Many Nigerians are beginning to raise eyebrows over the presence of the United States government backed National Endowment for Democracy, NED, an alleged nonprofit organisation, in the country.

This may not be unconnected with the identity crisis in the funding and operations of the organisation, which claimed to be entrenching democracy around the world through monitoring and provision of guidance.

Why Nigerians raised concerns?

Before the general elections, NED, which was one of the foreign election observers in the country, claimed that the US was interested in Nigeria’s general elections because it is Africa’s largest democracy and fifth largest in the world, and also Nigeria and Nigerians are highly esteemed by America.

The President and Chief Executive Officer, CEO, Damon Wilson, said; “We also support a lot of Nigerian partners that are doing human rights defending that are legal rights for artists or marginalized communities that are working on inclusion and political space that are doing youth empowerment, like Yiaga Africa they are supporting independent media.

“Sometimes, we support efforts that are Nigerian groups, working to fact check and expose disinformation, so it is a pretty diverse range of efforts that are related towards bolstering the democratic environment.”

But experts are of the opinion that the organisation is a smokescreen for the US State Department to spy on other countries.

In February 14, 2023, an article surfaced online where NED was accused of sponsoring misinformation in order to achieve an agenda on the American soil.

According to Washington Examiner investigative series, tracking groups that are secretly blacklisting and trying to defund conservative media outlets, NED, a nonprofit organisation almost entirely funded by the State Department steered hundreds of thousands of dollars more to a “disinformation” monitor that is secretly blacklisting and taking steps to defund conservative media outlets.

The paper reported that the National Endowment for Democracy, which received $300 million in taxpayer dollars in 2021, granted $230,000 in 2020 to the Global Disinformation Index’s U.S. nonprofit group. In 2021, the NED granted $315,750 to GDI, which has been dubbed “Disinformation Index, Inc,” according to records.

The NED, which has a board including Reps. Elise Stefanik (R-NY) and Joaquin Castro (D-TX) that “controls” grantmaking, has continued to come under fire for bankrolling GDI. Multiple Republican lawmakers, such as Stefanik and Sen. Marsha Blackburn (R-TN), slammed the State Department for its ties to the disinformation group. READ MORE HERE.

Nigerians raise concerns — On 24 February 2022, Russia invaded Ukraine in an escalation of the Russo-Ukrainian War which began in 2014

In March, 2022, NED was accused of deleting records of funding projects in Ukraine in order to preserve big lie of an unprovoked Russian invasion.

According to a report in TheInsight, the organisation deleted all records of funding projects in Ukraine from their searchable “Awarded Grants Search” database.

The archived webpage captured February 25, 2022 from 14:53 shows that NED granted $22,394,281 in the form of 334 awards to Ukraine between 2014 to the present. The capture at 23:10 the same day shows “No results found” for Ukraine. As of right now, there are still “No results found” for Ukraine.

Searching using “Ukraine” as a keyword (as opposed to a “Project Country” in the original captures) yields “No results found.” Searching for the titles of the funded projects listed in the last “intact” web capture yields no results.

Additionally, the current database search criteria have been restricted, previously funding from 2014 to present could be searched, currently only 2017 to present is searchable per the drop-down menus. There are multiple news reports before February 25 corroborating this $22,394,281 amount.

The report concluded that the erasure of the NED’s records is necessary to validate the Biden administration’s big lie – echoed in the media – that the Russian invasion of Ukraine was “unprovoked.”

As far back as 2015, the Russian government has labelled NED labeled as an “undesirable” organization — banning it from operating in the country.

In a statement on its website, the General Prosecutor’s Office accused the foundation of working to disrupt national elections, influencing Russian authorities and discrediting the Russian army. The foundation is the first victim of a new law to expel foreign NGOs believed to be working against Russian interests.

Russians who continue working for such groups face up to six years in prison.

There is overwhelming evidence of interference in Hong Kong over many years, especially by various agencies of the US government, and not just during the unprecedented anti-government protests and riots in 2019.

Alan Weinstein, the founder of the US Congress-funded National Endowment for Democracy (NED) once told The Washington Post in an interview that a lot of what they were doing was what the CIA used to do.

According to the NED’s own database for grant awards, various Hong Kong groups and activists received US$1,936,568 in 2020, including US$90,000 “to build the capacity of Hong Kong activists-in-exile, and to raise awareness of and garner support for Hong Kong’s pro-democracy movement”.

It continues: “The organisation and its partner will leverage their extensive existing networks to support exiled activists and to sustain and grow activist communities remaining in Hong Kong, providing training to empower these communities to engage in effective advocacy. The organisation will also strengthen regional and international support for the pro-democracy movement by coordinating with other rights NGOs, hosting outreach events, and implementing social media campaigns.”

In 2019, it provided a total of US$637,263, including funding for a sister organisation, the National Democratic Institute for International Affairs (NDI), for political advocacy in Hong Kong worth US$325,000.

In November 2020, Beijing sanctioned John Knaus, senior director of the NED; Manpreet Anand, a regional director of the NDI; Kelvin Sit, then NDI programme director for Hong Kong; and Crystal Rosario, a specialist at the NDI, for interference in the city.

According to a Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson, Zhao Lijian, in 2022, “The National Endowment for Democracy (NED), which takes orders directly from the U.S. government and manipulates NGOs through the provision of funding to conduct subversion, infiltration and sabotage to serve U.S. strategic interests, is actually the “second CIA” of the United States.

“We believe the international community will see its true face more and more clearly, and more countries will expose its heinous deeds in various forms.”

In the Marvel Cinematic Universe, the biggest villain Thanos has a powerful weapon called the “Infinity Gauntlet.” With a snap of his fingers, he can effortlessly erase half of all life in the universe.

The US also has a similar weapon – the National Endowment for Democracy (NED), known as the US government’s “white gloves.” By putting on these gloves glossed over by the so-called democracy, Washington can easily interfere in the internal affairs of other countries and disrupt the order of their politics and society.

A fact sheet about the NED that the Chinese Foreign Ministry released reveals the dark deeds performed all over the world by the organization that claims to “support freedom around the world.” READ MORE HERE

According to the submission of an international affairs expert, “The NED’s activities have created great insecurity in the world to satisfy US’ very absurd and bizarre sense of security. However, the fact is, if other countries are less safe, so is the US.”

In Nigeria, ElectHER, a foundation which claims it is advancing the inclusion of women in politics and public life, is one of the organisations in partnership with NED.

Three years ago, it received $100,000 grant to “implement activities aimed at increasing women’s political representation and leadership in Nigeria”.

The NED is definitely politically profitable as the deeds of the foundation advance US strategic interests. With the help of the NED, on the one hand, Washington can hype up how evil its “non-democratic” opponents are, a convenient and “justified” excuse to attack them and even subvert their regimes.

On the other hand, by cultivating “democratic” forces in other countries, the US in many cases attempts to support those that are in favour of Washington or even create US puppets. In this way, Uncle Sam can extend his hand to more countries and expand his influence, thus consolidating his global hegemonic position.

In fact, the NED is another tool in Washington’s toolbox to maintain its world hegemony.

Rtn. Victor Ojelabi

Ojelabi, the publisher of Freelanews, is an award winning and professionally trained mass communicator, who writes ruthlessly about pop culture, religion, politics and entertainment.