A United States political advisory firm has urged leading Nigerian opposition figures to set aside their differences and form a single platform ahead of the presidential election expected in January.
Von Batten Montague York, L.C. made the call on October 4 after an article in the London based magazine The Economist.
The firm said the article, which argued that Nigerians dislike President Bola Tinubu but may still re elect him, marked the start of a European effort to provide cover for what the firm called a plan to rig the vote.
It named Atiku Abubakar, Peter Obi, Seyi Makinde, Adewole Adebayo and other candidates and their supporters as people who should unite under a Save Nigeria platform.
The firm said those candidates are not mainly running against Tinubu. It described him as a proxy for powerful entities in London, Paris and Brussels that, in the firm view, believe Nigeria resources and the future of Nigerian children belong to them. It said the strings are real.
The statement told Nigerians that their enemy is not a fellow citizen from the West, the North, the East or the South. It called their political enemy an alleged heroin trafficker named Bola Tinubu who has mortgaged the country future. It asked what four more years of Tinubu would bring if conditions already feel bad.
The October 4 message pointed back to an earlier post by the same firm. That post said Europeans had launched an operation to keep their man, President Tinubu, in power. It cited the Economist line that Nigerians dislike their president but may re elect him anyway, and linked the claim to questions about what Tinubu was doing in London and Paris.
The earlier post contrasted the United States under President Donald Trump with France under President Emmanuel Macron. It said Washington stood on principle and made clear that an alleged heroin trafficker had no place beside the American president or in the White House, while Macron opened the doors of the Elysee Palace to Tinubu. The firm repeated that the puppet strings are real.
The Economist piece, published around October 1, said Tinubu returned from Paris on September 29 after a month long stay in Europe and did not look worried about winning a second term. It pointed to a divided opposition, political cynicism, religion and the advantages of incumbency as reasons he might win despite unpopularity. Nigerian presidential aides later rejected the magazine account as flawed.
Von Batten Montague York has issued several public statements in recent weeks alleging that Tinubu is working to shape the 2027 election through state institutions and warning that the United States should not accept a rigged result. The firm has also referred to past United States investigative records when repeating the heroin trafficking allegation against the president. Tinubu and his allies have long denied wrongdoing tied to those old matters.
