Nigeria's Tinubu visits UK as Africa demands reparations for colonialism
The visit comes amid calls for European powers to pay reparations for what the African Union described as "crimes against humanity" they committed during slave trade and colonialism.
President Bola Tinubu is visiting the United Kingdom for the first state visit by a Nigerian leader in several decades.
Leaving Abuja for London on Tuesday, 17 March, President Tinubu is accompanied by his wife, Oluremi, as well as a number of ministers and other officials.
According to statements from the Nigerian presidency and Buckingham Palace, the United Kingdom’s monarch, King Charles III, and his wife, Queen Camilla, will play host to the Nigerian president at Windsor Castle, west of London, from 18 to 19 March.
President Tinubu’s Special Adviser on Information and Strategy, Bayo Onanuga, said the Nigerian leader will also hold a bilateral meeting with British Prime Minister Keir Starmer, with agreements ‘’on trade, investment, defence, and cultural cooperation’’ expected to be signed.
He will witness the signing of a £746-million financing deal to support the ‘’refurbishment’’ of two major maritime facilities located in Lagos.
Annual trade between the two countries reached £8.1 billion – the equivalent of $11 billion in 2025, representing an 11.4% year-on-year increase.
Nigeria, a former British colony, is the most populous country and one of the largest economies in Africa with a population of 230 million.
Slave trade and colonialism
The visit comes amid calls for European powers to pay reparations for what the African Union described as ‘’crimes against humanity’’ they committed during slave trade and colonialism.
A Nigerian court recently ordered the UK to pay £420 million to families of miners killed in 1949 by British colonial rulers, when they demanded better conditions of service and their unpaid wages. It’s unclear whether Tinubu will raise these issues with UK authorities.
Although President Tinubu had visited London multiple times, including in September 2024, when he was received by King Charles, this week’s trip is the first state visit to Britain by a Nigerian leader in 37 years.
The last state visit to the UK was in 1989 by the then-military leader General Ibrahim Babangida.
There has been no state visit by a UK monarch to Nigeria in recent history. However, Queen Elizabeth II made two official visits – in 1956 ahead of Nigeria’s independence, and in 2003 for the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting.
King Charles had also visited Nigeria four times when he was Prince of Wales before he became king, succeeding his mother, Queen Elizabeth, who died in 2022.