President Bola Tinubu on Tuesday returned to Abuja, after attending the Inauguration mass of Pope Leo XIV at the St. Peter’s Basilica in Rome
The President was on arrival at the presidential wing of the Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport, Abuja, received by top government officials, including Nyesom Wike, Minister of the FCT, George Akume, Secretary to the Government of the Federation and other top officials
President Tinubu had attended the event, following a special invitation by the Roman Catholic leader, conveyed by Cardinal Pietro Parolin, the Vatican’s Secretary of State.
President had arrived Rome, Italy, on Saturday to join other world leaders at the solemn mass 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.
The installation mass which took place on Sunday, May 18, attracted other world leaders
The Papal invitation underscored the need for President Tinubu’s physical presence “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 said in the invitation.
Tinubu had while in Rome, met with the Pope and congratulated him on his inauguration as the 267th Pope
The President also met with some Catholic Bishops, Peter Obi, the Labour Party LP, Presidential candidate in the 2023 election, as well as the former Ekiti state Governor, Kayode Fayemi, on the sidelines of the event
President Tinubu’s entourage includes 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 in the President’s entourage.
