King Charles greets Nigerian president in Windsor sunshine

Sean Coughlan
Royal correspondent

King Charles is hosting the first Nigerian state visit to the UK for 37 years, with President Bola Ahmed Tinubu and his wife Oluremi Tinubu receiving a ceremonial welcome at Windsor Castle.

At the start of the two-day visit, the leaders of the African nation with the biggest population – triple that of the UK – were greeted by senior royals including Queen Camilla, and the Prince and Princess of Wales.

The King and President Tinubu will give speeches on Wednesday evening at the state banquet, which will be attended by political leaders and celebrities with links to Nigeria.

However, there will be no traditional lunch with the King at Windsor as the president is a Muslim and fasting for Ramadan.

Nigerian items in the Royal Collection were shown to the visitors

In warm spring sunshine, the president and first lady – wearing traditional robes – were given the ceremonial grandeur of a royal welcome.

There was a carriage procession, bringing the Nigerian visitors into the quadrangle inside Windsor Castle, where a military band, with careful symmetry, paraded on the checkerboard lawn.

There was a gun salute, national anthems were played, guards were inspected and the Household Cavalry kicked up dust as they paraded inside the castle, in front of a viewing stand for the King and Queen and their visitors.

President Tinubu and Mrs Tinubu had been met earlier by Prince William and Catherine, Princess of Wales, before being escorted to formally meet the King and Queen.

When the royal hosts and their visitors went inside the castle, they viewed Nigerian items from the Royal Collection, including a Yoruba throne, sculptures, paintings and the manuscript of a poem by Sir Ben Okri.

Official gifts were exchanged. The president and Mrs Tinubu were given hand-crafted pottery, a silver photo frame containing a picture of the King and Queen and a silver and enamel bowl.

In return, the King and Queen were given a traditional Yoruba statuette and a jewellery box featuring the faces of important Nigerian women.

The Prince and Princess of Wales were there to greet the Nigerian visitors
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Queen Camilla rode in a carriage alongside Nigeria’s First Lady Oluremi Tinubu
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The Nigerian president was met with pomp and ceremony at Windsor
State visits are a way of building relationships with international partners and the Nigeria visit will see a strengthening of business links, including financial services.

There are also personal and family connections. More than 270,000 Nigerian-born people live in the UK.

“This state visit is about turning a historic relationship into a modern economic partnership – transforming trust into opportunity,” said Nigeria’s government spokesman, Mohammed Idris.

“Nigeria’s economic reforms are unlocking the potential of Africa’s largest consumer market. The United Kingdom is a natural partner in what comes next.”

The UK’s Business and Trade Department highlighted that Nigeria’s Zenith Bank had opened a branch in Manchester this week, creating new jobs.

Later, President Tinubu and his Christian wife will lay a wreath of flowers on the tomb of the late Queen Elizabeth II, in St George’s Chapel.

The couple will also attend an interfaith event, designed to build bridges between religions.

And in the evening there will be speeches in St George’s Hall, at the opulent state banquet, where there is usually a menu which reflects the cuisines of the visiting and host nations.

On Thursday, Mrs Tinubu, who is an ordained pastor, is set to preach at a service at Lambeth Palace and meet representatives from the Church of England.

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President Tinubu received a full ceremonial welcome in Windsor Castle
The Tinubus are from the Yoruba community of the south-west, one of the country’s largest ethnic groups that is divided between Muslims and Christians.

Nigeria’s 220 million people are roughly evenly split between followers of the two religions, with mostly Muslims in the north and largely Christians in the south.

President Tinubu faces growing international pressure to tackle insecurity and better protect vulnerable groups – in particular from the administration of US President Donald Trump, which has raised concerns about the treatment of Christians in Nigeria.

Although the Nigerian government says members of all faiths have suffered amid the country’s numerous and overlapping and security challenges, including an Islamist insurgency, kidnappings for ransom by criminal gangs, clashes over land and separatist unrest – which often play on ethnic as well as religious identity.

In the north-eastern state of Borno state this week at least 23 people were killed and 108 injured by a series of suspected suicide bombings, blamed on hard-line Islamist militants from the Boko Haram group.

President Tinubu condemned the “evil-minded” terror groups – and MPs in the UK have called for the protection of freedom of worship in Nigeria.

The visit takes place against the backdrop of war in the Middle East as well as the conflict in Ukraine – with Ukraine’s President Zelensky meeting King Charles on Tuesday.

The banquet will also see the King’s first speech since the arrest of his brother Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor.

Source: BBC