A United States lobbying firm linked to former Vice President Atiku Abubakar has claimed that a proposed meeting between President Bola Tinubu and US President Donald Trump on the sidelines of the 81st United Nations General Assembly, UNGA, has been cancelled.
The firm, Von Batten-Montague-York, L.C., made the claim in a post on X on Monday, days after the Presidency confirmed that Tinubu would not personally attend the UN General Assembly in New York.
The firm also claimed that any potential endorsement of Tinubu’s 2027 presidential bid by Trump was no longer on the table.
“By the grace of Almighty God, and only by His grace, President Tinubu’s heavily lobbied UN meeting with President Trump is dead,” the firm said.
It further claimed that Tinubu’s attendance at the UNGA and any possible Trump endorsement of his 2027 presidential campaign were no longer certain.
According to the lobbying firm, Tinubu’s alleged primary objective was to meet Trump and seek his backing ahead of Nigeria’s 2027 presidential election.
The firm also alleged that approximately $9 million in Nigerian taxpayers’ money had been committed to lobbying efforts aimed at facilitating access to the Trump administration.
The $9 million figure has featured in an ongoing political dispute over Nigeria’s Washington lobbying activities. US Foreign Agents Registration Act filings reported by Vanguard show that the Federal Government engaged Washington-based DCI Group under an arrangement initially valued at $4.5 million for six months, with provisions that could take the engagement to $9 million.
Atiku, meanwhile, has a separate $1.2 million, 12-month lobbying agreement with Von Batten-Montague-York, according to reports based on US filings. The firm’s mandate includes engagement with US policymakers and countering narratives associated with the Nigerian government.
Atiku also questioned the reported lobbying expenditure after the Presidency announced that Vice President Kashim Shettima would lead Nigeria’s delegation to the 2026 UNGA instead of Tinubu.
Atiku claimed that Nigeria’s Permanent Representative to the UN, Jimoh Ibrahim, had secured a seat for Tinubu close to where Trump was expected to be seated at the General Assembly, asking why the President would not attend. Those claims were made by Atiku and have not been independently established as evidence of a planned Tinubu-Trump meeting.
The Presidency has not announced that a Tinubu-Trump meeting was officially scheduled or subsequently cancelled.
The latest official announcement confirmed that Shettima will lead Nigeria’s delegation to the 81st UNGA. The reason given publicly for Tinubu’s absence was not linked to the lobbying firm’s allegations.
Von Batten-Montague-York has previously made other claims concerning Tinubu’s proposed engagement with the Trump administration. In an earlier statement, the firm alleged that the Presidency expected the Tinubu-Trump meeting to proceed and claimed that unidentified Nigerians believed the Americans had been “settled.” The firm acknowledged at the time that it had not independently verified the information.
The latest claim by the firm that the proposed meeting has been cancelled should therefore be treated as an assertion by an Atiku-linked lobbying organisation, rather than an official confirmation from either the Nigerian or US government.
Tinubu’s absence from the UNGA has become a subject of political debate in Nigeria, particularly because it is his third consecutive year without personally attending the gathering. Atiku has publicly demanded an explanation for the decision, while the Presidency has maintained that the Vice President is leading the Nigerian delegation.
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