Inside Harry and Meghan’s Nigerian tour: Meghan will be treated as a ‘warrior princess’, they will have their own ‘royal’ entourage – and there may be a ceremonial tug of war, reveals SARAH RAINEY
Cheering crowds, colourful bouquets and a plush red carpet: when Prince Charles and Princess Diana touched down in Nigeria on March 15, 1990, legions of fans lined the runway to welcome them.
Every step of their five-day tour was recorded in fulsome detail by the world’s press, who joined them for lavish state banquets, community walkabouts and meetings with dignitaries.
The nature of the welcome of their son, Harry, and his wife Meghan will receive in the African nation, however, is yet to be seen.
The Sussexes’ tour, announced by the Nigerian Defence Headquarters last Sunday, will take place later this month, following Harry’s return to the UK to mark the tenth anniversary of the Invictus Games at St Paul’s Cathedral on May 8.
The visit certainly has personal resonance for both. For Prince Harry, it’s in aid of the Invictus Games, his sporting tournament for sick and wounded servicemen, women and veterans, in which Nigeria participated for the first time last September. It came about after the Duke apparently struck up conversation during the games in Dusseldorf, Germany, with defence chief General Christopher Gwabin Musa.
Sussexes, pictured during their trip to South Africa in 2019, will tour Nigeria later this month
Meghan meets athlete Glory Essien, who called the duchess ‘my Nigerian sister’ when they met at the Invictus Games in Germany last year
For Meghan, it’s also about heritage. She announced in 2022 that a genealogy test had shown she was ’43 per cent Nigerian’.
But while the tour sounds very royal, the couple stepped back as working members of the Royal Family in 2020, meaning they have access to none of the funding, security nor — crucially — meticulous planning a trip of this sort usually entails.
According to retired chief superintendent Dai Davies, a former head of royalty protection, that means it will be a challenge. ‘This appears to be a quasi-royal tour but without any of the official back-up for it. It seems terribly badly thought-out to me.’
So what are the practicalities of carrying out a tour when you’re royal but no longer on the royal payroll?
Security fears
Nigeria was recently ranked the ninth most dangerous country in Africa by the World Population Review, and the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) currently advises British nationals against travel to ‘all parts of Nigeria’.
The same is true in Harry’s new homeland, where the U.S. State Department urges citizens to ‘reconsider travel to Nigeria due to crime, terrorism, civil unrest, kidnapping and armed gangs’. Harry and Meghan are certainly potential targets: reports place their worth at £48 million.
Harry is no longer entitled to protection abroad from the Metropolitan Police, nor help from the FCDO.
He and Meghan pay a fortune — reportedly £1.58 million a year — for their own private security team, headed by David Langdown, one of Harry’s former Metropolitan Police protection officers.
It’s not known if the couple will be contributing to the cost of security in Nigeria, though some reports have claimed it will be paid for by the Nigerian government.
Sources suggest their protocols while in Nigeria — where an estimated 87 million people live below the poverty line — will mimic the royal set-up, meaning they’ll travel with a small team of close-protection officers.
All will have done extensive reconnaissance beforehand, working closely with the security team of Nigerian president Bola Tinubu. Nigerian army spokesman Brigadier-General Tukur Gusau confirmed to the Mail that they will fly into the capital city, Abuja. They’re also believed to be visiting Lagos and Kaduna.
Prince Charles and Princess Diana touched in Nigeria on March 15, 1990, where legions of fans lined the streets to welcome them
Leading Nigerian polo player Folarin Kuku with Sir Michael Palin for his latest travel series, Michael Palin in Nigeria, for Channel 5
£650-a-night suite
Harry’s used to ‘slumming it’ in hotels these days. He’s booked himself into one for his upcoming London trip and did the same last year after finding his request to stay at Windsor Castle unceremoniously denied through ‘lack of notice’.
Ben Shemang, a former director of news at radio station Voice of Nigeria, with years of experience as a defence correspondent, says state visitors are typically hosted at the presidential headquarters, Aso Villa in Abuja, where recent guests included Bill Gates.
Indeed, when Charles and Diana visited Nigeria in 1990, they were invited to stay at the State House in Lagos, then the capital, but instead preferred to sleep aboard the Royal Yacht.
However, as this is not an official state visit, Mr Shemang predicts Harry and Meghan will be offered accommodation in another official building, such as an ambassadorial residence, or put up in a five-star hotel like the Transcorp Hilton Abuja.
The towering hotel, set in picturesque landscaped grounds, features an on-site casino, spa, tennis courts and swimming pool. The Royal Suite costs £390 a night for bed-and-breakfast, while the top-of-the-range Executive Presidential Suite, with Art Deco interiors and panoramic tenth floor views, is £650.
High-fliers
Despite their supposed eco credentials, Harry and Meghan may well fly privately to Nigeria, given their form using private jets, even on Invictus-related business.
If they do travel commercially, British Airway flies to Abuja daily from Heathrow — meaning Harry could fly from the UK in just over six hours.
Meghan, however, would have a much longer journey to join him, from Los Angeles via Istanbul or Frankfurt, with connecting flights adding up to 22 hours.
It is believed that some of the logistics of their trip will be organised by Clara Loughran and Beth Herlihy, who worked in Harry’s private office when he was a member of the Royal Family. Popular
Clara organised Harry and Meghan’s wedding, while former actress Beth became acting assistant private secretary for the Duchess after many of her staff quit.
The women lost their jobs when the couple left the UK and went on to form Herlihy Loughran, an advisory partnership linking ‘influential people and organisations to good causes’.
They were later re-employed by the Sussexes on a freelance basis to organise their charity work and travel in the UK and Europe, and have been heavily involved in Invictus from its inception.
In contrast to his parents’ royal visit in 1990, Harry is expected to make his own arrangements for secure cars and drivers.
One of the country’s leading private transport companies, CEFO Premium Logistics, which specialises in bulletproof vehicles and armed escorts, is run by ex-British Army professionals.
Its founder and CEO, Harrow-educated Folarin Kuku, trained at Sandhurst with Prince William and was the first black officer in the Grenadier Guards in 2012.
He also happens to be one of Nigeria’s leading polo players, so is likely to be on Harry’s radar.
During the tour, Harry and Meghan could stay in a five-star hotel like the Transcorp Hilton Abuja
PR guru Miranda Barbot has been promoted to vice-president of programmes and media operations at Archewell. She’s thought to be the brains behind the Nigeria tour and is likely to travel with the Sussexes
Splitting the bill
So who’s footing the bill for this expensive expedition?
A spokesman for Nigeria’s Ministry of Information and National Orientation told the Mail this week that visitors like Harry and Meghan usually pay for their own travel. Accommodation, he suggested, will most likely be provided as a courtesy by the host nation — but he wouldn’t confirm whether Nigeria is funding security, transport and other elements of the trip, as has been widely reported.
It is also possible that the Invictus Games Foundation may finance some of their stay.
According to the Charity Commission, the primary purpose of the foundation — which had an income of more than £2 million in 2022 — ‘is to facilitate and support the recurrence of the Invictus Games’, reportedly one of the main aims of this tour.
Travelling team
Representatives from Archewell Inc, the umbrella company for Harry and Meghan’s businesses and charitable foundations, are expected to accompany the couple. Their operation is modelled on that of a royal household, meaning essential personnel from their private office will have been intricately involved in planning the trip.
Miranda Barbot, the PR guru who worked on Barack Obama’s re-election campaign, has recently been promoted to vice-president of programmes and media operations at Archewell. She’s thought to be the brains behind the tour and is likely to travel with them.
So, too, is Kyle Boulia, their newly-hired deputy press secretary, and the rest of their PR team.
Expect to see Netflix in attendance: the couple recently landed two lucrative deals with the streaming giant (one for a series focusing on ‘cooking, gardening, entertaining and friendship’, the other about ‘the world of professional polo’) and may well use the trip for filming opportunities.
A source close to the organising team in Nigeria confirmed that the Sussexes have their own media plan in place.
Military muscle
Ben Shemang, former director of news at Voice of Nigeria, says Camp Wu Bassey, an Army barracks in Abuja named after Brigadier Wellington Duke Bassey, Nigeria’s first indigenous Army officer, will no doubt be on the couple’s itinerary.
There, they would be treated to a banquet with military officials inside the Scorpion Officers’ Mess, a regimental dining hall used for celebrations and ceremonies.
Terver Dominic, a resident of Abuja who grew up in the barracks, predicts Meghan and Harry’s hosts will put on a vibrant military cultural event known as WASA, or West African Social Activities, to entertain them during their visit.
It is an entire day centred around a ceremonial tug of war, which symbolises strength, discipline and teamwork. There is, Mr Dominic adds, plenty of ‘festive atmosphere and competitive spirit’ — and the couple might even be invited to take part.
Polo and posh frocks
According to the Nigerian Bulletin, there will also be visits to sports facilities, meetings with athletes and activities ‘aimed at promoting mental health awareness, physical rehabilitation and the importance of sports in the recovery of service members.’
Ben Shermang says the Moshood Abiola National Stadium in Abuja is a likely venue for much of this. ‘They have a very big polo ground,’ he explains.
There’s also Lagos Polo Club, an hour’s flight away, an esteemed venue for tournaments with its own riding club, which would prove a useful base if there’s filming for Harry’s Netflix documentary.
Ben hints at a visit to Abuja’s Arts and Crafts Village, and also a meeting with the Actors Guild of Nigeria, the heart of the country’s burgeoning film industry, known as ‘Nollywood’.
‘They may also meet with Nigerian fashion designers,’ he adds — something that would appeal to label-loving Meghan, whose wardrobe choices will be closely-monitored. While her late mother-in-law, Diana, was in Nigeria, she made a point of wearing green and white — the colours of the country’s flag.
Personal pilgrimage
Speaking to Nigerian-American comedian Ziwe Fumudoh on her now-defunct podcast Archetypes, in October 2022, Meghan gushed about her Nigerian heritage, which she’d uncovered by doing a genealogy test a few years previously.
‘I’m going to start to dig deeper into all this because anybody I’ve told, especially Nigerian women, are like ‘What!’ she said.
Harry referred to his wife’s lineage in his opening speech at the Invictus Games last year, and the pair spent time with Team Nigeria, with one competitor, Glory Essien, calling her ‘my Nigerian sister’.
Glory confirmed this week that she will be joining them during their visit to her country.
The team also gave Meghan a nickname: Amira Ngozi Lolo — ‘Amira’ means ‘warrior princess’, ‘Ngozi’ means ‘blessed’ and ‘Lolo’ translates as ‘royal wife’.
Derrick Cobbinah, an ex-British soldier, businessman and fundraiser who helped coordinate Nigeria’s Invictus debut, said she had been ‘deeply touched’ by the gesture.
‘She said she couldn’t wait to visit Nigeria for her mum and the kids,’ he added.
:max_bytes(150000):strip_icc():focal(939x486:941x488):format(webp)/Meghan-Markle-hugs-fan-091122-02-2000-3e7b6c9add9c451480b482408c0da7ef.jpg)
:max_bytes(150000):strip_icc():focal(715x539:717x541):format(webp)/Meghan-Markle-hugs-fan-091122-03-2000-988d1e547d134627a6367de0714a06ce.jpg)
:max_bytes(150000):strip_icc():focal(919x564:921x566):format(webp)/Meghan-Markle-hugs-fan-091122-04-2000-8f391243060a4f5285fb3d24ca3449ef.jpg)
:max_bytes(150000):strip_icc():focal(939x172:941x174):format(webp)/WINDSOR-ORINCES-FLOWERS-091022-f13dc0737ee242578be64305808f0cdb.jpg)
