Tinubu, wife depart Abuja for UK state visit

2026-03-17 - 11:55

President Bola Tinubu has departed Abuja for a state visit to the United Kingdom, in the company of his wife, Oluremi Tinubu. The visit is the first by a Nigerian president in 37 years. President Tinubu is also the first Nigerian leader to be hosted by the British monarch at Windsor Castle. Their flight left the Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport, Abuja, at about 10: 00 am on Tuesday. They were seen off at the airport by a delegation led by the President of the Senate, Godswill Akpabio; the Minister of the Federal Capital Territory, Nyesom Wike, the Chief of Staff to the President, Femi Gbajabiamila, and other government officials. Members of the President’s entourage include Akpabio; Attorney General and Minister of Justice, Lateef Fagbemi; Minister of Solid Minerals, Dele Alake; Minister of Information and National Orientation, Idris Mohammed, Minister of State for Foreign Affairs, Bianca Ojukwu; Minister of Finance and Coordinating Minister of the Economy, Wale Edun; and Minister of Industry, Trade and Investment, Jumoke Oduwole. Others are Minister of Culture and Creative Economy, Hannatu Musawa; Minister of Communications and Digital Economy, Bosun Tijani; Minister of Defence, General Christopher Musa (retd.); National Security Adviser, Malam Nuhu Ribadu; and Director-General of the National Intelligence Agency, Mohammed Mohammed. Likely on the agenda are issues ranging from major Nigerian port renovations backed by Britain as well as trade, which reached £8.1 billion ($11 billion) in the year to September 2025, an 11.4 percent year-on-year increase. King Charles will later receive Tinubu for an audience at Windsor Castle before hosting a state banquet that evening. Ads by On Thursday, Tinubu is expected to meet British Prime Minister Keir Starmer as well as members of the Nigerian community abroad, according to the official schedule. King Charles hosted a reception last week for members of the Nigerian diaspora at St James’s Palace. – Economic, defence ties – The state visit provides Britain and Nigeria, which already have a strong diplomatic relationship, a chance to discuss security and trade, as well as governance issues ahead of next year’s presidential election, said Samuel Orovwuje, a Nigerian public affairs analyst and member of the African Development Studies Centre. “We have a good trading relationship with the UK, but if you look at the balance of trade, it has always been in the favour of the UK,” Orovwuje told AFP. London and Abuja concluded a strategic partnership in November 2024 to strengthen economic, immigration and security cooperation. Many banks from Africa’s fourth-largest economy operate subsidiaries in the United Kingdom and the two nations signed an economic cooperation agreement in early 2024, under Britain’s previous Conservative government. – Potential wrinkles – First Lady Oluremi Tinubu, a Christian pastor, is set to preach at services at Lambeth Palace and to meet representatives of the Church of England. Tinubu is not an Anglican, but the meeting comes as a rift has emerged between England’s official Church and conservative Anglicans over the choice of a woman to serve as the Archbishop of Canterbury. In response to Sarah Mullally’s ascension as the spiritual leader of Anglicans worldwide, a conservative group of Anglicans, mainly Africans, met in Abuja this month under the auspices of the Global Anglican Future Conference, which calls itself a movement of “authentic” Anglicans. They elected Laurent Mbanda, the archbishop of Rwanda, as their chairman. And missing from the official schedule is the traditional meeting between the visiting head of state and the British opposition. Conservative Party leader Kemi Badenoch, who is of Nigerian descent, has repeatedly criticised the country she was raised in in public over corruption and violence.