President Bola Tinubu of Nigeria came to the United Kingdom for a State visit from 18th to 19th March. This is a historic event as it is the first state visit by a Nigerian leader since 1989, when then military head of state Ibrahim Babangida was received by late Queen Elizabeth II. President Tinubu is the first Nigerian president to receive a state visit since the return of democracy to Nigerian in 1999. Considering the historic relationship of Nigerian and United Kingdom as Nigeria is a former colony, and Nigeria itself as a key player in the African continent and most populous black nation in the world, the visit signals a thawing of relationship between the two nations, which can only be a good thing for the two nations. 

Is it as simple as that? Is it all positive and we can all clap and cheer for this positive move in global geopolitics? No, hold the champagne and let’s examine the implications and the issues that this visit tries to gloss over. The impression that this visit gives is that Nigeria is doing well and that this administration has turned things around for the citizenry. Nothing could be further from the truth. Nigeria is worse off by every measure since the All Progressive Congress (APC) party of Tinubu took over in 2015 under former president Buhari, now late. And since Tinubu himself took over in 2023, things have gotten even worse; terrorism has continued to rise, kidnapping, banditry, economonic hardship, corruption and mismanagement of resources have all become all too common, to the point of being routine in Nigeria. Nigeria has always been known as a corrupt nation; it was former PM David Cameron who famously said that Nigeria was fantastically corrupt under Buhari’s APC administration, but it would now be argued that the government under Tinubu has made corruption under Buhari seem like a dress rehearsal. 

Worse of all, the administration of Tinubu has not improved Nigeria’s dire human rights record. Under the previous APC administration under Buhari, human rights abuse was terrible; from the killing of Nigerian youths during the #EndSars protest, to the extraordinary rendition of Mazi Nnamdi Kanu, a British Biafran freedom campaigner from Kenya, the Nigerian government has shown disdain to the rule of law, international law and human rights. This trend under Tinubu has not improved at all. It was under this administration that Nnamdi Kanu was sentenced to life imprisonment on false charges, and survivors of the #EndSars massacre continue to be persecuted. 

So why would the British government roll out the red carpet for a man such as Tinubu? A president who is so unpopular back home that he resorts to using proxies to buy votes through gifts and money, rather than show the positive changes he has achieved in his tenure. For Tinubu this is more an attempt to launder his image ahead of the presidential campaign for the 2027 election. He wants the credibility that comes from this state visit, as a selling point to the propaganda that his administration is well respected internationally because of performance. He needs that credibility from Britain because he has little of that from Nigerians, in Nigeria. For Britain, and the British Labour government, it is a way to build new ties after it has damaged relationships in Europe from Brexit and relations in the US is becoming colder. It strengthens old colonial ties that enable the exploitation of the land and resources of Nigeria. One of the deals from this visit was the building of an Ovaltine factory in Nigeria. While Nigeria and any country should welcome direct foreign investment and building factories that will create jobs, the exploitation of cash crops for exportation for a country that can hardly feed its population has to be questioned. 

So for the actors, this has been a success. The Tinubu administration has gotten their propaganda materials and for Britain, they have a willing partner for economic exploitation and a place to send illegal immigrants to. It is funny that a government that was against the Rwanda deal of the former Conservative government, has now quietly signed a Nigerian deal with a government that has a worse human rights record and worse economic and infrastructure than Rwanda. This visit was good for the main actors, but does not do so much for the British people, and certainly does even less for the Nigerian people. So put back the champagne  in the fridge, there is nothing to celebrate here.  

* Cllr Ukonu Obasi is a Lib Dem Councillor in Tunbridge Wells and was Lib Dem Parliamentary candidate in Walthamstow in 2017 and Gravesham in 2019 and 2024. PPC 2019 and 2024, Gravesham.