“There are chapters in our shared history that I know have left some painful marks,” King Charles said during a state banquet to welcome the Nigerian president, Bola Tinubu, to the UK, in a year in which the monarch is expected to come under renewed pressure to make a formal apology for transatlantic slavery and colonialism.
But while demands grow from African and Caribbean nations for the UK to further reparative justice, Nigeria and the UK are looking to the future of global trade.
Tinubu’s state visit last week is being celebrated as a return to the world stage for Africa’s largest economy. Tinubu is the first Nigerian president to receive a UK state visit in 37 years, and only the second African leader in history to be received at Windsor Castle, after Liberia’s William Tubman in 1962.
This new chapter in the two countries’ relationship, which is rooted in colonial history, promises to help the UK’s ailing steel industry while furthering Nigeria’s ambition to become a regional superpower.
At the state banquet, the king told Tinubu: “The many dynamic connections between our two nations have deep roots and yet I do not pretend that those roots are without a shadow … I do not seek to offer words that dissolve the past, for no words can.
“But I do believe, as I know you believe, Mr President, that history is not merely a record of what was done to us: it is a lesson in how we go forward together to continue building a future rooted in hope and growth for all, and worthy of those who bore the pains of the past.”
A deal in which the UK guarantees a £746m loan to refurbish two of Nigeria’s trading ports is one way cooperation between Nigeria and the UK can build a new future, independent of the debate about reparative justice. The issue of reparations is expected be discussed at the Commonwealth heads of government meeting this year.
Nigeria also wants to diversify global partnerships and shift from its economic dependency on oil. It aims to be the dominant maritime hub for west and central Africa, which is rich in strategic mineral resources and has huge potential for consumer market growth.
However, Lagos’s seaports are creaking – which is where UK financing comes in. As part of the ports deal, Nigeria will direct at least £236m in contracts to British suppliers, including £70m for the loss-making British Steel, which the UK government took control of last year.
In one of its biggest-ever contracts, British Steel will supply 120,000 tonnes of steel billets to Nigeria.
Nigeria’s Zenith Bank is opening a Manchester branch, while the Fidelity Bank and fintech companies LemFi, Kuda and Moniepoint are expanding their UK operations.
There will also be state cooperation on customs and irregular migration. Nigeria and the EU are also strengthening ties.
At the banquet, King Charles said the UK was “blessed that so many people of Nigerian heritage … are now at the heart of British life through excelling at the highest levels” . About 270,000 people, or 0.5% of the population of England and Wales, recorded their ethnic group as Nigerian in the last census.
Among the guests at the banquet were the England rugby captain Maro Itoje and his wife, Mimi, the Olympic 400m gold medallist Christine Ohuruogu, the former Lioness and football pundit Eni Aluko, and the UK’s first black female Michelin-starred chef, Adejoké Bakare.
For the first time in living memory, canapes were provided before the dinner to offer sustenance to Muslim guests who were unable to take part in iftar – the breaking of their fast – at sunset. Tinubu is the first Muslim leader to make a state visit to the UK during Ramadan since 1928.
A prayer room was also set up in the castle for guests breaking their fast, and a mocktail offered that took inspiration from the classic Nigerian drink, the Chapman – usually a mix of Sprite, Fanta, cucumber, grenadine syrup andangostura aromatic bitters.
The royal household’s version, called crimson bloom, used zobo, a popular west African beverage made of dried hibiscus flowers – known as sorrel in the Caribbean – mixed with English rose soda, a homemade hibiscus and ginger syrup, lemon and a hint of spice.
At the banquet, the king quoted Hausa, Igbo and Yoruba proverbs, toasted in pidgin and described Nigeria as “an economic powerhouse, a cultural force and an influential diplomatic voice”.
But while the visit and the agreements that followed were welcomed in Nigeria as a vote of confidence for the country’s status and investability, the Nigerian government faces pressure to prove the country is getting a good deal.
Analysts want to see the deals fully materialise and for the government to ensure foreign investment does not leave the country in a dependent, indebted position – or disadvantage domestic industry – and lead to growth across society.
Nigerian officials say the conditions are attractive, but after a history of African nations being exploited through western debt, a £746m British loan will invite some domestic scepticism.
Britain colonised Nigeria over 100 years, beginning with the annexation of Lagos in 1860. Nigerians trained in the UK in law, medicine, administration and technology after independence in 1961, growing what had been a small, prewar community of students and seamen.
The Royal Niger Company – later absorbed into the consumer goods company Unilever – was central to colonisation in the late 19th and 20th centuries. Palm oil harvested by Nigerian workers was essential for soap and lubricating Britain’s industrial machinery.
Finished cotton wax-print material was exported from Manchester to Nigeria in the colonial era and still influences styles today. Cotton was at the heart of the most painful era in a relationship between nations defined all too often by extraction. An estimated 3.5 million enslaved people were shipped from Nigeria to the Americas to grow cash crops such as cotton, coffee, sugar and tobacco during the transatlantic trade alone.
The British multinational company Shell finally divested from its onshore Nigerian oil operation last year, almost 90 years after it obtained a licence.
The Benin bronzes, thousands of treasures looted by the British military in 1897, are at the centre of restitution campaigns.
Nigeria-UK trade grew 11.4% to £8.1bn in the past year, with the UK £3.4bn in surplus.
Nonetheless, the visit of Tinubu and the first lady, Oluremi Tinubu, highlighted the strategic importance of Nigeria after domestic overhauls intended to stabilise the Nigerian economy in an evolving global order.
