- President Bola Ahmed Tinubu in warm handshake with Pope Leo XIV shortly after the installation mass held in Vatican City on Sunday.
President Bola Ahmed Tinubu has urged Nigerians to use their diversity for the country’s stability and rapid development.
A statement by his Special Adviser to on Media and Strategy, Bayo Onanuga said, President Tinubu made the call on Sunday in Rome when he received members of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of Nigeria.
The statement added that Tinubu also issued a stirring call to leaders at all levels to work for the betterment of the citizenry.
He said, “If we use our diversity not for adversity but for prosperity, the country’s hope is stability and progress.”
He described it as historic, being the President of Nigeria when a new Pope was inaugurated in Rome.
The Catholic bishops were part of President Tinubu’s delegation to attend Pope Leo XIV’s installation mass on Sunday.
Archbishop Lucius Ugorji, Archbishop of Owerri and President of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of Nigeria, thanked President Tinubu for facilitating their visits to the Vatican to bury the late Pope Francis and witness the inauguration of Pope Leo XIV.
He said the development signalled a new era of a more robust relationship between the President and the Catholic Bishops’ Conference.
“You are always there for us. Now that you have come to the Vatican, whenever we have our conference in Nigeria, we will also invite you, and we look forward to interfacing with you just as you were able to do with the Holy Father,” he said.
Onanuga added that Archbishops Ignatius Kaigama of Abuja, Alfred Martins of Lagos, and Mathew Hassan Kukah, the Catholic Bishop of Sokoto Diocese, attended the meeting with the President.
