About 65 foreign leaders, including Heads of State, have been invited to Bola Tinubu’s inauguration as Nigeria’s 16th president, which will take place on May 29.
Past presidents, diplomats, leaders of international organizations, well-known Nigerians, and officials of foreign governments and agencies are also anticipated at the nation’s seventh transition ceremony.
The inauguration programmes will begin on Thursday with the investiture of Tinubu with the Grand Commander of the Order of the Federal Republic and the Vice-President-elect, Kashim Shettima, as the Grand Commander of Order of the Niger.
A director in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs confirmed to The PUNCH on Thursday that several African leaders had indicated interest in attending the inauguration ceremony which would take place at Eagle Square, Abuja.
“We have 54 countries in Africa and most of them have been invited to the inauguration; so, we don’t expect less than 65 world leaders from Africa, Europe and America at the event,’’ said the director, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because he was not authorised to speak on the issue.
Representatives of Nigeria’s traditional allies such as the United States, the United Kingdom, Canada, France, Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates, Pakistan, China, Germany, Finland, Jamaica, Japan, Israel, Turkey and several others are expected at the high-profile event.
Addressing journalists in Abuja on Thursday as activities for the transition of power to the incoming administration began, the Secretary to the Government of the Federation, Boss Mustapha, disclosed that scores of world leaders would attend the event.
The preparation for the swearing-in of the former Lagos State governor is gathering steam as the battle to nullify his election victory by the standard bearer of the Peoples Democratic Party, Atiku Abubakar and his Labour Party counterpart, Peter Obi continues at the Presidential Election Petitions Court.
On Thursday, the PEPC adjourned further proceedings in Atiku’s petition till Friday (today) to continue further pre-hearing sessions as well as to hear pending applications that were filed by the respondents.
The Justice Haruna Tsammani-led panel said the court would decide on the number of witnesses that would be allowed for each of the parties, the time to be allocated to them, as well as the time to be allowed for cross-examination.
He urged the parties to put heads together and agree on further modalities to be adopted.
The court had similarly adjourned Obi’s petition till today following the failure of the parties to harmonise the documents germane to their pleadings.