Into Africa... Harry and Meghan on the royal tour that isn’t
...and she’s in a dress called ‘The Windsor’
IT is a private trip that has quickly become a royal tour in all but name.
The Duke and Duchess of Sussex kicked off their threeday visit to Nigeria yesterday and were mobbed by hundreds of well-wishers in the country’s capital, Abuja.
Meghan, with longer hair, even wore an eye- catching backless dress by US designer Heidi Merrick called The Windsor.
Harry and Meghan landed after flying first class on a British Airways flight overnight that had been briefly held up when the planned captain reported sick.
Landing just before dawn after a six-hour flight, other passengers were held back as the couple disembarked. Despite meeting Harry at Heathrow after a connecting flight from Los Angeles, Meghan had not set foot outside of the Heathrow VIP suite.
The prince had been in London since Tuesday for Invictus Games anniversary events but did not meet his father or brother.
Nigeria is listed as the ninth most dangerous country in Africa. Just hours before Harry and Meghan arrived, armed kidnappers abducted dozens of students in a raid at the Kogi state University of Science and Technology, 200 miles south of Abuja in Anyigba.
The duke and duchess’s visit comes almost 34 years to the day after Harry’s parents visited. Back then Diana famously held the hands of a leprosy patient.
The current trip is primarily to promote Harry’s commitment to his Invictus Games initiative for wounded military personnel.
However, they are in Nigeria at the invitation of the country’s chief of defence staff General Christopher Musa and are being accompanied by heavy security in scenes that heavily echo a foreign royal tour.
Their first engagement was at the Lightway Academy, a school that receives funding from their Archewell Foundation.
As they opened a mental health summit organised by local nonprofit GEANCO, which partners with their foundation, they received a rapturous welcome from a dancing troupe and excited pupils and teachers.
Meghan enthusiastically leapt to her feet as the children greeted them with their dancing. She said: ‘We’ve got to acknowledge those amazing dance moves! My husband was excited to jump up!’
They spoke to the pupils about mental health, and about their own children, Archie and Lilibet.
Harry, in a linen shirt and trousers and like Meghan wearing a traditional Nigerian bead necklace, said: ‘In some cases around the world ... there is a stigma when it comes to mental health.
‘Too many people don’t want to talk about it, so will you promise to us that after today, no more being scared, no more being unsure of mental health?’
As he finished, Meghan said: ‘You see why I’m married to him? He’s so smart. And so inspiring because he speaks the truth.’
She told the children an anecdote about their daughter Lilibet, saying: ‘She’s about to turn three. And a few weeks ago she looked at me and she would just see the reflection in my eyes. And she [goes], “Mama, I see me in you”.
‘Now she was talking literally. But I hung on to those words in a very different way,’ she continued. ‘And I thought, yes, I do see me in you, and you see me in you.’
Meghan then told the class: ‘As I look around this room, I see myself in all of you as well.’
For their meeting with General Musa at the Defence Headquarters, the couple changed into more formal attire in colours that reflected the Nigerian flag – Harry in a green suit and Meghan in an all-white outfit.
The wardrobe switch is thought to have contributed to their late arrival at the complex – almost an hour behind schedule – and where wives of military bigwigs were waiting in 35C (95F) heat.
Their arrival was preceded with a ten-vehicle military convoy of armoured cars with mounted machine guns and masked soldiers carrying grenade launchers.
‘You see why I’m married to him’
The Foreign Office advises against ‘all but essential travel to Nigeria’ and former royal protection officer Dai Davies said: ‘Seeing all his presidential style security really does stick in the throat.
‘For a couple who say all they want is privacy to visit one of the most dangerous places in the world ... is crazy. You have to ask yourself is it really all about the charities or is it the Harry and Meghan show.’
For their trip the pair have their own four-man security team which they have paid for themselves, and Nigeria is providing its own protection at a massive expense. After the visit to General Musa, the couple met wives of military personnel and at one point they were almost overwhelmed by the crowd.
It led to a visibly anxious Harry leading Meghan by the hand quickly into their waiting car and they were whisked way for the next part of their trip, with Harry flying 120 miles to visit a military hospital in Kaduna while Meghan attended a ‘private engagement’.