As Nigeria’s political class intensifies its battle for influence in Washington ahead of the 2027 presidential election, Accord Party presidential candidate Dr. Gbenga Olawepo-Hashim is executing a fundamentally different strategy, a four continent, African led global lobbying operation designed not just to win an election, but to secure Nigeria beyond 2027.
African media outlet, the African Report last week identified Gbenga Hashim as the fourth Nigerian political figure to engage Washington lobbyists, noting that total Nigerian linked spending to influence US policymakers has now crossed $11 million.
The revelation comes as President Bola Tinubu and other defendants face a $57 million lawsuit in a US federal court.
But insiders with knowledge of Accord presidential candidate’s operations noted that Hashim’s move is far broader than a K Street contract.
Unlike the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC), which reportedly retained US super firm DCI Group in a massive $9 million contract for international relations and public image management, Gbenga Hashim did not go directly to an American firm.
His contract is held through the Regional Centre for Governance & Security Policy Initiative, a policy think tank based in Freetown, Sierra Leone, providing strategic advice to Hashim. The Centre is led by Ambassador Jonathan Sandy, a former ECOWAS diplomat who served as National Security Adviser and Chief of Staff to former Sierra Leonean President Tejan Kabbah.
Execution in Washington has been subcontracted to Moran Global Strategies, a prominent government relations firm led by former Democratic US Congressman Jim Moran.
The model is intentional, African centre leads policy and strategy, American firm executes outreach to Congress and executive branch stakeholders on Democratic governance, Security and Trade, and Regional Stability in West Africa.
Hashim’s global lobbying did not start in Washington. Earlier, precisely in 2025, he retained Ashford Advisory, led by British strategist and Managing Director, Mr. Francis Higgins, which coordinated quiet international relations advisory out of Qatar for engagement with Gulf States and Europe.
The result is a lobbying architecture spanning four continents, Freetown (African policy hub), Doha (Middle East and Gulf outreach), London (European strategic advisory), and Washington (US government relations).
“This can be seen in his choice of lobby firm, which is an African based think tank with pan-African credentials and the US involvement is simply a small part in a larger global lobbying to put Nigeria’s proper perspective to relevant global players,” a source familiar with the strategy said.
The international push follows a critical domestic legal victory. Hashim has been locked in a bitter internal leadership dispute within his centre-right Accord Party, with a faction reportedly hesitant to challenge President Tinubu. On October 5, 2026, a Federal High Court in Abuja ruled in Olawepo-Hashim’s favour, confirming him as Accord’s sole 2027 presidential candidate.
The lobbying push, insiders say, acts as international reinforcement of his position as a legitimate, top tier contender, ensuring the opposition’s perspective is not drowned out by State sponsored PR.
Through Moran Global Strategies, Hashim’s team is pursuing two highly specific diplomatic outcomes that transcend his candidacy.
Securing Nigeria through Security Diplomacy and Locking in Free and Fair Elections.
Hashim has been a vocal critic of the Tinubu administration’s handling of National security, framing unilateral US counter terrorism airstrikes in Northern Nigeria as an indictment of local leadership capacity.
It is a position rooted in his long held security vision. In 2021, Hashim called for Nigeria to sign a Defence Cooperation Agreement (DCA) with friendly Nations to gain access to global intelligence frameworks, advanced surveillance and counter terrorism expertise.
By positioning himself as a regional Statesman capable of navigating West Africa’s security crises and the Sahel insurgency, his team expects the lobbying push to establish him as a viable, alternative partner for US trade and regional stability.
The core expectation is to build direct communication channels with US lawmakers, the State Department, and specialized Africa policy stakeholders to brief them on the state of Nigeria’s democratic governance. The goal is to ensure the US applies heavy diplomatic pressure for free, fair and transparent elections in 2027, regardless of who wins.
Hashim brings an unusual profile to the race. A former student activist turned businessman with interests in the energy sector across Europe, America and Africa, he is a recipient of the Lord Max Beloff Prize in Global Affairs in 2009 from the University of Buckingham, United Kingdom. His grasp of global security as a scholar is generating interest in the international policy circuit, and his $4 trillion economic revival plan first published in 2018 outlining industrialisation and job creation has resurfaced amid Nigeria’s current economic struggles.
While the Washington lobbying race has been framed as a contest for American favour ahead of 2027, Hashim’s operation reframes it as a contest for Nigeria’s future.
His argument to world capitals is blunt: Nigeria’s 2027 election is not a local Nigerian affair, It is a global security imperative. If the election lacks credibility, the fallout will reverberate across West Africa, deepen the Sahel insurgency, and destabilize trade and counter terrorism efforts across the sub-continent.
In that sense, while others are spending millions to launder an image in Washington, Hashim is spending to put a Nigerian security and democratic imperative on the front burner of global policy – using an African platform, operating from the Middle East and Europe, and executing in America.
It is not lobbying for an election. It is lobbying to secure Nigeria beyond the election.
