President Bola Tinubu has arrived in Rome, Italy, to attend the installation of Pope Leo XIV at St. Peter’s Square in the Vatican on Sunday.
A statement by presidential spokesperson, Bayo Onanuga, said President Tinubu was received at the Mario De Bernardo Military Airport by Ambassador Bianca Odumegwu-Ojukwu, Minister of State for Foreign Affairs, and officials from Vatican City and the Nigerian Embassy after the plane touched down at 6 pm local time.
Tinubu is in Rome at the invitation of Pope Leo XIV, who was elected by the College of Cardinals during a conclave held 17 days after the death of his predecessor, Pope Francis, on April 21.
In an earlier statement he issued on Thursday, Onanuga had announced that President Tinubu’s entourage to the event will include senior Catholic leaders in the country.
Apart from the Minister of State for Foreign Affairs, Ambassador Bianca Odumegwu-Ojukwu, Archbishop Lucius Ugorji of Owerri and President of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of Nigeria; Archbishop Ignatius Kaigama of Abuja; Alfred Martins of Lagos; and the Catholic Bishop of Sokoto Diocese, Mathew Hassan Kukah will all be part of the President’s delegation.
According to Onanuga, Cardinal Pietro Parolin sent the invitation from Pope Leo XIV, who said the ceremony reflects “a moment of particular importance for the Catholic Church and the world afflicted by many tensions and conflicts”.
He said that the Pope also expressed a personal connection to Nigeria, stating, “Your great nation is particularly dear to me as I worked in the Apostolic Nunciature in Lagos during the 1980s.”
Pope Leo XIV, formerly Cardinal Robert Francis Prevost, will be formally installed as Pope on Sunday, 18 May, at St Peter’s Square.
Pope Leo, who is the first Pope from the United States is to lead the world’s 1.4 billion Catholics.
