Nigeria is Africa’s biggest spender on image making, just ahead of Egypt and Morocco, according to a new report by Corporate Europe Observatory.

The report, which was released on Tuesday, said the administration of the President Goodluck Jonathan, who is seeking re-election in February, had recruited PR firms in the US and Europe to save his reputation at home and abroad.

CEO, in the report, noted that the Nigerian Government faced a barrage of domestic and international criticism over its reaction to the April 2014 kidnapping of more than 219 schoolgirls by Boko Haram.

The report entitled ‘Spin doctors to the autocrats: how European PR firms whitewash repressive regimes’, said the PR help was focused internationally on maintaining investment and trade relationships in the face of perceptions of instability; and locally on the upcoming 2015 election.

“The President of Nigeria hires a London PR firm to run his election campaign and distract from his catastrophic handling of Boko Haram. The Nigerian Government hired Levick, a prominent Washington PR firm, for lobbying in the US in a $1.2m contract to ‘change the international and local media narrative surrounding Nigeria’s efforts to find and safely return the girls abducted by the terrorist organisation Boko Haram.’,’’ according to the report

culled from:  www.punchng.com