Countries throughout the Commonwealth yesterday shared their condolences and memories of Queen Elizabeth II who died peacefully at Balmoral Castle on Thursday afternoon at the age of 96. She steered the monarchy for 70 years through turbulent times, as Britain’s Empire ended and its place in the world fundamentally changed.
From world leaders to those on the street, people reflected on her legacy.
The Commonwealth is made up of 56 independent countries, in Africa, Asia, the Americas, Europe and the Pacific. In Nigeria, as in many countries worldwide, President Muhammadu Buhari has ordered that the national flag be lowered to half mast on all federal public buildings and at all Nigerian high commissions and embassies as a mark of respect for Britain’s late Queen Elizabeth II.
Announcing this on behalf of the federal government, the minister of interior, Ogbeni Rauf Aregbsola said; “Pursuant to the president’s orders and as a mark of respect, I hereby direct that the Nigerian flags be flown at half-staff at all local and state buildings. In honour of Queen Elizabeth II, the Sovereign of the United Kingdom , chairman of the Commonwealth and an eminent global personality whose passage to eternity was announced on Thursday, September 8, 2022, the Ministry of Interior, on behalf of the Federal Republic of Nigeria declares that all flags in Nigeria and our missions abroad be flown at half -mast on Sunday , September 11 and Monday, September 12 respectively
“ We commiserate with the government and people of the United Kingdom and all affected people of the Commonwealth people and the world.”
The secretary to the government of the federation, Boss Mustapha, will today will lead a federal government delegation to sign a condolence register over the death of the Queen at the residence of the British high commissioner in Abuja.
King Charles III yesterday addressed the United Kingdom from the Buckingham Palace for the first time after the death of his mother, Queen Elizabeth II.
The new king renewed his mother’s “lifelong promise of service”, calling her his “darling mama”.
King Charles in the tribute to his mother also spoke of his feelings of “profound sorrow”. He said she was “an inspiration” and an example to him and his family.
He said hers was “a life well lived”, adding she is “mourned most deeply in her passing”.
The monarch, holding back tears, said, ‘To my darling Mama, thank you, thank you’, as he hailed Elizabeth II as an ‘inspiration and an example to me and to all my family’ following her death aged 96 at Balmoral Castle on Thursday.
In a moving speech that was screened at a service of prayer and reflection at St Paul’s Cathedral, the king spoke of a ‘time of change for my family as he praised his ‘darling wife Camilla’ who would become Queen Consort ‘in recognition of her own loyal public service since our marriage 17 years ago’.
Charles, 72, also extended an olive branch to the Duke and Duchess of Sussex, saying he wished to ‘express my love for Harry and Meghan as they continue to build their lives overseas’.
The king said of his ‘beloved mother’ the late Elizabeth II: ‘We owe her the most heartfelt debt any family can owe to their mother; for her love, affection, guidance, understanding and example’.
He added: ‘To my darling Mama, as you begin your last great journey to join my dear late papa, I want simply to say this: thank you. Thank you for your love and devotion to our family and to the family of nations you have served so diligently all these years. May ‘flights of angels sing thee to thy rest’.’
The king pledged to dedicate his whole life to serving the nation just as the queen did at her accession, saying: ‘That promise of lifelong service I renew to you all today’.
William Is New Prince Of Wales
King Charles also announced that he had created his son, William, the Prince of Wales, with Kate the Princess of Wales, and expressed his ‘love for Harry and Meghan as they continue to build their lives overseas’, a symbol of his bid for reconciliation amid past troubles with the Sussexes.
A royal source said the Duchess of Cornwall and Cambridge would aim to ‘create her own path’ as she takes on the role of Princess of Wales – heavily associated with William’s mother, Diana.
“The Prince and Princess of Wales will approach their roles in the modest and humble way they’ve approached their work previously,’ the source said. ‘The new Princess of Wales appreciates the history associated with this role but will understandably want to look to the future as she creates her own path,” Mailonline quoted the source as saying.
“With Catherine beside him, our new Prince and Princess of Wales will, I know, continue to inspire and lead our national conversations, helping to bring the marginal to the centre ground where vital help can be given,” he said.
The monarch’s pre-recorded the lengthy speech, which was just under 1,000 words and lasted around nine-and-a-half minutes in the Blue Drawing Room of the royal residence in central London, and it was played out at 6pm on Friday.
The king, dressed in a sombre black suit, black tie and with a black and white checked handkerchief in his breast pocket, said: “I speak to you today with feelings of profound sorrow. Throughout her life, Her Majesty The Queen – my beloved Mother – was an inspiration and example to me and to all my family, and we owe her the most heartfelt debt any family can owe to their mother; for her love, affection, guidance, understanding and example.
“Queen Elizabeth was a life well lived; a promise with destiny kept and she is mourned most deeply in her passing. That promise of lifelong service I renew to you all today.”
Charles confirmed he would have to take a step back from his considerable charitable interests now he is king and ‘issues’ he has campaigned for – likely to be interpreted as an end to his lobbying of ministers with his famous ‘black spider memos’.
He said: “My life will of course change as I take up my new responsibilities. It will no longer be possible for me to give so much of my time and energies to the charities and issues for which I care so deeply. But I know this important work will go on in the trusted hands of others.
“This is also a time of change for my family. I count on the loving help of my darling wife, Camilla. In recognition of her own loyal public service since our marriage seventeen years ago, she becomes my Queen Consort.
“I know she will bring to the demands of her new role the steadfast devotion to duty on which I have come to rely so much.”
“Alongside the personal grief that all my family are feeling, we also share with so many of you in the United Kingdom, in all the countries where the Queen was head of state, in the Commonwealth and across the world, a deep sense of gratitude for the more than 70 years in which my mother as Queen served the people of so many nations.
“In 1947, on her 21st birthday, she pledged in a broadcast from Cape Town to the Commonwealth to devote her life – whether it be short or long – to the service of her people.
“That was more than a promise. It was a profound personal commitment, which defined her whole life.”
“When the queen came to the throne, Britain and the world were still coping with the privations and aftermath of the Second World War, and still living by the conventions of earlier times.
“In the course of the last 70 years we have seen our society become one of many cultures and many faiths.
“The institutions of the state have changed in turn. But, through all changes and challenges, our nation and the wider family of Realms – of whose talents, traditions and achievements I am so inexpressibly proud – have prospered and flourished.
“Our values have remained, and must remain, constant. The role and the duties of Monarchy also remain, as does the Sovereign’s particular relationship and responsibility towards the Church of England – the Church in which my own faith is so deeply rooted.”
The king continued as he spoke about succeeding his mother to the throne.
“As the Queen herself did with such unswerving devotion, I too now solemnly pledge myself throughout he remaining time God grants me, to uphold the constitutional principles at the heart of our nation.
“Wherever you may live in the United Kingdom or in the realms and territories across the world and whatever maybe your background and beliefs I shall endeavour to serve you with loyalty, respect and love, as I have throughout my life.”
My life will of course change as I take up my new responsibilities.
“It will no longer be possible for me to give so much of my time and energies to the charities and issues for which I care so deeply.
“But I know this important work will go on in the trusted hands of others.
“This is also a time of change for my family. I count on the loving help of my darling wife Camilla. In recognition of her own loyal public service since our marriage 17 years ago, she becomes my Queen Consort.
“I know she will bring to the demands of her new role the steadfast devotion to duty on which I have come to rely so much.”
King Charles and Camilla, the Queen Consort, earlier greeted crowds outside the palace.
MPs applauded the king’s address after they watched it in silence in the Commons chamber. Some could be seen wiping away tears during the speech. The Commons had been suspended for a short period to allow MPs to watch the speech on televisions in the chamber.
The evening service at St Paul’s is being attended by 2,000 members of the public who were handed tickets on a first-come-first-served basis.
Members of the congregation were tearful through the service as the choir sang. One woman was seen using a handkerchief to wipe her eyes as she sat in the pews at St Paul’s, as a piper played Flowers of the Forest – a lament played only at funerals and memorials.
Prime Minister Liz Truss looked solemn as she gave her Bible reading from Romans 14. 7-12.
She said: “We do not live to ourselves, and we do not die to ourselves. If we live, we live to the Lord, and if we die, we die to the Lord; so then, whether we live or whether we die, we are the Lord’s. For to this end Christ died and lived again, so that he might be Lord of both the dead and the living.
“Why do you pass judgement on your brother or sister? Or you, why do you despise your brother or sister? For we will all stand before the judgement seat of God.
“For it is written, ‘As I live, says the Lord, every knee shall bow to me, and every tongue shall give praise to God.’ So then, each of us will be accountable to God.”
Prof Anya Doesn’t Represent Us – Ex-Nigerian Envoy
Meanwhile, a former Nigerian high commissioner to Singapore, Ambassador Ogbole Ode, told LEADERSHIP Weekend yesterday that the opinion of a Nigerian don, Professor Uju Anya, does not reflect the general feelings of the Nigerian people.
Prof Anya came under fire on Twitter over her comments following the death of Queen Elizabeth II.
Hours before the queen’s death was announced, Professor Anya wrote on her Twitter page, “I heard the chief monarch of a thieving raping genocidal empire is finally dying. May her pain be excruciating.”
But reacting to the tweet, Ode said, “I don’t think that a personal comment by a private person, a citizen of Nigeria, acting on his or her capacity, represents the general feelings of the people. But it is about the mood some people have about some historical antecedents that surround the monarchy. Some of those antecedents are not palatable”.
The former envoy however noted that the appropriate Nigerian authorities, the Nigerian High Commission in UK or the Ministry of Foreign Affairs would have issued the appropriate condolence message with the appropriate words, which would be conveyed on behalf of the government and people of Nigeria.
Also reacting, Dr. Katch Ononuju, said the Nigerian professor expressed her personal opinion irrespective of how distasteful it might be.
“There is nothing wrong in that tweet. The queen is gone but the era she represented must be condemned, it was an era when hunger was used as a weapon of war in Nigeria, there is nothing wrong in people raising the issues as it affects them,” he said.
The tweets by Prof Anya has since been deleted for violating “Twitter rules”.
In another tweet, she had referenced the rumoured role of the British empire in supplying the Nigerian government with arms and ammunition during the nation’s civil war which spanned 1967 to 1970.
“If anyone expects me to express anything but disdain for the monarch who supervised a government that sponsored the genocide that massacred and displaced half my family and the consequences of which those alive today are still trying to overcome, you can keep wishing upon a star,” she wrote, following the announcement of the queen’s death.
The tweets drew the attention of many including Amazon founder, Jeff Bezos, who quoted the post and wrote: “This is someone supposedly working to make the world better? I don’t think so. Wow.”
Aide to President Buhari, Bashir Ahmed, also tweeted: “Don’t know that Uju Anya until I saw some of her tweets for the first time on my timeline this evening, her tweets about late Queen Elizabeth II were so unfortunately unnecessary.”
Another tweep, @novieverest wrote: “You can condemn slavery and colonization without being an Uju Anya. Her statement was terrible and you can’t defend it. It is that simple.”
However, many others defended the professor for speaking out against the colonial legacy of the British Empire under the late queen.
Stating that Anya’s tweets are a reflection of the unspoken sentiments of many, @vickkingsley wrote: “the thing with Uju Anya’s tweet is, a lot of people feel exactly the way she feels but she was bold enough to state even those who feel the same way as she, are all dragging her. Uju Anya is the villain now but you have had massive disdain for the British government, colonialism.”
“I stand with Uju Anya. The level of sympathy Queen Elizabeth who died peacefully is over, levelling the sympathy given to Africans who died as a result of colonialism because there was no social media,” @Philosophiero1 tweeted.
Carnegie Mellon University, the American institution in which Anya lectures, also released a statement distancing itself from the professor’s comments.
“We do not condone the offensive and objectionable message posted by Uju Anya today on her personal social media account.
“Free expression is core to the mission of higher education, however, the views shared absolutely do not represent the values of the institution, nor the standard of discourse we seek to foster,” the statement read.
