Nigeria, a major oil supplier to the U.S., has hired McBee Strategic Consulting to increase its media profile here.
Africa’s most populous country, today is claiming a major victory in the long-running war with its Islamic insurgency, reporting the death of the leader of the Boko Haram group.
Abubakar Shekau is said to have died after being mortally wounded during a shoot-out with Nigeria’s military. The U.S. had a $7M bounty on Shekau’s head. Half of Nigeria’s 160M people are Muslims.
On behalf of Nigeria’s Washington embassy, McBee is to generate the media messaging narrative, develop thought leadership opportunities, hike social media engagement and monitor the media to educate and inform U.S. and non-governmental organizations about its policies.
McBee’s Eric Bovim, who merged his Gibraltar Assocs. with McBee last year, handles the work with John Procter, a Gibraltar/DCI Group/Coalition Provisional Authority spokesperson veteran and Christine Bald, a former member of the State Dept.’s Iraq political desk.
Nigeria last year hired WPP’s Glover Park Group to a $30K a-month contract.
Omnicom’s Mercury Public Affairs unit scooped up a four-month $300K assignment in July.
Edelman is providing communications support to Panama’s Ministry of Commerce and Industries under an agreement capped at $97,100 per month.
Ballard Partners has recruited State Department veteran Matt Bryza as a senior policy advisor.
Teneo has extended its contract with the Salama Bint Hamdan Al Nahyan Foundation for an additional four months to July 31, adding another $1.8M in fees to the New York firm’s coffers.
The Syrian Kurdish militia recruits Jim Dornan Strategies to press Congress for continued support in their battle against ISIS and Syrian president Bashar Assad.
The Government of Hungary has hired Strategic Improvisation Inc. to generate positive media coverage and combat negative press coverage of the Central European country. (6 reader comments)
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