The military chief of Nigeria invited H&M. I suspect that there may well be diplomatic overlap with the PM or ignored/tolerated overreaching on his part. If they used taxpayers’ money (and I am not sure what other money a military chief will be using), then that rather indicates they thought the visit was a royal one (and hence all the pageantry). Access to that funding was not denied by the PM. Nigeria didn’t need the UK’s permission for the visit, and the PM could have met Harry if he wanted to. He didn’t think it was worth his while as it wasn’t an official visit. That H&M reached out at all to the Nigerian PM, and that the British Government had to issue a clarification, demonstrates to me the frustratingly reactionary nature of the UK govt/RF to H&M.
The message that H&M have no royal
role should have been front loaded through diplomatic channels to the world the minute Harry left - or at least when he started overreaching, which was when he started meddling in US political issues and when he usurped the authority of the kings representative in Canada vis a vis First Nations groups, which he did in the year prior to the 2025 Canadian Games in the one year to go event. That event took place before the Nigeria junket and should have been a warning.
Instead, Harry once again undermined his father with First Nations groups at Invictus 2025, scoring himself a PR victory and being thanked for visiting them when they had felt ignored by the UK monarch for decades.
I don’t think Harry accepting favours from a Nigerian businessman fugitive is that much of a gotcha. It was a gaff, but no worse than the gaffs committed by other RF members. In any event, does this man’s criminal activities abroad make a difference to how he’s received at home? Seemingly not. I assume he and his well connected friends in Nigeria were happy the Sussexes didn’t shun him on the basis of the US legal action.
The Nigerian First Lady specifically denied she had been talking about Meghan. Her remark was clarified at the time by her office. I imagine she’s rather more pissed off at the claim being made that she had criticised Meghan in the first place, since the SS hoo hah stemmed from that claim.
I don’t really know what you think is the connection between the Sussexes visiting Nigeria (and the success or otherwise of it) and the Nigerian general and other (but not all) Nigerian team-members being denied visas to enter Canada. Why would Invictus have any influence at all over Canadian immigration matters for any country? Why would Harry? Why would anyone blame him for the visa denial or think he might have power to get visas granted? Would you expect the UK government or RF to be influencing Canadian immigration policy towards third party countries? Has Nigeria ever pointed the finger at anyone other than Canada over this?
Do you remember how William’s
and Catherine’s visit to Jamaica was regarded and reported internationally as a disaster? How the PM publicly blindsided them and tried to humiliate them? How the optics looked terrible when taken out of context. Yet the local press and apparently the local people all thought their visit was a huge success.