King welcomes Nigeria’s president to Windsor at start of state visit

The King, the Queen and the Prince and Princess of Wales have welcomed the Nigerian president to Windsor at the start of the first state visit to the UK by the West African nation in nearly 40 years.

Bola Ahmed Tinubu and his wife, first lady Oluremi Tinubu, were met by Charles and Camilla in the warm spring sunshine, after being escorted to a red-carpeted dais outside Windsor and Eton Riverside train station by William and Kate.

Green and white Nigerian flags lined the streets, alongside Union flags, and a celebratory oversized Royal Standard was flying from the top of Windsor Castle’s Round Tower.

The princess opted for diplomatic royal dressing by wearing a tailored grey coat dress with a white collar and buttons by young British-Nigerian fashion designer Tolu Coker.

The King made a surprise appearance in the front row of Tolu Coker’s London Fashion Week show last month.

Kate matched her outfit with a grey Jane Taylor hat decorated with a white bow and also wore the late Diana, Princess of Wales’ earrings.

Camilla wore a pink wool crepe dress by Fiona Clare, and a pink beret shaped hat by Philip Treacy.

She was also sporting the late Queen’s Cartier flower clip pair of brooches.

The King was smartly dressed in a traditional morning suit, and arrived carrying a black top hat in his hand, while William mirrored his father, minus the hat and with a blue waistcoat.

The monarch greeted the president with a broad smile and handshake and pointed out the Household Cavalry soldiers on show opposite the dais.

More than 1,000 troops were out in force for the diplomatic show of soft power by the royal family.

The occasion is taking place amid the international backdrop of the deepening conflict in the Middle East, with Thames Valley Police saying extensive security measures were being deployed in Windsor.

It is also the first state visit the King has staged since his brother Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor was arrested on suspicion of sharing confidential reports with paedophile Jeffrey Epstein as the ongoing scandal continues.

Ceremonial service personnel lined the procession route as the King and the president travelled in the Australian State Coach through the streets of the Berkshire town to the castle’s quadrangle, led by a Sovereign’s Escort from the Household Cavalry Mounted Regiment.

They were followed by the Queen and Mrs Tinubu in the Scottish State Coach, and then William and Kate with Nigeria’s attorney-general Lateef Fagbemi and minister of state for foreign affairs Bianca Odumegwu-Ojukwu, in the Irish State Coach.

Waiting in the quadrangle was a Guard of Honour from the Grenadier Guards (in their scarlet tunics and bearskin hats), with the Band of the Grenadier Guards.

President Tinubu’s stay is the first incoming state visit by a Muslim leader during Ramadan in nearly 100 years.

In 1928, Charles’s great-grandfather King George V hosted King Amanullah Khan of Afghanistan, for a three-day state visit from March 13-15, with Ramadan falling between February 22 and March 22 that year.

There are no known records showing whether or not King Amanullah observed Ramadan.

Mr Tinubu will break his fast privately at sunset on Wednesday before joining the King, Queen, William and Kate and some 160 guests for the glittering night-time state banquet in St George’s Hall.

Mrs Tinubu is a Christian and an ordained Pentecostal pastor.

The visit went ahead despite the suicide bombings in north-eastern Nigeria’s Borno state on Monday, which killed 23 people and injured more than 100, with the president condemning the attacks and insisting “Nigeria will not succumb to fear”.

Eid-al-Fitr – the Islamic holiday celebrating the end of Ramadan – begins on Thursday evening, when the president and his wife will depart the UK.

It is the first state visit to the UK by a Nigerian leader in 37 years, since Queen Elizabeth II welcomed military ruler General Ibrahim Babangida in 1989.