Former Ekiti State Governor, Kayode Fayemi, has disclosed that he convinced Labour Party’s 2023 presidential candidate, Peter Obi, to walk up and greet President Bola Tinubu during the inauguration ceremony of Pope Leo XIV at the Vatican in May.
Fayemi made the revelation during an interview on Edmund Obilo’s YouTube channel uploaded on Thursday. According to him, Obi was initially reluctant to approach the president because he feared the meeting could be twisted in the media.
The encounter first became public on May 18, 2025, after presidential aide, Bayo Onanuga, shared photographs from the event on X showing Fayemi, Obi and Tinubu together during the papal inauguration ceremony.
Onanuga had explained that Fayemi noticed Tinubu seated among global leaders and encouraged Obi to accompany him to greet the president.
“Fayemi sighted President Tinubu, where he sat with other leaders and asked Obi to follow him to pay homage to the Nigerian leader. Obi agreed,” he posted.
Speaking further in the interview, Fayemi confirmed the account but added that Obi needed persuasion before agreeing to the greeting.
He explained that both he and Obi attended the event as Catholics and had breakfast earlier that day with Cardinal Lazarus before proceeding to the inauguration venue, where they sat a few rows behind the president.
“Peter and I are Catholics. We were at the Vatican for the inauguration of the new pope. We happened to have had breakfast the morning of inauguration with Cardinal Lazarus and we came from his apartment to the venue of the inauguration and we sat four rows behind the president. We were there before the president came with his team,” Fayemi said.
According to Fayemi, Nigeria’s Minister of Foreign Affairs, Bianca Ojukwu, first approached them from the presidential delegation to exchange pleasantries, which prompted him to suggest they greet Tinubu as well.
“The current minister of foreign affairs, Bianca Ojukwu, was on the president’s delegation and she came to say hello to us. And I felt, well, our president is there regardless of our politics. Peter, please let us go,” he said.
Fayemi noted that Obi was concerned the gesture might later be politicised.
“He had his concern that this might be misused in the media. I said, Peter, it really didn’t matter. You are Catholic. You are a Nigerian. You are here. Our president has honoured us. He is even a Muslim. He is not a Catholic like you and I. So we could extend courtesies to him for doing this on behalf of all Nigerians to celebrate the pope,” Fayemi recalled.
He added that Obi eventually agreed and both of them walked over to Tinubu together.
“Readily, Peter agreed. So we walked up to the president and I said, ‘Mr President, welcome to the Vatican. Thank you for honouring us with your presence,’” Fayemi narrated.
Fayemi said Tinubu responded humorously.
“The president is quick-witted, you have got to give him some credit for that as well. He immediately retorted, ‘Kayode, what are you saying? I should be the one welcoming you because I am the leader of the Nigerian delegation,’” Fayemi said.
Obi also acknowledged the president during the exchange.
“Peter kindly said to him, ‘Yes sir, you are our leader. So thank you for coming to Rome to honour us even though we are not part of your delegation, but you are our leader.’ So we joked about it and that was it,” Fayemi said.
The meeting reportedly ended shortly after, as Tinubu continued with official activities linked to the inauguration of Pope Leo XIV.