• Sanwo-Olu commends royal couple for committing to mental health
• Nigeria is my country, says Meghan as she gets Nigerian names
• Onyema praises royal couple for flying Air Peace to Lagos
• King Charles privately meets Beckham in latest Harry snub
Prince Harry and his wife, Meghan wrapped up their three-day visit to Nigeria yesterday, arriving in the country’s economic capital, Lagos State, during a trip to promote his Invictus Games for wounded military veterans.
The Duke of Sussex arrived with his wife on Friday in Abuja where they visited a school event on mental health, in a trip that also saw the prince meet wounded Nigerian soldiers in the country’s Northwest.
Yesterday, Harry and Meghan took part in a basketball event with the Giants of Africa Foundation in Lagos. The prince practised dribbling basketballs with kids at the exhibition event for the foundation, which is run by vice-president of an NBA team, Masai Ujiri.
Harry, a former army captain who flew helicopters in Afghanistan, founded the Invictus Games 10 years ago to help bring wounded veterans into sporting events to aid in their recuperation.
The couple later met with Lagos State governor, Babajide Sanwo-Olu. Before coming to Nigeria, Harry was in London last Wednesday to mark the 10th anniversary of the games.
The Invictus Games are aimed at raising funds and supporting serving members of the military as well as veterans to overcome their physical and mental illness or injuries, which would help them to develop a sense of belonging and increased self-esteem.
His trips to the UK since he moved to the United States in 2020 always prompt fresh speculation over a potential reconciliation with his family. But he did not meet with his father, King Charles on this trip.
The British royal couple was received by Sanwo-Olu; his wife, Ibijoke, and members of the State Executive Council at Lagos House, Marina.
Speaking to journalists after a closed door meeting with his guests, Sanwo-Olu praised the couple for the work they are doing with Nigeria’s military men, especially on issues around mental health.
She said: “It’s been eye-opening to be able to know more about my heritage.”
“Never in a million years would I understand it as much as I do now. And what has been echoed so much in the past day is, ’Oh, we are not so surprised when we found out you are Nigerian,” she said an the event on women in leadership which had Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, Mo Abudu, among other dignitaries.
Mo Abudu, the anchor and chief executive of EbonyLife media group, then asked the audience to suggest a Nigerian name for Meghan. One person shouted out “Ifeoma” – a name from the Igbo tribe meaning “a treasured thing” – while another suggested “Omowale”, which comes from the Yoruba tribe and means “the child has come home”.
But the paramount ruler of Iwoland, Oba Abdulrosheed Adewale Akanbi, gave a Yoruba name to Meghan Markle. Oluwo named her “Adetokunbo” during a sit out with the Duke and Duchess organised by the Defence Headquarters held at Delborough Hotel, Lagos.
Oluwo expressed assurance that the visit will re-engineer the kinship of Meghan’s ancestral connection with Nigeria, widening the chance of Nigeria to host Invictus game 2027 and enhance the proposal to site the game centre in Nigeria in support of the soldiers. “I’m honouring Meghan with a Yoruba name ‘Adetokunbo’, meaning ‘Crown has come home from abroad’”, he said.
Earlier yesterday, the Duke and Duchess of Sussex flew Air Peace from Abuja to Lagos. The Sussexes and their entourage were on board an Air Peace charter flight, operated with one of the airline’s brand new Embraer 195-E2 aircraft, to Lagos from Abuja.
They were received in Lagos by top-tier military officials, Allen Onyema, Air Peace Chairman, and other key government functionaries, with a cultural display by a dance troupe at the Presidential Wing of the Murtala Muhammed Airport. After their engagements in Lagos, they also flew Air Peace back to Abuja.
MEANWHILE, King Charles reportedly had a private meeting with David Beckham after being unable to meet with his son Prince Harry during his visit to the U.K. last week.
According to The Times, the former England football captain, 49, met the King, 75, for a “private meeting” on Friday. “Beckham is understood to have visited Charles to learn more about his charity, the King’s Foundation,” the outlet added.
It was gathered that the Duke of Sussex invited his father, King Charles, his brother, Prince William and his sister-in-law, Kate Middleton, to his celebratory Invictus Games event on Wednesday, May 8, which they did not attend. The Princess of Wales, 42, is outside of the public eye while receiving cancer treatment, while Prince William, 41, conducted investitures at Windsor Castle on May 8.
King Charles recently resumed forward-facing duties while receiving cancer treatment, and hosted the first garden party of the season at Buckingham Palace on May 8. The party coincided with the Service of Thanksgiving at St. Paul’s Cathedral in London for the tenth anniversary of the Invictus Games, which Prince Harry launched in London in 2014.
According to sources, Charles’s snub had a lot to do with Queen Camilla (she and Harry…don’t get along)—but His Majesty also didn’t want to endorse a “hostile, rival royal operation” on his home turf.
A former royal staffer said Charles’s decision not to acknowledge his son’s event “shows they don’t want to do anything to encourage Harry to spend more time in the U.K. Charles is never going to endorse a hostile, rival royal operation on his doorstep. Instead, Charles sent a clear message that he is not welcome to conduct official, quasi-royal events in the U.K. that distract from the monarchy’s message and agenda.”
On top of that, there are still trust issues between Charles and Harry. As a friend of the King and Queen put it, “No-one trusted him before, and they certainly don’t now. It’s rude, undignified and childish to make these attacks on his family when he knows they can’t answer back.”
