President Bola Tinubu has sent a five-man delegation to represent him and Nigeria at the final burial rites of the American civil rights leader, activist, and former presidential candidate Rev. Jesse Jackson, who passed on at 84 on February 17, 2026, in Chicago.
Presidential spokesperson, Bayo Onanuga, in a release issued on Wednesday, named the Secretary to the Government of the Federation, Senator George Akume, as the leader of the delegation.
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Other members of the delegation are the Minister of State for Foreign Affairs, Bianca Odumegwu-Ojukwu; Minister of Arts, Culture and Creative Economy, Hannatu Musawa; Special Presidential Envoy for Global and Pan-African Affairs, Brian Browne; and Senior Special Assistant, Foreign Affairs and International Relations, Ambassador Sola Enikanolaye.
The delegation will deliver President Tinubu’s message of condolences to the Jackson family.
The burial programme for the civil rights leader began on February 26, 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 March 1-5.
On March 6, a “People’s Celebration” will take place at House of Hope in Chicago, followed by a private homegoing on March 7 at the Rainbow PUSH Coalition.
In an earlier tribute, the President had described Reverend 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”, Tinubu wrote.