.…As Kukah, Bianca, Others Make List
Lucky Obukohwo, Reporting
President Bola Ahmed Tinubu will join other world leaders to attend His Holiness Pope Leo XIV, inauguration in Rome as he has been officially invited for it.
The invitation was contained in a statement issued on Thursday by Bayo Onanuga, Special Adviser to the President on Information and Strategy.
According to the statement, President Tinubu will depart Abuja on Saturday to attend a solemn mass at St. Peter’s Square in the Vatican City, where Pope Leo XIV will be formally installed on Sunday, May 18.
In a letter sent through Cardinal Pietro Parolin, the Pope emphasized the importance of Tinubu’s attendance at this critical moment in global and ecclesiastical affairs.
“Your great nation is particularly dear to me as I worked in the Apostolic Nunciature in Lagos during the 1980s,” Pope Leo wrote, recalling his time in Nigeria.
Joining the President on the trip are key members of Nigeria’s Catholic leadership, including Minister of State for Foreign Affairs, Ambassador Bianca Odumegwu-Ojukwu; Archbishop Lucius Ugorji of Owerri, President of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of Nigeria; Archbishop Ignatius Kaigama of Abuja; Archbishop Alfred Martins of Lagos; and Bishop Matthew Hassan Kukah of Sokoto Diocese.
Recall that Pope Leo XIV, formerly Cardinal Robert Francis Prevost, was elected 27 days after the death of Pope Francis on April 21.
His election by the College of Cardinals marks a new chapter in the leadership of the Catholic Church.
President Tinubu is expected to return to Abuja on Tuesday, May 20.