President Bola Ahmed Tinubu will be accompanied by top Catholic leaders in Nigeria to formal installation marking the beginning of the Pontificate of His Holiness Pope Leo XIV, the 267th Bishop of Rome and the new leader of the Roman Catholic Church.
Statement by Bayo Onanuga, the Special Adviser to the President on Information and Strategy, disclosed this development.
The statement says the president will depart Abuja for Rome, the capital of Italy, on Saturday.
According to the statement, the Papal’s invitation requested President Tinubu’s physical presence.
The invite reads, “Your great nation is particularly dear to me as I worked in the Apostolic Nunciature in Lagos during the 1980s.”
In the President’s entourage are the Minister of State for Foreign Affairs, Ambassador Bianca Odumegwu-Ojukwu, and Archbishop of Owerri and President of Catholic Bishops’ Conference of Nigeria, Archbishop Lucius Ugorji.
Others include: Archbishop Ignatius Kaigama of Abuja, and Alfred Martins of Lagos, and Catholic Bishop of Sokoto Diocese, Mathew Hassan Kukah.
Pope Leo XIV will be formally installed 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 will return to Abuja on Tuesday, May 20.
