With four days before the swearing of Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu as Nigeria’s next president, the United Kingdom High Commission in Abuja has indicated that a strong delegation from the UK will attend the event.
This was made known on Wednesday by the head of the media unit of the British High Commission in Abuja, Dean Hurlock.
He told Leadership, “The UK delegation will be headed by the Prime Minister’s Special Envoy for the inauguration, the Rt. Hon Andrew Mitchell MP, Minister of State for Development and Africa at the Foreign, Commonwealth, and Development Office, with the Prime Minister’s Trade Envoy to Nigeria and Special Envoy on Girls’ Education, the Rt. Hon Helen Grant (OBE, MP) and the British High Commissioner to Nigeria, Dr Richard Montgomery, CMG.”
Recall that the US Embassy in Abuja had said its delegation to the inauguration would be led by Marcia L. Fudge, US Secretary of Housing and Urban Development.
Other members of the US mission to Nigeria include David Greene, chargé d’affaires at the US Embassy in Abuja; Sydney Kamlager-Dove, Democratic Representative from California; Marisa Lago, the US Department of Commerce’s Under Secretary of Commerce for International Trade, and Michael E. Langley, the commander of the United States Africa Command.
Others include Mary Catherine Phee, the US Department of State’s Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs; Judd Devermont, national security council’s special assistant to the president and senior director for African issues, and Monde Muyangwa, the assistant administrator for Africa at the United States Agency for International Development (USAID).
Also, Canada announced through its High Commission that the country would be represented at the inauguration of Tinubu by Hon. Ahmed Husain, Minister of Housing Diversity and Inclusion.
While the Indian High Commission in Abuja told Leadership that a delegation would represent the country. The media officer of the mission, Vipul Mesariya, said that Delhi might send a strong delegation led by a minister.
The Chinese authorities at the Embassy in Abuja also confirmed that a team from the Chinese government would likely be at the event to show solidarity with Nigeria and strengthen the existing bilateral ties with the country. The officer in charge of the political and media unit, Gu Jing, disclosed that the country would certainly send a representative, but nothing was certain yet.
A source from Sierra Leone said that the president of the country, Julius Mada Bio, was likely to lead a strong delegation to the country.
