King Charles III and Queen Camilla will host Nigerian President Bola Tinubu and First Lady Oluremi Tinubu for a state visit to the United Kingdom, the first such occasion in 37 years.
Buckingham Palace has announced that the Nigerian presidential couple has accepted an invitation to be guests of the King and Queen at Windsor Castle on 18 and 19 March.
State visits are an important form of soft-power diplomacy, using the ceremonial splendour and royal hospitality to strengthen ties with key international partners. The occasion will feature traditional pageantry, including carriage processions and a state banquet, alongside bilateral political meetings.
This will be President Tinubu’s first formal state visit to the UK since he took office following the 2023 election. He has, however, met the King on previous occasions, including at Buckingham Palace in September 2024 and during a bilateral meeting on the sidelines of the COP28 summit in Dubai.
The visit comes shortly after President Tinubu’s state visit to Türkiye in January 2026, which drew significant attention in Nigeria due to a widely publicised incident where the president briefly stumbled during a ceremonial welcome in Ankara. While the Nigerian Presidency described it as a minor loss of balance caused by stepping on an object, and Turkish officials dismissed the ensuing controversy as “silly and mischievous,” highlighting the overall success of the trip, the episode generated considerable domestic commentary and scrutiny over optics and protocol.
The forthcoming UK visit reflects the growing diplomatic and economic relationship between the UK and Nigeria. Bilateral trade has reached substantial levels, with Nigeria ranking as one of the UK’s most significant partners on the African continent. In recent years, the two countries signed a new trade and investment partnership aimed at creating further opportunities for business.
The detailed agenda for the March visit has not yet been released, though state visits typically combine ceremonial events with high-level discussions.
The last Nigerian state visit to the UK took place in 1989, when military ruler General Ibrahim Babangida met the late Queen Elizabeth II during a four-day trip.
King Charles III has long-standing personal connections to Nigeria, a fellow Commonwealth nation. He has spoken warmly of Nigerian Pidgin English and Afrobeats music. As Prince of Wales, he visited the country four times—in 1990, 1999, 2006, and 2018—with Queen Camilla (then the Duchess of Cornwall) joining him on the final visit.
In 2023, The King’s Trust International launched in Nigeria, introducing initiatives to help tackle youth unemployment.
The forthcoming visit follows a notably busy period for state visits under the King. In 2025 alone, he presided over three such occasions, involving the presidents of France, the United States, and Germany—the highest number in a single year since 1988.
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