million lives. Today several groups continue to clamour for its independence.
Battling for independence in Biafra
Located in Nigeria’s southeast, the predominantly-Christian Biafra was a secessionist state at the centre of a three-year civil war from 1967 to 1970 that claimed an estimated 500,000 to three million lives. Today several groups continue to clamour for its independence.
READ MORE Opinion: Why is there no Biafra Memorial?
Moran’s firm is representing Simon Ekpa, a Nigerian-born lawyer living in Finland who calls himself the prime minister of the Biafra Republic Government in exile. The contract is for $10,000 per month for one year starting 15 June.
“There’s a significant Christian population there,” Moran says of Biafra. “They’re still struggling for independence because the Nigerian government leaves a lot to be desired.” The leadership of the Biafran cause is disputed. The Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) movement, whose leader Nnamdi Kanu is imprisoned in Nigeria, has denounced Ekpa as “deluded.”
READ MORE Embattled Nigerian Christians turn to Washington for protection
“I think people still respect Kanu as, you can say, the spiritual leader in a sense, but again, he’s in prison,” says Gerasoulis, a former lobbyist with the Livingston Group of ex-US Congressman Bob Livingston (R-Louisiana). “Now Ekpa is in charge, he’s the prime minister, and he’s running things.
” Ekpa for his part claims to lead an army of 100,000 and have widespread support in Biafra. The Nigerian government has asked Finland to stop his activities. General Christopher Gwabin Musa, President Bola Tinubu’s chief of defence staff, has called him a “menace to this country.”
“Our primary focus is to make sure the US government understands that they should be primarily dealing with the Prime Minister Simon Ekpa and the Biafra Republican in exile and their affiliates in the homeland as the representatives of the Biafran people,” Gerasoulis says. “We’re not here to get into internal divisions.”
“Prime Minister Ekpa wants to establish a newly independent state of Biafra as a close strategic ally of the US, which could then make up for the loss of our military base in Niger and in other places, and also to counter the increasing Islamic terrorism in West Africa,” he adds. “We see that in the Sahel, and that’s increasingly occurring in Nigeria. The Nigerian government does not have the situation under control.”
While overnight independence isn’t in the cards, Gerasoulis says, the goal is for policymakers in Washington to “understand the justice of the Biafran clause, and to also have a realistic understanding of how problematic the Nigerian government is, how the Nigerian government is not our ally,” he says.
“We need to think more creatively about how we approach Nigeria rather than the same approach of the past 40 years,” he adds.
Preparing for ‘day after’ in Eritrea
With regards to Eritrea, the firm has signed a $5,000-a-month contract with the National Representative Council of Eritrea – Government In Exile of Ghebre Bahdurai, an Eritrean-American businessman who has lived in Georgia since 1981. The contract is also for one year starting 15 June.
Bahdurai previously registered his government in exile as a foreign lobbying entity with the Department of Justice in mid-2022. Moran Global Strategies is his first outside lobbying contract.
“He’s someone who has achieved the American dream, but he wants to give back to his home country, and he wants to liberate Eritrea from dictatorship,” says Gerasoulis.
“We’ll be working very closely with him to spread the message that Eritrea, this is not just a human rights issue, this is a national security issue,” he says, stressing that the country is geo-strategically important, due to its position in the Horn of Africa.
READ MORE Nigeria: Parliament extends Biafra separatist leader Kanu’s detention
A pro-American administration is key to the region, which is geographically close to Yemen, and is on the Red Sea, Gerasoulis says.
“Not only is President [Isaias Afwerki] a dictator, he’s someone who’s cozying up with the Russians, with the Chinese. He’s someone who actively works against our interests,” he adds. Gerasoulis insists that the firm isn’t lobbying for regime change, a policy that is very much out of favour in Washington these days. Rather, he points to Gabon as an example of an African nation where a seemingly well-established strongman was toppled overnight.
“Someone could look completely invincible one day, and then they’re vulnerable the next day,” he says. “We need to be sure we’re cultivating democratic leaders so if there is instability in Eritrea, there are some alternatives rather than chaos or a failed state.
” https://www.theafricareport.com/353173/ex-congressmans-firm-lobbies-forafrican-governments-in-exile/