King to host first state visit by Muslim leader during Ramadan for a century
The King is preparing to host the first incoming state visit by a Muslim leader during Ramadan in what is believed to be nearly 100 years.
Charles is set to welcome the Nigerian president Bola Ahmed Tinubu and his wife, first lady Oluremi Tinubu, to Windsor Castle on Wednesday. The visit is going ahead as planned despite the suicide bombings in north-eastern Nigeria’s Borno state on Monday, which killed 23 people and injured more than 100. President Tinubu condemned the “evil-minded” terror groups and said he mourned those who lost their lives, and insisted “Nigeria will not succumb to fear”. The couple are due to arrive in the UK on Tuesday afternoon as scheduled, when they will be met at Stansted Airport by the deputy lieutenant of Essex Mark Bevan on behalf of the King. The grand state visit will see the monarch and the Queen stage an opulent banquet in the castle’s St George’s Hall, attended by the Prince and Princess of Wales, on Wednesday evening. William and Kate will also be on duty in the daytime, greeting the president and his wife at the luxury spa hotel Fairmont Windsor Park, on the edge of Windsor Great Park, on Wednesday morning and escorting them to the town centre to formally meet the King and Camilla. The King, the Queen, William and Kate, the West African nation’s leader and Mrs Tinubu will travel in a carriage procession in a show of traditional pomp and pageantry through Windsor to the castle’s quadrangle to see the Guard of Honour for the ceremonial welcome. It marks the first state visit to the UK by a Nigerian leader in 37 years, since Queen Elizabeth II welcomed military ruler General Ibrahim Babangida in 1989. It is also the first state visit the King has staged since his brother Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor was arrested on suspicion of sharing confidential reports with paedophile Jeffrey Epstein amid the ongoing scandal. Security will be tight, with Thames Valley Police saying extensive measures will be in place in the Berkshire town, with the occasion taking place amid the deepening Middle East crisis. The two-day state visit falls at the end of the holy month of Ramadan, during which many Muslims fast and refrain from eating or drinking between dawn and sunset – so there will be no traditional lunch with the King in the castle for the president during the day. The programme has been specially adapted, and the King will receive the president during an audience in the afternoon instead of hosting the usual welcome lunch. In 1928, Charles’s great-grandfather King George V hosted King Amanullah Khan of Afghanistan, for a three-day state visit from March 13-15, with Ramadan falling between February 22 and March 22 that year. There are no known records showing whether or not King Amanullah observed Ramadan. Mr Tinubu will break his fast privately at sunset on Wednesday before joining the King and Queen for the night-time state banquet. Eid-al-Fitr – the Islamic holiday celebrating the end of Ramadan – begins on Thursday evening, when the president and his wife will depart the UK. During the visit, the King will join the president and first lady in the castle’s Vicars’ Hall to meet organisations working on interfaith dialogue on Wednesday afternoon. Parliament’s all-party group for international freedom of religion or belief has written to development minister Baroness Chapman calling on the Government to put pressure on Mr Tinubu to uphold human rights in his country. The group’s chairman, DUP MP Jim Shannon, said Nigeria needed to “take concrete steps to prevent the harassment, persecution and killing of Christians, while ensuring that perpetrators are investigated and prosecuted”, the Telegraph reported. The first lady, who is is a Christian and an ordained Pentecostal pastor, has described how she personally faced criticism and threats due to her faith and marriage. Nigeria is facing escalating security challenges, with attacks perpetrated by jihadists and armed gangs. The attacks on Monday targeted a crowded major market and a teaching hospital in Maiduguri, the Borno state capital, where Boko Haram extremists have waged an insurgency in the past. Earlier this month, suspected Islamist militants abducted more than 100 women and children during an attack in Ngoshe, a mainly Muslim community in Borno, while Boko Haram insurgents kidnapped some 200 pupils and staff from a Catholic boarding school in November. Boko Haram gained notoriety in 2014 for abducting more than 200 schoolgirls from the village of Chibok. The Nigerian leader’s stay, aimed at strengthening the UK’s position as a global hub for African business, coincides with the Department for Business and Trade’s announcement that hundreds of new jobs are set to be created as a series of Nigerian companies scale up their operations in the UK. Among them, Zenith Bank, one of Nigeria’s largest financial institutions, opens its Manchester branch on Tuesday, with 30 new jobs, while financial technology platform LemFi, which has its headquarters in London, is set to invest £100 million over the next five years. In 2024, the King’s son the Duke of Sussex carried out a quasi-royal tour to Nigeria with the Duchess of Sussex, after Meghan revealed she was 43% Nigerian following a genealogy test. She called the West African nation “my country” during her stay, adding: “It’s been eye-opening to be able to know more about my heritage.” The first lady Mrs Tinubu was later accused of criticising Meghan’s choice of outfits when she gave a speech reprimanding young Nigerian women for dressing indecently and accusing them of mimicking “film stars from America”. “We don’t accept nakedness in our culture,” she said. “It is not beautiful at all …They are mimicking and trying to emulate film stars from America. “They don’t know where they come from. Why did Meghan come here, looking for Africa? That is something we have to take home with. We know who we are and don’t lose who you are.” However, the first lady’s office insisted she was not talking about Meghan’s outfits, but that she “meant Meghan appreciates the people we are and hence her coming her”.
Published: by Radio NewsHub