Wife of the President, Senator Oluremi Tinubu, has taken a firm public stand against what she described as the distorted and inaccurate global portrayal of Nigeria’s security challenges, arguing that such misrepresentation hindered rather than helped the country’s genuine and ongoing efforts to build peace and foster harmony among its diverse communities.
Speaking at a meeting at her State House office with former Archbishop of Canterbury Rt Revd Justin Welby, the First Lady argued that listening to only one side of a conflict before drawing conclusions was a fundamentally flawed approach to peace-building that the international community urgently needed to correct.
She stressed that the global community had a responsibility to first understand the full and accurate picture of Nigeria’s security challenges before attempting to contribute solutions, arguing that inaccurate framing not only distorted international perception but actively undermined domestic peace-building efforts already underway.
“Listening to one side of the story and then concluding is a wrong approach to conflict resolution. Thank you for opening up this Interfaith Dialogue, and I believe that you should also invite not just the Christians and Muslims but also Nigeria’s security community to the dialogue so they can share what they have been doing,” she said.
She commended the country’s armed forces for their resilience, gallantry, and sustained efforts in addressing the security situation, and called on churches worldwide to preach responsibly so that citizens could live peacefully.
Welby, accompanied by British High Commissioner Richard Montgomery, explained that he was in Nigeria ahead of an interfaith dialogue meeting being convened by the Global Forum for Peace in Abu Dhabi, under the patronage of Sheikh Abdallah Bin Baya, scheduled to take place in London the following week. The dialogue would bring together 12 Christians and 12 Muslim representatives with the aim of fostering genuine listening and developing workable solutions to interfaith conflicts globally.
He described his visit as an effort to lay the groundwork for the London dialogue and ensure it meaningfully addressed the issues at stake, noting that sustained interfaith engagement had considerable potential to strengthen Nigeria’s image as a nation that protected freedom of worship.
The meeting came barely a month after President Tinubu’s state visit to the United Kingdom, during which a church service at Lambeth Palace formed part of the First Lady’s official itinerary.
Also that day, Mrs. Tinubu received the Minister of Communications and Digital Economy, Dr. Bosun Tijani, who briefed her on progress with the ministry’s Girls in Tech programme. The minister confirmed after the meeting that the First Lady would host a dinner showcasing innovations developed by programme participants and had agreed to serve as the face of a national campaign to deepen internet penetration and connectivity in rural and riverine communities.
