“Owambe” has long symbolised generous celebratory hospitality involving music, food, and dressing gaily. It is a cultural tradition in which hospitality is expansive and participation often unrestrained. The Ijebu exported and refined Owambe to other Yorubas and much of southern Nigeria and beyond. Late General Adeyinka Adebayo, who governed the Western Region, immediately after the huge self-sacrifice of Lt Col Adekunle Fajuyi was known as an Owambe governor. Attaching this appellation to him popularised the word. Some people claimed that he uncharitably used the cows that Obafemi Awolowo had put into Western Region ranches, including mother and grandfather stocks, for Owambe parties.
I grew up loving Owambe and I still do. The British, having colonised us, know the importance of Owambe, especially to a Yoruba president with an Ijebu wife. So, the British cabinet, or maybe it was Gilbert Chagoury (GCON), the Nigerian billionaire Diplomat, who got Nigeria into the fulfilment of a British national interest using Owambe. For the British, the King is a great salesman in a competitive world-setting, in which everyone is keen to find buyers for whatever they produce in the form of goods and services.
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We all saw how the British reached out to President Donald Trump when he wanted to lump the United Kingdom with other Europeans and slam them with a 35 per cent trade tariff. Learning from the Zelensky experience on his first visit to the White House, Keir Starmer, the British prime minister, immediately got King Charles III to issue an invitation for a state visit to the UK by President Trump. The decision is that of the cabinet and not the royals.
The British understand this dynamic well. In a post-Brexit, highly competitive global environment, the United Kingdom is actively seeking new markets, partners, and influence. State visits, particularly those involving Commonwealth countries like Nigeria, are not merely ceremonial, they are strategic. The monarchy, especially under King Charles III, functions as a soft-power instrument, opening doors for economic and political engagement. The optics matter, but the outcomes matter more.
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On his 27 February, 2025, White House audience, Starmer pulled out the King’s invitation from his jacket. The US President was excited about getting an unusual second state visit to the UK on 16-18 September, 2025. Starmer had done his homework. He ended up with better trade deals and investments, especially in AI, creating thousands of jobs in the UK. He also had other breaks in maintaining the old UK-US relationship.
I was highly pleased to see the Nigerian President and his wife enjoy the pomp and pageantry the British had to offer from 18-19 March, 2026. Significant because this State Visit was after a 37-year hiatus. It is very clear to me that beautiful Senator Tinubu outshined the President by being well decked as opposed to the caftan of Mr. President. There were three pictures in green with the Nigerian flag as background, in navy blue, and in beige that I saw and thought they were fantastic. But I do not know if they were AI inspired. However, Senator Tinubu in collaboration with Nigerian fashionistas need to stop making the Nigerian President look “shenshele” and less presidential in caftan. Of course, his Agbada must be fall-proof. MKO Abiola’s videos could be reviewed for additional inspiration.
Not being a foodie, I do not know what to make about the King’s endorsement of Naija jollof as the best in West Africa, more so when he didn’t say it would, with moinmoin elemi meje, be on the menu at every state banquet thereby boosting its world acceptability. Speaking pidgin, as in the entertaining expression of “Naija nor dey carry last” is welcome. It was all part of the salesman gimmicks to get the focus of the Tinubu team on little things. The British did not accept pidgin as a language when I was growing up. It was a relief that the United Nations accepts it as a language.
PBAT did not meet with the leader of opposition, Mrs Kemi Badenoch. Some media characterised this as a presidential snub. Did Madam Badenoch express a desire to meet and she was snubbed? Even in war, diplomatic dialogue continue. Besides, the Yoruba say: Agba ti ko binu ni ọmọ rẹ npọ si, meaning only an elder not exhibiting anger get sought after by younger ones.
According to official sources, the Nigerian President, in his caftan, with his team, held discussions with the UK government at 10 Downing Street, focusing on trade, investment, defence cooperation, immigration, and cultural exchange. We do not know the details as to whether defence cooperation would make a dent on the insecurity that Nigeria has been facing.
The major economic deal was said to be the signing of a contractual agreement to have the UK Export Finance (UKEF), provide a loan of £746 Million to refurbish the Lagos Port Complex (Apapa Quays) and Tin Can Island Port Complex. The project would source British steel and not a linkage with the moribund Nigerian steel from Ajaokuta. Besides, how does this deal compare with other possibilities around the world since we have concluded that we lack the capacity to put Nigeria’s Engineers to work. Was there a competitive bidding process on getting the best possible from other countries who have surpassed the UK on infrastructure provision.
There was the “off the mic” immigration agreement. The jury is out on this. Bayo Onanuga has informed Nigerians that this deal is not like the Rwandese one or the one Nigeria’s Foreign Minister (who was absent, though his no-nonsense “ifoti” colleague was present), claimed was made on Nigeria by the United States to take criminals from anywhere in the world into Nigeria. Apparently, it is said to be on the receiving of deported Nigerian criminals. So, Ekweremadu could qualify under this accord, return and contest for the governorship of his state, after all ex-convicts as Governor is not a strange phenomenon in Nigeria.
I agree that PBAT should not have unilaterally cancelled the state visit over the very sad bombing in Borno on March 16, 2026, the eve of PBAT’s departure. However, what would he have lost by instructing high-level security officials on his entourage to stay behind, urge the Vice-President to cancel his Anambra Owambe to lead the team to bring succour to the affected people in Borno as he stops in Maiduguri before proceeding to Lagos for his Eid-al-Fitri break? Those wanting to frustrate the programmed second-term plans of PBAT have increased the level of insecurity, especially in Northern Nigeria in a familiar pattern.
Nigerians should be worried about the budgetary costs of this Owambe diplomacy. Why did so many people accompany Mr. President? Why were some Governors in attendance at the British Owambe? The claim that the President had 17 people, (already a large number), accompanying him is false. Within the equation are the Senate President’s, Ministers’, and Governors’ hangers-on. All these people depleted the Nigerian national patrimony for King Charles III’s Owambe. This laissez-faire attitude is sad for a government enjoying Owambe at the expense of a country that is the poverty capital of the world.
Why the need for a Federal Government sanctioned Coventry University campus in Lagos? Coventry University is mid-tiered in the UK, that is about 70-78 out of 130. I do not think Nigeria needs any British campus to join forex draining and certainly when it’s not an exchange with the great Akoka-based Unilag. But if Nigeria needs foreign campuses, why Coventry and not top-tier ones like Imperial College, Oxford, Cambridge and even any of the upper-tier Manchester, Bristol, and Warwick Universities? Whose interests are involved?
Nigerians continue to suffer from lingering colonial mentality which Psychologists may classify as skin colour inferiority complex. The allure of royal Owambe could easily be overdramatised as a huge success despite increased poverty at home. The lesson from Mark Carney, the Canadian Prime Minister, at Davos earlier this year is that in the global marketplace, some countries are at the table, while others are on the menu. One of my daughters puts it a bit differently: in these relationships, you are either the predator or the prey and if you are still wondering about your status, you are a prey. Nigerians must avoid romanticising by seeing ceremonial inclusion as substantive empowerment.
Of course, engagement with the United Kingdom or any other global partner is desirable. Intentional strategic relationships are essential in an interconnected world. However, such engagements must be guided by clear national interests, rigorous cost-benefit analysis, and a commitment to domestic capacity building. Let the music play on, as Nigerians, in general, continue to seek accountability on who is truly paying the price for this Owambe diplomacy.
Babafemi A Badejo, the author of several books, including a best seller on politics in Kenya as well as why peace has been elusive in Somalia, is a former Deputy Special Representative of the UN Secretary General for Somalia, and a former Professor of Political Science and International Relations at Chrisland University, Abeokuta. He is currently Chairman of the national NBA Anti-Corruption Committee and a Consultant at Yintab Strategy Consults. He is the recipient of the 2025 Nelson Mandela Distinguished Africanist Award of the Africa Annual Conference at the University of Texas at Austin, USA. He is decorated with Djibouti’s 27 Juin 1977, Order.
