President Bola Tinubu will depart Abuja for Rome, the capital of Italy on Saturday at the invitation of Pope Leo XIV for his inauguration.
Accompanied by top Catholic leaders, President Tinubu will attend a solemn mass, marking the beginning of the Pontificate of His Holiness Pope Leo XIV as the 267th Bishop of Rome and the new leader of the Roman Catholic Church.
A statement by presidential spokesman, Bayo Onanuga, said in the Papal invitation sent by Cardinal Pietro Parolin, Pope Leo XIV underscored the need for Tinubu’s physical presence “at this moment of particular importance for the Catholic Church and the world afflicted by many tensions and conflicts.”
Pope Leo further stressed, “Your great nation is particularly dear to me as I worked in the Apostolic Nunciature in Lagos during the 1980s.”
President Tinubu will be accompanie by the Minister of State for Foreign Affairs, Ambassador Bianca Odumegwu-Ojukwu; Archbishop of Owerri and President of Catholic Bishops’ Conference of Nigeria, Archbishop Lucius Ugorji; Archbishop Ignatius Kaigama of Abuja, and Alfred Martins of Lagos.
The Catholic Bishop of Sokoto Diocese, Mathew Hassan Kukah, will also be in the president’s entourage to the inauguration.
Pope Leo XIV, formerly Cardinal Robert Francis Prevost, will be formally installed to the exalted office on Sunday, May 18, at St. Peter’s Square in the Vatican.
The Conclave of Cardinals elected him 27 days after his predecessor, Pope Francis, died on April 21.
President Tinubu is expected to return to Abuja on Tuesday, May 20.
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