President Bola Tinubu has sent a five-person delegation, led by the to represent him and the country at the Secretary to the Government of the Federation, Senator George Akume, to the burial rites of United States civil rights leader, Rev. Jesse Jackson.
Also an activist and former presidential candidate, Jackson passed away at age 84 on 17 February 2026, in Chicago.
Other members of the delegation are the Minister of State for Foreign Affairs, Ambassador Bianca Odumegwu-Ojukwu; Minister of Arts, Culture and Creative Economy, Barrister Hannatu Musawa; Special Presidential Envoy for Global and Pan-African Affairs, Dr. Brian Browne; and Senior Special Assistant on Foreign Affairs and International Relations, Ambassador Sola Enikanolaye.
The delegation will deliver President Tinubu’s message of condolences to the Jackson family.
In an earlier tribute, the President described Jackson as a great friend of Nigeria and Africa.
‘He was a moral voice and a formidable resistance to apartheid in South Africa. He played a leading role in the campaign for the release from prison of Nelson Mandela and other African National Congress leaders. He won critical support for sanctions against the then apartheid government’, President Tinubu wrote.
The burial programme began last Thursday with a lying-in-state at Rainbow PUSH Coalition in Chicago. Services in South Carolina and Washington, D.C., and a lying-in-state at the South Carolina Statehouse were scheduled for 1-5 March.
On Friday, a “People’s Celebration” will take place at House of Hope in Chicago, followed by a private homegoing the next day at the Rainbow PUSH Coalition.
