US Lobbying Firm Opposes Tinubu-Trump Meeting at UN

Von Batten-Montague-York L.C., a US-based lobbying firm, has initiated efforts to discourage a proposed meeting between Nigerian President Bola Tinubu and US President Donald Trump at the upcoming United Nations General Assembly. This follows comments from Nigeria’s Permanent Representative to the UN, Ambassador Jimoh Ibrahim, who indicated that talks were expected.

The firm has shared a video of Ibrahim’s remarks with senior officials in the Trump administration and plans to distribute it to Congress and the State Department. The firm argues that a meeting could be perceived as an endorsement of Tinubu amid ongoing controversies regarding historical court records in the US.

Dr. Von Batten, the firm’s chairman, intends to brief Trump directly on the drug trafficking allegations against Tinubu.

As of the report's filing, neither the Nigerian Presidency nor the Ministry of Foreign Affairs had responded to the lobbying firm’s statements. The firm had previously begun distributing documents related to a US civil forfeiture case involving Tinubu as part of its engagement in Washington, which was initiated under a lobbying agreement with former Vice President Atiku Abubakar.