The President, Major General Muhammadu Buhari (retd), on Friday, mourned the Duke of Edinburgh, Prince Philip, describing his death as the end of an era.
Other world leaders, including the United Kingdom Prime Minister Boris Johnson, the United States President Joe Biden, and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi also paid tributes to Prince Philip.
Prince Philip, the husband of Queen Elizabeth II, died on Friday. He was 99.
His death was announced by Buckingham Palace, which said he passed away peacefully.
Condoling with Queen Elizabeth II, Buhari, in a statement by his Senior Special Assistant on Media and Publicity, Garba Shehu, said Prince Philip was one of the greatest and publicly recognisable international figures whose contributions to the Commonwealth would be remembered for generations to come.
The statement titled, ‘President Buhari expresses the nation’s condolences over the demise of Prince Philip,’ quoted Buhari as further describing Prince Philip as a remarkable man.
“Prince Philip was a great man in his own right who made enormous contributions to philanthropic activities and charities, especially for wildlife conservation and youth development programmes in more than 130 countries,” it read.
Also, UK Prime Minister, Johnson, said Prince Philip “earned the affection of generations here in Britain, across the Commonwealth and around the world.”
“We are a kingdom united both in grief and in gratitude,” Associated Press quoted Johnson as saying.
“Grief at Prince Philip’s passing, and gratitude for his decades of selfless service to the country,” Johnson added.
Likewise, Biden offered condolences to the Queen on behalf of the American people.
“The impact of his decades of devoted public service is evident in the worthy causes he lifted up as patron, in the environmental efforts he championed, in the members of the Armed Forces that he supported, in the young people he inspired, and so much more,″ he said.
Indian PM Modi said his thoughts were with the British people and the Royal Family on the sad news.
Australian PM Scott Morrison ordered flags to be flown at half-mast in Australia to honour the passing of Prince Philip, who he said “embodied a generation that we will never see again.”
New Zealand PM Jacinda Ardern also mourned Philip – noting his close ties to New Zealand, including as patron of the Duke of Edinburgh Hillary Award, a youth achievement programme named in honour of New Zealand mountaineer Sir Edmund Hillary.
Australian PM Scott Morrison, Israel’s Benjamin Netanyahu, Canada’s Justin Trudeau, and Russian President Vladimir Putin also expressed their sadness.
The royal families of Denmark, Monaco, the Netherlands, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates also sent messages to the Queen.
The Archbishop of Canterbury, who is the most senior cleric in the Anglican Church, Justin Welby, gave thanks to God for Prince Philip’s life of dedicated service.
Prince Philip had been hospitalised in February for a heart problem and an undisclosed infection but was discharged on March 16. Buckingham Palace however said that his hospitalisation was not related to the coronavirus.
The palace said the duke would not be given a state funeral due to the COVID-19 pandemic even as Britain remains in a national lockdown.
Meanwhile, following the death of her husband, the Queen will now enter an eight-day period of mourning, The Standard UK reported on Friday.
In the next eight days, the Queen will not carry out any duties – in either public or private.
Also, any laws that need to be given the Royal Assent of affairs of state will not be put to her to approve.
Following the eight days, there will be a further official period of Royal Mourning for 30 days.
At some point in the next few days, Prince Philip will be moved to Chapel Royal at St James’s Palace in London. This is where Princess Diana was before her funeral in 1997.
