The Presidency on Tuesday declared that President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s ongoing vacation in Europe has absolutely no connection with the legal proceedings in the United States seeking the release of historical records concerning him.

Special Adviser to the President on Media and Public Communication, Chief Sunday Dare, said Tinubu’s trip was a previously scheduled annual leave, dismissing attempts to suggest that the President travelled to Europe because of developments surrounding the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) proceedings in the US.

Dare, who reacted in a statement posted on his verified X handle, @SundayDareSD, on Tuesday evening, described attempts to connect the President’s movements with the American proceedings as an “orchestrated distraction”.

“This orchestrated distraction attempts to tie the President’s movements to foreign legal proceedings, but the facts are clear: President Tinubu is on a previously scheduled annual leave, and there is absolutely no connection between the President’s European trip and the ongoing U.S. FOIA proceedings”, he said.

President Tinubu departed Abuja on Sunday for Europe to begin a three-week working vacation as part of his annual leave, with London, United Kingdom, as his first stop

Dare also rejected comments attributed to Dr. Karl Von Batten, saying they represented the views of an individual associated with interests linked to former Vice President Atiku Abubakar rather than the position of either the US government or President Donald Trump.

“Dr. Karl Von Batten’s comments represent solely the position of an individual associated with Atiku-linked political interests, not the U.S. government or President Trump”, he said.

The presidential aide further attacked the credibility of reports surrounding the controversy, arguing that they relied on contradictions and anonymous claims without documentary evidence.

“The report’s falsehoods, contradictions, anonymous claims, and total absence of documentary evidence expose its fraudulent foundation. The recycled fixation on decades-old, settled U.S. legal filings represents a classic exercise in legal opportunism”, Dare said.

He cited the recent appearance of Senior Advocate of Nigeria and member of Tinubu’s legal team in the United States, Wole Afolabi, on Channels Television, where the lawyer addressed the ongoing FOIA requests for the release of historical archival records held by American federal agencies.

According to Dare, Afolabi had clarified that the legal team’s efforts to prevent the release of certain portions of the records were based strictly on provisions of US law intended to protect confidential investigative processes and did not amount to an attempt to conceal damaging information about the President.

“As Afolabi rightly clarified, actions taken by the legal team to withhold certain sections align strictly with U.S. legal provisions designed to protect confidential investigative processes, rather than any attempt to shield the president from damaging details”, Dare said.

The presidential adviser said the critical issue was that Tinubu was never indicted or prosecuted by American authorities, arguing that criminal liability would have resulted in prosecution at the time the investigations were conducted.

“He emphasized the core reality: if the president had been criminally liable under U.S. law during past investigations, American authorities would have indicted and prosecuted him at the time.

“Competent jurisdictions and independent regulatory frameworks operate on facts, due process, and established jurisprudence, not on the recycled press releases of political mercenaries conducting judicial safaris from foreign capitals”, he said.

Dare urged the American judiciary and law enforcement agencies to be allowed to perform their statutory responsibilities without political interference.

“Let the American judiciary and law enforcement agencies execute their statutory mandates without partisan interference, exactly as they have always done”, he said.

He alleged that the controversy was being promoted as part of a multimillion-dollar external campaign designed to divert attention from what he described as the opposition’s inability to present a coherent domestic agenda ahead of the 2027 general election.

“This multi-million-dollar external distraction serves a singular, defensive purpose: to draw public attention away from the glaring absence of a coherent domestic agenda”, Dare said.

According to him, the opposition’s 2027 platform had failed to offer Nigerians alternative economic policies or structural reforms to challenge the programmes being implemented by the Tinubu administration.

“The opposition’s 2027 framework remains devoid of noble economic blueprints, structural innovation, or issue-based engagement.

“Having offered no ideological alternative to the difficult, necessary macroeconomic stabilization policies undertaken by President Bola Tinubu’s administration, opting instead for a hypocritical, populist somersault on critical structural reforms like fuel subsidy removal, the architects of this campaign are left with nothing to trade upon but muckraking, emotional manipulation, and ethnic polarization”, he said.

Dare further accused the President’s political opponents of spending money on foreign public relations campaigns rather than developing programmes to address the economic and developmental needs of Nigerians.

“When a political camp invests millions not into building grassroots infrastructure, agricultural masterplans, or industrial blueprints, but into hiring foreign mouthpieces to manufacture fictitious crises, they confirm their detachment from the everyday realities of ordinary Nigerians.

“The opposition’s strategy relies on the cynical gamble that repetition of a lie will birth a truth, weaponizing foreign addresses to mask an absolute deficit of domestic vision”, he said.

The presidential aide said the administration would remain focused on implementing its programmes despite the controversy, citing fiscal discipline, infrastructure development and security reforms as part of the foundations being laid for sustainable national development.

“President Bola Tinubu’s administration continues to lay the foundational blocks for sustainable national development through difficult fiscal discipline, infrastructural consolidation, and institutional security reforms”, he said.

Dare maintained that the approaching political contest would ultimately be determined in Nigeria by the electorate on the basis of competing promises and the performance of those seeking public office, rather than by historical documents being contested overseas.

“As underscored by the reality that upcoming political cycles will be decided by campaigns and performance promises made directly to the Nigerian electorate, not by contested historical documents, these are metrics of statecraft that cannot be undermined by paid PR theatricals or transatlantic mercenaries attempting to rewrite the political calendar from abroad.

“True democratic validation is earned through the ballot box and tangible service delivery to the citizens at home, not through manufactured headlines bought and paid for in foreign currency(The Nation)