Tinubu enters Rome for Pope Leo XIV’s inauguration

President Bola Tinubu landed in Rome, Italy, on Saturday to join other global leaders at the solemn service commemorating the commencement of the Pontificate of His Holiness Pope Leo XIV, the 267th Bishop of Rome and the new head of the Roman Catholic Church.

The installation mass will take held on Sunday, May 18.

Tinubu was met 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 jet touched down at 6 pm local time.

The President is in Rome to honor the new Pope’s invitation, sent by Cardinal Pietro Parolin, the Vatican’s Secretary of State.

The Papal invitation highlighted the necessity for President Tinubu’s actual attendance “at this moment of particular importance for the Catholic Church and the world afflicted by many tensions and conflicts.”

“Your great nation is particularly dear to me as I worked in the Apostolic Nunciature in Lagos during the 1980s,” Pope Leo XIV further noted in the invitation.

Tinubu’s entourage included the Archbishop of Owerri and President of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of Nigeria, Archbishop Lucius Ugorji, Archbishop Ignatius Kaigama of Abuja, and Alfred Martins of Lagos.

Mathew Hassan Kukah, the Catholic Bishop of Sokoto Diocese, is also among the president’s entourage.

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