President Bola Ahmed Tinubu has received an official invitation from His Holiness Pope Leo XIV, the newly elected head of the Roman Catholic Church, to attend his inauguration as the 267th Bishop of Rome.
The invitation was made public in a statement released Thursday by Bayo Onanuga, Special Adviser to the President on Information and Strategy.
According to the statement, President Tinubu will depart Abuja on Saturday to participate in the solemn papal inauguration mass at St. Peter’s Square in the Vatican City, scheduled for Sunday, May 18.
The letter of invitation, delivered through the Vatican’s Secretary of State, Cardinal Pietro Parolin, conveyed the Pope’s personal regard for Nigeria and its people. Pope Leo XIV fondly recalled his time in Nigeria in the 1980s, writing, “Your great nation is particularly dear to me as I worked in the Apostolic Nunciature in Lagos during the 1980s.”
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Joining the Nigerian President on the historic visit are several prominent figures in the country’s Catholic community, including Ambassador Bianca Odumegwu-Ojukwu, Minister of State for Foreign Affairs; Archbishop Lucius Ugorji of Owerri, who is President of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of Nigeria; Archbishop Ignatius Kaigama of Abuja; Archbishop Alfred Martins of Lagos; and Bishop Matthew Hassan Kukah of the Sokoto Diocese.
Pope Leo XIV, formerly Cardinal Robert Francis Prevost of the United States, was elected by the College of Cardinals 27 days after the passing of Pope Francis on April 21. His elevation signals the beginning of a new chapter for the global Catholic Church.
President Tinubu is expected to return to Nigeria on Tuesday, May 20.