The attention of the Caribbean, Africa and the world is on Saint Lucia this weekend, as the island hosts Nigerian President Bola Ahmed Tinubu and several Caribbean leaders.
It’s an interesting visit.
President Tinubu is arriving today for a week-long holiday at the top-brand Sandals Grande Saint Lucian Resort & Spa, the local flagship of the three Sandals Resorts International (SRI) luxury-included resorts on the island.
But his faraway Caribbean vacation — from June 28 to July 4 — will be interrupted for two days (June 30 and July 1) for state duties: to meet and greet leaders of the Organization of Eastern Caribbean States (OECS).
President Tinubu lands Saturday and during his two-day state visit — hosted by Prime Minister Philip J. Pierre — he’ll also meet the island’s parliamentarians in a Joint Sitting of the Upper and Lower Houses, also to be hosted at his selected holiday resort.
According to Prime Minister Pierre, “The engagement with President Tinubu represents a valuable occasion for OECS Heads of Government, and I have invited all to also visit, so we can have a formal engagement with the President of Nigeria.”
He also described Tinubu’s visit as “an opportunity for the Caribbean to strengthen its bond with the African continent, considering the shared heritage of the two regions.”
The Saint Lucia leader said it “also presents a historic and unique opportunity to deepen the bonds between Africa and the Caribbean.”
“As descendants of shared heritage,” Prime Minister Pierre added, “the people of the Caribbean trace deep links to the African continent” through “longstanding cultural and historical connections” that “compel us to continue nurturing and strengthening our bonds in ways that are meaningful, strategic and sustainable.”
President Tinubu’s Caribbean visit was reported in Nigeria as having been organized by his “long-time friend, Gilbert Chagoury”.
No stranger to Saint Lucia, Chagoury was appointed the island’s Ambassador and Permanent Delegate to UNESCO and the UN in Geneva in 1995.
The Nigerian citizen of Arab descent was also the prime mover behind a special visit to the island by the 42nd US President Bill Clinton, on January 18, 2003, during which the then ex-president delivered a special address – also at the Sandals Grande Saint Lucian, where the conference hall he spoke at was thereafter christened The William Jefferson Clinton Ballroom.
President Tinubu’s visit also follows a 2003 encounter between Saint Lucia’s then-Prime Minister Dr Kenny D. Anthony and then Nigerian President, Chief Olusegun Obasanjo, at that year’s Commonwealth Summit in Abuja (formerly Lagos).
Saint Lucia and Nigeria established diplomatic ties on September 21, 1981, but people-to-people ties long-precede that.
Renowned Saint Lucian jurist, the late Sir Darnley Alexander, was the first Chief Justice of the State of Niger (Nigeria’s most populous) after it became independent on October 1, 1960.
And renowned Saint Lucian architect Neville Skeete is said by veteran colleagues to have been associated with designing a plan for the first Central Bank of Nigeria.
The island pulled all stops to ensure the success of this rare visit by an African Head of State, following that by South Africa’s legendary Nelson Mandela in 1998, when he attended a CARICOM Summit in Castries to thank Caribbean governments for their support for his release and South Africa’s liberation.
The visit comes as CARICOM and the African Union (AU) leaders and governments are strengthening ties through annual summits – a process that gained revered momentum with the hosting of the first CARICOM-AU Summit on September 7, 2021.
The inaugural CARICOM-AU Summit was the first international gathering attended by Prime Minister Pierre (elected on July 26, 2021), who’s maintained a quiet but steady interest in furthering and deepening Caribbean-Africa ties.
PM Pierre has attended several leadership regional and international conferences promoting closer Caribbean-Africa trade and welcomed the arrival of the Africa Export-Import Bank (AFRIMBANK) in the region in 2024.
Prime Minister Pierre’s very-first address to the nation was delivered on August 1, 2021 – mere days after his election (and before his administration was sworn-in), during which he launched an annual Emancipation Month triennium, to afford citizens ongoing opportunities to explore and share views on the true meaning of Emancipation – and identify Emancipation Heroes.
He indicated (in that historic address) that his new government will seek to create mechanisms for positively revisiting Saint Lucia and the Caribbean’s collective African History and Heritage.
The PM also announced three annual Emancipation Month observances from 2022, which have helped broaden and deepen related consciousness under the theme ‘Enkindling Our Consciousness’.
Appreciation of the island’s African Heritage has been assisted in the past 12 years by the National Reparations Committee (NRC), appointed in 2013 and serving three administrations.
Saint Lucia’s Ambassador Dr June Soomer – a former Saint Lucia Ambassador to CARICOM and the OECS and Secretary General of the Association of Caribbean States (ACS) – was the first Chair of the United Nations (UN) Permanent Forum for People of African Descent.
The UN has designated 2025-2034 as the Second Decade for People of African Descent and with the 3rd CARICOM-AU Day approaching (September 7) and the 2nd CARICOM-AU Summit just-around-the-corner, the NRC and the island’s Cultural Development Foundation’s (CDF) National Emancipation Month Committee are working with others to launch the 2nd Triennium on August 1, 2025.
CARICOM and African nations are mutually interested in seeking Reparations from Europe for Slavery and Native Genocide, at a time when the AU is seeking to deepen its links with nations of People with African Descent and CARICOM is leading the global movement for Reparations, now extended to include Africa and India, as well as indigenous First Peoples globally.
Against this background, President Tinubu’s mixed holiday-state visit should augur well for Saint Lucia, OECS and CARICOM nations – as well as the AU and Africa, at a time when current unpredictable world changes and repercussions demand closer ties between nations of the Global South, continental Africa and Caribbean states.