Barely a month after his father’s inauguration as president in 1989, Jeb Bush and his new business partners landed in Nigeria.

They had gone to promote their flood and irrigation equipment, but the reception they got was worthy of a state visit. For five days, Mr. Bush and his associates were chauffeured through major cities. A crowd of 100,000 locals cheered them at one stop. Governors paid for lavish receptions in their honor. The Nigerian president invited them to his office.

“They came back singing the praises of your country and were grateful to you,” President George Bush wrote Gen. Ibrahim Babangida, the Nigerian president at the time, thanking him for the hospitality afforded to his son.

As a businessman and a son of the president, Jeb Bush became a sought-after partner for South Florida entrepreneurs in the 1980s and ’90s. His name, it seemed, could open doors and provide access, whether in Lagos, Nigeria’s largest city, or in Washington. But not all the ventures were successful and some of them proved controversial, enmeshing him in lawsuits and bad publicity.