“[E]very country with a terrible human rights record has someone in Washington to try to get them out of the soup. If you have money, you can hire yourself representation” says a senior congressional aid some years ago. It was true then. It is true today. You will recall my recent entanglement with my good friend, Jackson McDonald, who served distinctively as Deputy Mission in Abidjan before being appointed Ambassador to The Gambia. He later turned lobbyist at the K-Street firm of Jefferson Waterman International LLC. (JWI), a firm by Ken Silverstein in a 2002 article in the American Prospect magazine as “ a lobbying firm that has promoted despots across three continents,” and that Mr. Waterman is one of at least four former spooks who hold high-ranking positions at the lobby shop.”
Since my JWI petition, former Ambassador McDonald had been promoted CEO of JWI. They have also scrubbed Gambia from their website, thinking that scrubbing will be the end of the story. Before I proceed, I’d like to emphasis that I have no personal beef with the former Ambassador or JWI, or am I in any way suggesting legal impropriety on the part of the firm. I know that this is what lobbying firms do – promote foreign and domestic interest in the U.S. Unfortunately, some firms have set their ethical standards so low that even Adolf Hitler can pass the test. This is where I have problems with firms like JWI who are comfortable representing despots and human rights abusers like Yaya Jammeh and the expense of the abused in The Gambia and elsewhere. It pains me even more when I consider my relationship with the former Ambassador and his knowledge of despotic nature of the regime in Banjul with all the atrocities committed in the name of the Gambian people by Jammeh who ended up being the closest ally of Jackson McDonald in his capacity as Ambassador and Washington lobbyist.
It now turns out that that former Ambassador’s friendship with the Gambian dictator which started during his tour of duty and nurtured after he left to serve in other countries before his retirement had a business development angle to it. Two of the three current and accounts or foreign principals listed in JWI’s bi-annual report to FARA, Cote d’Ivoire and The Gambia were both ‘signed up’ by Jackson McDonald because of his connections with both countries where he served as Deputy Ambassador and Ambassador respectively. His rapid rise into the CEO position is thus understandable because of the 44 past and present clients listed, only three of them are still doing business with JWI according to JWI’s filings with the U.S. Justice Department, barely keeping the firm afloat.
As at February 28th 2013, JWI reported four foreign principals as clients they have been representing in Washington, and they are; The Gambia, Cote d’Ivoire, the International Bank of Azerbaijan and The Government of Korea. Korea was added to their list of clients in December of last year. The 5-year JWI-Gambian Government contract signed on the 22nd March 2012 and deposited with the U.S. Justice Department is to be annually reviewed, with the option to continue, terminate, or revised. The deletion of the Gambia from the website should indicate termination, and based on Jammeh’s reaction to my petition and subsequent protests organized by DUGA DC, a Gambian activists group, there is every reason to believe it to be the case. However, I am mindful of the fact that in the past it was reported that JWI had sought to obscure its role by working through front companies. Although no evidence seemed contained in its bi-annual report to the Justice Department, the next reporting period ( August 2013 ) will confirm if indeed the contract has been terminated or buried in some front entity. We can easily tell then.
We believe that JWI took advantage of The Gambia’s incompetent and inexperienced administration to negotiate a contract that is so exorbitantly priced that it is scandalous, and when compared to the Cote d’Ivoire contract – a country ten times the population of The Gambia with $1,700 per capita GDP as compared to Gambia’s $505 GDP per capita – it borders on extortion.
Let us compare the two contracts with the vast difference in size, economy and wealth of these two countries in mind. The Gambia signed a 5 year contract, subject to annual review to a total sum of $ 6000,000 annually with $200,000 annually for travel and other expenses. According to the official filings of JWI, the Gambia Government paid JWI $600,000 for “strategic services” and the $200,000 as advance towards JWI’s travel expense on 25th April, 2012, but did not take any political or advocacy activity on behalf of the Foreign Principal until January 2013. By contrast, there was no formal contract initially but exchanges of letters between Cote d’Ivoire and JWI signed by President Ouattarra and a senior official of JWI. Later the parties agreed on a 6-month renewable contract for a total sum of $ 750,000 committing JWI to provide advocacy and consulting services related to Ivorian national interests, including economic, financial, military, security, trade, investment, and public relations on behalf of President Alassane Ouattarra.
During the same period under review, JWI, according to their own submission to the Justice Department did not contact a single member of the U.S. government and no members of the media on behalf of the Republic of The Gambia yet they had already paid in advance the entire $800,000. By contrast, JWI contacted the Millennium Challenge Corporation twice, including a meeting with officials; JWI contacted the State Department twice and USAID on behalf of the Republic of Cote D’Ivoire during the same reporting period.
The only advocacy activity that JWI seemed to have been engaged on behalf of The Gambia during the same period can been conducted via website and social media created for that purpose by the lobbying firm for a total cost to The Gambia of $21,732.95, here: http://www.thegambianway.com/ and compare that to Cote d’Ivoire’s here: http://www.onwardtogether.org/ which costs the Government of Cote d’Ivoire $3,148.50, seven times cheaper than what Yaya Jammeh paid for his website that no one visits. This contract is a pure waste of money that could have gone to addressing the severe food shortages occurring in The Gambia as we speak.
When I first opposed the contract, it was on the basis of how it came to be and on cost. The main driver of it appears to have been the former Ambassador to The Gambia who is a significant contributor to the U.S. Department’s Annual Human Rights Report, and therefore knows the human rights and governance conditions under Jammeh better than any K-Street CEO. I thought he should not have sought the contract to help spruce up the image of a person who’s image, in my view, has gone beyond redemption, especially in Obama’s Washington. Therefore, any lobbying contract, even if JWI services were offered gratis, is a pure waste because, as painful as it may sound, no serious politician in Washington thinks the Gambia is worth the bother, and those who do, including a couple of African-American Congressmen, and small town Mayors who go junketing to Banjul occasionally. The Ambassador knows that Washington has neither the appetite nor the patience for Jammeh yet he proceeded extracting such an exorbitantly-priced and low-output contract. He knows better, yet he went ahead with this contract that the poor Gambian farmers have to pay $800,000 annually plus a $21,000 website that has been visited by less than a few dozen people until now, thanks to the publicity given to the story. It is as scandalous as it is embarrassing. Therefore, the moment we put this whole thing behind us, the better.
It is not that Africa lacks business opportunities. Africa is on the move with 8 of the 10 fastest growing economies in the world are in Africa. American companies are beginning to warm up to the idea of investing in the continent to compete with the Chinese. One can do business in and with Africa without having to stoop so low as to have to deal with the notoriously repressive regimes like the one headed by Yaya Jammeh.
Sidi Sanneh