Opinion

Issues in President Tinubu’s UK state visit

Published

5 months ago

March 16, 2026

Chigozin Obinna

President Bola Tinubu begins historic UK State Visit on March 17, 2026, to boost Nigeria-UK diplomacy, trade, and investment partnerships

By Temitope Ajayi

President Bola Tinubu will land at the airport on March 17, 2026 to begin a historic State Visit that will showcase to the world the unique bond that exists between Nigeria and the United Kingdom.

Also read: UEFA Cancels Spain vs Argentina Finalissima Clash

When the formalities of the visit begin on March 18, the President Tinubu, in the company of his wife, Senator Oluremi Tinubu, will be the fifth Nigerian leader to be so honoured at the highest level of diplomacy by the British Crown and the first to be hosted at Windsor Castle. The four previous Nigerian leaders were hosted at the Buckingham Palace.

This visit carries symbolism beyond ceremony. It reflects the steady evolution of a relationship shaped first by history, then by diplomacy, and now increasingly by commerce, investment, and shared global ambition.

Nigeria’s post independence leader, Prime Minister Tafawa Balewa, the first to be invited on a State Visit by a British sovereign, was received on December 14, 1965, by Queen Elizabeth II in a move that signalled the preeminent status of Nigeria as the giant of Africa on a global stage, just five years after independence from British colonial rule.

Eight years later, Queen Elizabeth II hosted General Yakubu Gowon, the Military Head of State, on June 12, 1973.

That visit was followed by that of the first democratically elected President of Nigeria, Alhaji Shehu Usman Shagari, which began from March 17 through March 20, 1981.

By the time the fourth visit by a Nigerian leader took place in 1989, the country had, again, fallen under military rule after the short spell of the Shagari administration from October 1, 1979, to December 31, 1983.

Queen Elizabeth II hosted General Ibrahim Babangida and his late wife, Mariam Babangida, to a spectacular State Visit that ended on May 12, 1989.

If the previous four State Visits elevated the special relationship between Nigeria and the United Kingdom, President Tinubu’s scheduled visit, which was first announced by the British Royal Family on February 10, 2026, is taking the bond between the two great nations to a new era of cooperation and shared values.

It is worth stating that Nigeria is the only country in Africa whose leader will be hosted on a state visit by His Majesty’s government for the fifth time.

Only South Africa whose President has been received three times came close and the last was when President Jacob Zuma and his wife, Thobeka Zuma were hosted between March 3 to March 5, 2010.

Other leaders of African countries such as Egypt, Ghana, Zimbabwe, Senegal, Morocco, Malawi, Liberia, Zambia and Tanzania have only been hosted once.

Since Independence in 1960, Nigeria and the United Kingdom have enjoyed robust bilateral relations covering education, defence, trade, culture, technology, and sports.

Security cooperation has also remained a central pillar of this partnership.

The United Kingdom continues to support Nigeria in areas such as counter terrorism training, intelligence collaboration, and military capacity building, particularly in efforts to stabilise parts of the country affected by insurgency and organised crime.

This cooperation reflects the shared interest of both nations in regional stability and international security.

President Tinubu’s visit to the UK on the invitation of King Charles III, at a time the United Kingdom is redefining her global trade relationships following exit from the European Union, is not just another visit.

It is a visit that speaks to the status of Nigeria as the world’s largest Black democracy and the biggest market in Africa.

It is also coming on the heels of significant economic reforms initiated by President Tinubu to stabilise Nigeria’s economy, liberalise the foreign exchange market, reform the tax system, and reposition the country for investment led growth.

Nigeria today stands at an inflection point where bold domestic reforms are beginning to align with a renewed diplomatic push to attract global capital, expand trade, and reposition Africa’s largest economy for long term competitiveness.

With a population projected to become the third largest in the world within the next three decades, Nigeria’s economic trajectory will increasingly shape the future of Africa’s growth story.

As global investors look toward emerging markets for the next wave of growth, Nigeria is positioning itself to become one of the most consequential economic frontiers of the twenty first century.

The post Brexit UK government continues to expand trade and market access for British goods and services through strategic bilateral partnerships around the world.

Nowhere else in Africa will the UK seek to deepen cooperation more than with the continent’s largest market where hundreds of British corporations have maintained a strong and profitable presence for more than a century.

Nigeria is the second largest trading partner of the United Kingdom in Africa with annual bilateral trade volumes estimated at about eight billion pounds across energy, finance, education, technology, and retail.

Nigeria’s trade and economic partnership with the United Kingdom have been significantly strengthened under the UK Nigeria Enhanced Trade and Investment Partnership (ETIP), which was signed in 2024 under the leadership of President Tinubu.

Under the ETIP, the two countries designed a strategic framework to boost bilateral trade beyond current levels while removing barriers to commerce and expanding cooperation in sectors such as agriculture, technology, renewable energy, fintech, manufacturing, retail, and the creative economy.

In an era where global supply chains are shifting and emerging markets are competing for capital, deeper economic cooperation between Nigeria and the United Kingdom presents opportunities for both nations to expand trade, investment, and innovation across multiple sectors.

Other key aspects of the ETIP include economic diversification and support for export led economic activities. With ETIP, Nigerian exporters can effectively leverage the Developing Countries Trading Scheme (DCTS), which offers low to zero tariff access to the UK market for more than 3,000 products.

The framework is also focused on job creation for the citizens of both countries by stimulating private sector investment, strengthening value chains, and supporting Nigeria’s broader economic reform agenda.

While Nigeria’s creative and cultural products are on global ascendancy, ETIP also provides a platform for structured cooperation in the creative industries through a specialised Technical Working Group.

The group will work to deepen collaboration in film production, music, fashion, digital media, and cultural exports while attracting more British investment into Nigeria’s fast growing creative economy, which has emerged as one of the country’s most powerful drivers of youth employment, cultural influence, and soft power.

President Tinubu’s State Visit is notable in several respects. He will be the first Nigerian leader to be honoured as a special guest of the British Royal Family since Nigeria returned to democratic rule in 1999.

In an interesting historical symmetry, it was the then Prince Charles, now King Charles III, who represented the British Government and Queen Elizabeth II at the inauguration ceremony of President Olusegun Obasanjo on May 29, 1999.

Then Prince Charles was among the visiting Heads of State and global leaders at Eagle Square in Abuja who witnessed the rebirth of Nigeria’s democratic era after sixteen years of uninterrupted military rule.

In a fitting tribute to that historic democratic transition, King Charles III will now play host to President Tinubu, an avowed democrat and one of the prominent figures of Nigeria’s pro democracy movement, on a State Visit as the democratically elected leader of Nigeria.

It is important to state that the United Kingdom has been home to Nigerians for more than two centuries with an active and influential diaspora population currently estimated at over 500,000 people. This vibrant community represents one of the strongest bridges between the two nations.

Nigerians in the diaspora contribute significantly to both economies through entrepreneurship, professional excellence, and remittances which contribute billions of dollars annually to Nigeria’s economy.

For higher education, the UK remains one of the most attractive destinations for Nigerian students. It was reported that over 53,000 Nigerians were enrolled in UK universities as of 2023.

Equally, Nigeria remains one of the leading sources of international students in the UK with 36,839 study visas granted to Nigerians as of September 2025.

The growing Nigerian British community continues to distinguish itself across sports, literature, film, music, and public life.

Global cultural figures of Nigerian heritage such as Sade Adu, Anthony Joshua, Bukayo Saka, Chiwetel Ejiofor, Cynthia Erivo, John Boyega, renowned novelist Ben Okri, and political leaders like Kemi Badenoch continue to strengthen the cultural and historical ties that bind both countries together.

While in the United Kingdom, where he will hold bilateral engagements with Prime Minister Keir Starmer at Downing Street and attend a private sector led business summit with Nigerian and British business leaders, President Tinubu will use the State Visit to further deepen economic cooperation and strengthen strategic partnerships with the government and people of the United Kingdom.

He will present Nigeria’s reform story and highlight the vast investment opportunities emerging across key sectors such as mining, energy, infrastructure, agriculture, livestock, food processing, technology, and the creative economy.

More importantly, the visit represents an opportunity to advance a relationship that has evolved from shared history into a modern partnership built on investment, innovation, and mutual growth.

As both nations navigate an increasingly competitive global economy, Nigeria and the United Kingdom are well positioned to translate their long-standing ties into a forward-looking alliance driven by enterprise, opportunity, and shared prosperity.

It will also be an opportunity for both countries to explore how to strengthen the Commonwealth of Nations, in which they are heavily invested, to play a more effective and impactful role in global affairs at a time when the rule-based international order is under great threat with negative consequences for world peace, stability and progress.

More than six decades after Nigeria’s independence and decades after the earliest diplomatic exchanges between both nations, the relationship between Nigeria and the United Kingdom continues to evolve in ways that reflect the changing realities of the global economy.

What began as a relationship defined by history has matured into one increasingly defined by opportunity.

Also read: UEFA Cancels Spain vs Argentina Finalissima Clash

In that sense, President Tinubu’s visit is not only a reaffirmation of enduring ties. It is also a statement of intent about the future both countries seek to build together.

Related Topics:African diplomacy Bola Tinubu featured Nigeria UK relations State visit UK Nigeria trade

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Opinion

Tributes to Dr. Segun Osoba and Abosede Oluwayemisi

Published

1 week ago

August 5, 2026

Mariam Balogun

By Bola BOLAWOLE,

Dr. Segun Osoba, Marxist scholar and historian, was one of my mentors and role models. Our paths crossed long before I came face-to-face with the enigma at the then University of Ife, now Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife, where he not only taught me courses in the History department, but was also our staff adviser and comrade.

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Cerebral and unflinchingly principled, Osoba snubbed the usual hussle, if I may call it that, of many academics to attain to the professoral status, preferring to remain “Dr.” even though everyone knew he was not the mate of many a professor!

For me, Osoba’s fame travelled far ahead of him. Appointed by the Murtala Muhammed regime into the Constitution Drafting Committee in October 1975, Osoba, together with his ideological soulmate, Dr. Bala Usman of the History department of the Ahmadu Bello University (ABU), Zaria, broke ranks with the other members of the CDC to author a people-oriented draft Constitution that made the Nigerian people’s interests, aspirations and well-being its focal point. It was termed the Minority Report.

Expectedly, the conservative Olusegun Obasanjo regime that succeeded Murtala Muhammed rejected the Osoba/Bala Usman report while accepting the report of the majority members of the CDC on September 14, 1976. The CDC was chaired by Chief FRA Williams.

The majority/minority report divide apart, the CDC was not without its controversies: The sage, Chief Obafemi Awolowo, had declined to serve on the committee, thereby reducing its members from 50 to 49. There was also the debate as to what would have been the choice of a much more radical Murtala Muhammed had he not been assassinated on February 13, 1976.

Specifically because of Osoba and Bala Usman, I chose to study History in the university! And I was fortunate to drink from the fountain of knowledge at the feet of Dr. Osoba on and off the classroom. As comrades, our relationship did not end at Ife; usually, comradeship is a life-long endeavour.

In late December 2023, after a spell of ‘long-time-no-see’, four of us old students/comrades of Comrade Osoba decided to visit him at his Ijebu-Ode residence – Femi Falana, SAN; Ambassador Ayo Olukanni; Kayode Komolafe (K.K.) and my humble self.

Comrade was still his very sharp and humorous self. Despite his health challenges, he still “recognised” each and everyone of us by our voice. We discussed for hours and it was amazing that ill-health spared his intellect. He was his familiar self – analytical, even if caustic, going down memory lane and recalling facts and figures as if he was reading them from a book spread out before him.

We promised to return. Unfortunately, we procrastinated, despite Olukanni’s repeated prodding. But as individuals, we attended his 90th birthday celebration held at Ijebu-Ode on 9th January, 2025. His book, “Critical and Contentious Issues in the Modern and Contemporary History of Nigeria: Collected Writings of Samuel Olusegun Osoba”, which was unveiled at the occasion, adorns my Library. See also my “Tributes to Comrade (Dr.) Segun Osoba at 90”, published in this column in the Wednesday, 15 January, 2025 edition of the New Telegraph newspaper.

Dr. Osoba passed away peacefully at home in Ijebu-Ode on 14 May, 2026. A flurry of activities by comrades from all the nooks and crannies of this country as well as abroad celebrated his life, extolled his virtues, pledged to continue the struggle from where he stopped, and bid him farewell from this earthly plane. In this were the words of Che Guevara fulfilled: “Wherever death may surprise us, let it be welcome, provided that this, our battle cry, may have reached some receptive ear and another hand may be extended to wield our weapons (Message to the Tricontinental, 1967).”

I was unable to participate fully in some of the activities because of the tragedy that fell at my doorsteps at about the same time.

First, my elder sister’s husband, Gabriel Alani Olusola Omiyale, died on June 11, 2026 at the age of 89 years. He was a mentor. Then came the bombshell: His daughter – and my sister’s second child, Abosede Oluwayemisi – died the same month on June 29th at the age of 54!

That was massive! To say we were devastated is an understatement. If the pains that attended Bose’s death remain indescribable, the ways and manners of her husband and his family immediately before and after her death remain a puzzle. They rubbed insults on our injury.

They desecrated our Yoruba customs and traditions. Bose had heroically battled the scourge of breast cancer; after undergoing an operation, we were all optimistic she was on the path to full recovery until tests showed she needed more medical attention.

Naturally, she was devastated but, gradually, she built up the confidence and strength required to see her through. No stone was left unturned by her extended family who did not leave the load for the husband and his family to carry. All hands were on deck.

The extended family had always been there for Bose. Her siblings had been wonderful; never allowing her husband’s unstable job situation to show or affect Bose’s treatment and other needs, including her children’s education and welfare. I also played my part. I am grateful to everyone who responded to our clarion call in many ways.

We were hopeful we would all pull through it and that Bose’s case would be another testimony that cancer can be beaten. All she needed – as much as medicare – were words of encouragement and support. That, however, became the weakest link!

Act one: Against the best advice of her mother, my niece was made to consume a concoction that turned the tide. According to her husband, the concoction was procured by his own brother in Akure, Ondo state, taken to a church for prayers after which it was dispatched through a motorpark! Bose drank this concoction and started vomiting. In his own testimonies, Bose’s husband took her to a hospital where she was given drips, which gave her some strength, but because the doctor was late in coming, he took her back home despite the fact that the test they ran indicated that she had a blood infection! That night at home, she started vomiting again and, according to the husband’s testimony, he took her again to the hospital by 1.30am. She was left unattended until late afternoon when she fell into a coma! Bose’s blood infection was never treated until she passed away!

Act Two: Our standard practice had been to always double-check whatever a doctor said or prescribed, but on this fatal day, Bose’s husband kept all of us in the dark. We were not told of the blood infection. We were not alerted when she started vomiting again in the night. We were not informed when he took her again to the hospital. According to him, Bose walked with her own legs into the hospital, climbing the row of stairs all by herself.

Act Three: At the hospital, the husband took Bose’s phone and locked it in the car parked downstairs. So she had no access to her phone – to call out or receive in-coming calls. She was held incommunicado. And there was no one else there with the husband and wife. He called noone; he also snubbed repeated incoming calls into his own phone, including from my elder sister, who is Bose’s mother.

Act four: Later that afternoon, the husband called me to say Bose was not responding to treatment and that I should start interceding for her. I was aghast! I had been waiting all day for them to link up with me for a scheduled appointment. Later, a female voice using the husband’s phone called me to quickly come to the hospital. I was on my way there when Bose’s second child, a girl writing exams at the Obafemi Awolowo University, called me, sobbing! “Daddy, what is happening to my Mom? My Daddy called me and said my Mummy is in coma” Coma! “Yes, sir”, the girl replied, “and my Daddy said my Mummy is dead!” I almost lost control of the wheel because I was driving.

Act Five: On getting to the hospital, they had already started embalming Bose! I screamed at the husband, but the hospital staff restrained me. Why the haste? Without any of her family members present! A thousand thoughts ran riot in my head. At 6.28 pm, Bose’s mortal remains were deposited in the morgue and we left.

Act Six: While we were agonizing about how to break the sad news to Bose’s mother, her husband and his family had posted Bose’s death on every conceivable social media platform, breaking the news to her young children, the oldest of whom is just a little over 20 years while the youngest is 14!

Act seven: We the siblings of Bose’s mother wanted a decent burial for her. We wanted her dreams and visions for her children respected. Bose’s husband and his family spurned all of that! They weaponized Bose’s young children against us. They threw their so-called customs and traditions in our face at every turn – as if the Yoruba have no customs and traditions. They employed deceit and subterfuge and hurriedly committed Bose to mother earth without any of her family members present! We warned! They ignored and played games!

Google says Edema is a name answered by both the Urhobo and Itsekiri people of Delta state. Does their culture permit the trumping of Yoruba customs and traditions? Should a husband boast to his children – while their mother was still battling cancer – that, if she dies, he will remarry? So, expect his wedding invitation!

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Had Bose died of cancer, our pains would have been less insufferable; but she did not! Were they tired of the stress and wanted closure so they could move on with their own life? Hastened to her death! Hurried to the grave! This is to put the records straight. Our immediate attention, however, is the good health of Bose’s mother – and Daddy Omiyale’s burial slated for 29th and 30th of October this year.

Let Dr. Segun Osoba rest in power! And eternal rest grant Abosede Oluwayemisi Edema (nee Omiyale), O Lord!

(Published in the TREASURES column on the back page of the Wednesday, 5 August, 2026 edition of the New Telegraph newspaper).