Nelson Mandela landed at Murtala Muhammed International Airport on the morning of 14 May 1990 — 92 days after his release from Victor Verster Prison on 11 February. He had been flown in on the Nigerian presidential jet from Dakar, the previous leg of his Africa-wide thank-you tour, and was received by President Ibrahim Babangida and a delegation that included the entire Armed Forces Ruling Council. Babangida greeted him on the airport tarmac as 'my brother and my hero' — the first time the term 'brother' had been used by a Nigerian Head of State to a foreign leader in a public ceremony.
Mandela addressed a joint session of Nigerian elder statesmen at the National Theatre, Iganmu, in the afternoon and laid a wreath at the Tafawa Balewa Square. In his speech he singled out Nigeria's role in the United Nations Special Committee against Apartheid (chaired continuously by a Nigerian since 1976), the Southern Africa Relief Fund that had channelled over US$5 million to the ANC in exile, and the Nigerian-funded ANC scholarship programme that had educated more than 200 South African students at Nigerian universities between 1976 and 1990. Babangida announced a further US$10 million grant on the spot. Mandela departed for Harare the same evening. It would be his second of three confirmed visits to Nigeria, the third being Obasanjo's inauguration in 1999.