Prince Charles gave a hilarious speech to an audience in Nigeria, telling them: ‘If person too tey for party, e go follow dem wash plate!’
Speaking in a mixture of pidgin and Yoruba – a West African language – he said it was ‘particularly special to be here, just a few days before my 70th birthday, in the land of the Owambe’, a Yoruba word for lavish parties.
Warming to his theme at the residence of the deputy high commissioner in Lagos, Charles said: ‘Una people. Na fine Lagos people (Wonderful people of Lagos). I hail you!’
‘How you dey? (How are you?),’ he added, prompting cheers and laughter from the audience, which included supermodel Naomi Campbell.
Campbell and Charles have known each other for years and met-up at a reception in Nigeria, on the penultimate day of Charles’s official visit to West Africa
On the penultimate day of his visit to West Africa, the prince added: ‘I find it hard to believe that nearly 30 years have passed since I first came to this city and having finally made it back here, ladies and gentlemen, all I can say is that God don butta my bread! (My wish has been granted).’
Highlighting the work of his Prince’s Trust International, he added: ‘If life dey show you pepper, my guy make pepper soup! (Always look on the bright side of life).’
Charles said he was struck by Lagos’s dynamism and energy and its ‘vital role as the beating cultural and economic heart, not just of Nigeria, but of the whole region’, but highlighted the challenges presented by climate change, population growth, youth unemployment and pollution.
He concluded: ‘Sadly, my time in Lagos, and indeed in Nigeria and West Africa on this tour, is fast coming to an end, and soon I must take my leave from you all. As I am sure you will all agree, if person too tey for party, e go follow dem wash plate! (One shouldn’t outstay their welcome). My friends, you do well! (Thank you)’.
Britain’s Prince Charles speaks with Commonwealth Walkway representatives, during a reception at the Deputy High Commissioner’s Residence in Lagos
Britain’s Prince Charles, right, received a Nigeria soccer Jersey with the legend HRH (His Royal Highness), from Nigeria former soccer player, Joseph Yolo