Private jets filled up the runway of the airport in the northern Nigerian city of Kano as members of Nigeria’s elite and West Africa dignitaries flew in for the wedding of the president’s son and the daughter of a prominent religious and traditional leader.
The marriage between Yusuf Buhari and Zahra Nasir Bayero is one of Nigeria’s biggest celebrity events of the year. The pair met at the University of Surrey in the UK. Thousands are expected to attend the event at the palace of the Emir of Bichi, a town in Kano state. A historian told that a wedding between presidential and royal families was unprecedented in Nigeria.
The festivities are continuing later on Saturday when the bride’s father Nasir Ado Bayero is being officially crowned as the Emir of Bichi. Her uncle is the Emir of Kano, one of Nigeria’s most prominent Islamic leaders. The groom’s family paid 500,000 naira ($1,200; £900) as the bride price – about 10 times the average amount in northern Nigeria.
During the festivities, most of the guests wore masks due to the coronavirus pandemic since Nigeria is currently grappling with an upsurge in cases. The festivities were also scaled down. An airport official that less than 50 private jets flew in for the occasion despite some reports stating 100 private jets flew in. Heavy security was also present at the wedding, with police and military officers guarding the venue and stationed at nearby strategic locations.
The guests consisted of the country’s top politicians and traditional rulers from across the country flew in, including several opposition figures. Among them were President Muhammadu Buhari’s predecessor Goodluck Jonathan, whom he defeated in the 2015 election. Foreign guests consisted of Gambia’s First Lady Fatoumata Bah Barrow and the former president of neighbouring Niger, Muhammadi Issoufu.
