The death of Queen Elizabeth II, the queen of England, has continued to generate a lot of wide-ranging reactions, more than any death I think the world has seen for some time.
Mourners from former British colonies, including our Naija presido, Muhammadu Buhari, have sent their condolences to the royal family following the monarch’s demise.
However, some people from Black and Irish backgrounds have distanced themselves from any condolences, saying the late queen ruled over an empire built on colonialism.
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A lot has been written and said about Queen Elizabeth; her life, marriage, tenure as the longest serving monarch in British history, etc. But do you know that her shoes also walked on Nigerian soil? Yep! The queen visited Nigeria, not once, but TWICE!
The first time was in 1956, when she visited as part of her royal tour to Commonwealth countries, from January 28 to February 16. During this period, she still had monarchical authority as the Head of State of Nigeria, since the country had not yet gained independence, and she was officially called the Queen of Nigeria.
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Her arrival, as expected, was full of fanfare; it was the queen, after all, and she was greeted by many dignitaries at the airport in Lagos, Nigeria’s former capital. Some of the people who met her included Festus Okotie-Eboh, the Minister of Labour and Welfare, and Sir James Robertson, the Governor-General, along with many government and traditional heads.
Queen Elizabeth, during this visit, went on a royal tour of Lagos and many other places, including the North, where she visited the Sultan of Sokoto. She also visited Enugu, Jos, Kano and Kaduna.
The picture above shows Her Majesty The Queen being presented a bouquet of flowers by Folashade Lawson, the 4-year-old daughter of Chief Adeyemi Lawson, who was the Chairman of the Lagos Town Council at the time.
This shows Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Philip waving from an open Land Rover to a crowd of schoolchildren at a rally held at a racecourse in Ibadan, Nigeria, on 15th February 1956.
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Queen Elizabeth II also toured a children’s rally on the Kaduna Racecourse with Makaman Bida, (left), who pointed out wooden figures to Her Majesty, and the Sardauna of Sokoto (right) during the Royal visit to Nigeria on 3 February 1956.
The second time that Queen Elizabeth II visited Nigeria was in 2003 during the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting, which took place from 3 – 6 December.
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Nigeria’s then-president, Olusegun Obasanjo, hosted the event in Abuja, where the queen came with her husband, the Duke of Edinburgh.
The crisis in Zimbabwe over Secretary-General Don McKinnon’s re-election was the conflict during the Commonwealth meeting. Just before the gathering ended, Robert Mugabe declared that Zimbabwe was leaving the Commonwealth.
The Queen in a carriage during the Nigerian State Visit with former President Ibrahim Babangida.
