Standing in Makkah on Sunday evening, President Bola Tinubu gathered members of his delegation around a dinner table and turned the moment into something personal. Far from home and inside one of the most sacred cities in the world, he lifted a prayer, asking that Nigeria's diversity would become a source of prosperity for the country.
It is a prayer many Nigerians have been holding quietly for years. The country's mix of ethnicities, languages, and religions has long been framed as both its greatest strength and its most persistent tension. Hearing that prayer spoken aloud from Makkah, of all places, carries a weight that a press conference back in Abuja simply could not.
What remains to be seen is whether the sentiment travels home with him.
Originally published by Premium Times.