By Ado Oyeyemi
Former Vice President Atiku Abubakar’s camp has challenged the Presidency to focus on available official records rather than the personal background of a United States based lobbyist linked to the former vice president.
Atiku’s Senior Special Assistant on Public Communication, Phrank Shaibu, made the remarks in response to comments by President Bola Tinubu’s Special Adviser on Media and Public Communications, Sunday Dare, who had questioned Atiku’s relationship with American lobbyist Karl Von Batten.
Shaibu said the controversy was not about the lobbyist but about documents and records in the United States which, according to him, deserved public scrutiny.
He particularly referred to a US civil forfeiture case involving $460,000 in an account bearing Tinubu’s name. While stressing that the forfeiture proceeding should not be regarded as a criminal conviction, Shaibu argued that the absence of a criminal conviction did not invalidate the existence of the court records.
“The documents are there,” he said.
The Atiku camp also defended the former vice president’s reported $1.2m lobbying arrangement in the United States, saying the agreement with Von Batten-Montague-York was registered with the US Department of Justice under the Foreign Agents Registration Act.
Shaibu said the registration meant that details of the lobbying arrangement and payments were publicly disclosed.
He, however, questioned the Federal Government’s own spending on lobbying activities in Washington, alleging that the Tinubu administration engaged the DCI Group at a cost of $750,000 monthly, amounting to $4.5m over six months, with provisions in the agreement potentially taking the total cost to about $9m.
Shaibu asked why lobbying should be portrayed negatively when undertaken by Atiku but defended when carried out on behalf of the Federal Government.
He said, “If Atiku’s $1.2m for an entire year is evidence of desperation, what exactly should Nigerians call Tinubu’s arrangement of up to $9m?”
According to him, the Presidency was attempting to divert attention from the substance of the matter by focusing on Von Batten’s marriage, ancestry, name and business history.
Shaibu maintained that the central issue should be what the available records reveal rather than the personality or background of the lobbyist.
He also urged the Federal Government to shift its attention to the challenges confronting Nigerians, including rising food, transport and electricity costs, declining purchasing power and insecurity.
The Atiku camp consequently challenged the Presidency to explain its own lobbying expenditure in Washington before criticising the opposition for engaging lobbyists.
