Nigeria?

[MaturingCheeseball]

Can this be true? That Harry and Meghan are off on a “royal” trip to Nigeria? What’s the game now? My head is spinning!

@NoisySnail What many posters can’t understand is why people who express great concerns about their security are visiting a country that’s not considered secure due to civil unrest, kidnappings and armed gangs. The US State Dept. advice is to “reconsider travel.”

I think the mistake is to find any kind of equivalence with H&M going somewhere for some sort of event, and an official visit by the Head of State or their representative.
I do recall QEII having to meet, greet and entertain many a questionable leader, in some difficult places, but that's diplomacy.
It was not for her personal gain or self promotion.

Harry is no longer comparable to the Queen, Charles, William ( or even himself as a working royal) who have security provided by two countries and intelligence being sourced from multiple agencies, they are residents of the US, whats next compare them to Biden.

The Daily Mail are calling it (rather goadingly) an “unofficial royal visit” and a Sussex spokesperson has said the visit is “based around” the Invictus Games and will involve “cultural activities”. Hmmph.

Harry is stepping right into the Duke of Windsor’s shoes crossed with a few Pretenders to the Throne “raising armies”.

And as the late Queen and Princess Margaret grew up, Windsor increasingly faded into insignificance and following his wife around social events. That's what'll happen to Haz as the Wales children get older. He's making the most of a bit of a charisma vacuum ATM.

Harry is stepping right into the Duke of Windsor’s shoes crossed with a few Pretenders to the Throne “raising armies”

This had occurred to me, even down to touting round for anywhere that would call them HRH and be prepared to curtsey to Wallis - though I somehow doubt H&M will be pictured wearing cardboard crowns

And the pretenders were very usefully diplomatically to countries (usually France, let's be honest here) who wanted to embarrass or put pressure or distract the attention of the British government. That's why I disagree with whoever said that the FO won't be the slightest bit bothered about this 'tour.' In fact I wouldn't be surprised if messages haven't already been exchanged about this being NOT a royal tour or in the slightest way official.

Harry and Meghan have not been invited by the Nigerian government.

True, but the Nigerian Army and the Nigerian Government haven’t always enjoyed the happiest of relationships so it will be interesting to see how this visit is portrayed when the couple arrive.

I do think @MrsDanversGlidesAgain has made a valid point upthread and I wouldn’t be at all surprised if the FCO has been discussing the visit with their counterparts in Abuja.

Has there been any 'official announcement' of this trip?

So far, all I've seen is some clumsily worded piece in some online magazine.

The whole thing seems slightly bizarre to me.

I also suspect this 'visit' will be looked on with raised eyebrows by the FCO and High Commission in Abuja. Nigeria is a sensitive destination for a lot of reasons, and Harry and his wife haven't exactly shown themselves to have a great deal of diplomatic awareness.

@AliceOlive I think it is great for Harry to step outside his bubble.

What I don't agree with is potentially sending Invictus participants into a highly dangerous environment to compete. I listened to a 60 Minutes segment on Sunday where a former US military person's wife described how her husband's PTSD was triggered by an unexpected pizza delivery. From the posts that I've read by people who have been to Nigeria, it is necessary to be on high alert from the moment the plane touches down. Why send people into a war zone for what should be happy competitions?

Completely agree about the likelihood of the FCO talking with their Nigerian counterparts; given H&M's apparent inability to consider anything beyond what benefits them it would be amazing if they hadn't

Wonder if these next lucky hosts will be treated to the Proctor and Gamble anecdote too?

Why send people into a war zone for what should be happy competitions?

With the rider I was last there about 5 years back I’d say it’s not fair to describe the whole place as a war zone but parts of it (including some main roads) could be very iffy.

From a safety POV once you’ve got from the airport to somewhere relatively protected (e.g. hotel) it was fine…venture out….not so much.

I’m not sure how you’d ever hold a full blown Invictus games there unless it was all held inside some sort of military complex or similar and the participants stayed on site.

Invictus will not be held in Nigeria. A Nigerian Minister has said they hope it will be. The UK government has also said they want Invictus to be in the UK. I do not think it will be held in either country.

I’m not sure how you’d ever hold a full blown Invictus games there unless it was all held inside some sort of military complex or similar and the participants stayed on site

Well it works for the Olympics, but unless such facilities already exist I doubt there's much chance of them getting built given the infrastructure issues and massive corruption

Admittedly Russia managed it in 1980, but then much of that was built by the Germans - something the host nation were extremely keen to hide

If I went to an international event, I would want to go outside of the stadium and see the surrounding area. That is part of the fun of travel. No offense, but Nigeria doesn't sound like a fun trip and also doesn't sound like it will become one in the near future.

@BemusedAmerican have you enjoyed the other Invictus games you have travelled to see?

Financial the UK is a good place for Harry to have the Invictus games, he has bespoke security arrangements, could spend time in a royal residence and would help to dismiss rumours of Invictus/sponsors/ host nation funding Harry involvement. Any argument that it couldn’t happen because of Harry is supporting the point that Invictus is more about Harry than wounded and unwell veterans. I spent a day at the first invictus games.

I've enjoyed the other cities that I have gone to when attending conferences. It made up for the tediousness of the conferences.

It's also a nice financial boost for the city hosting the conference if people leave the conference center and visit small stores and restaurants, possibly a museum. Spread the money out so that non- chain vendors get cash.

Sorry for irrelevance but could I just say how nice it is to see no less than two snails on this thread?

I'll get my coat...

@CoffeeCantata thanks!

Invictus is not a conference and people attending it do not tend to find it boring.

I did note that since I have been posting, in my snaily way, another snail has arrived! I hope there is no snail confusion, as we seem to have very different views...

In my experience, when people attend an event in another city, at some point they want to go out and about in the city.