Tinubu signed a £746m port deal in London. He also signed the deportation agreement.

Last week Nigeria's president stood at Windsor Castle, dined with King Charles, shook hands with Keir Starmer, and came home with what the presidency called a "historic" set of agreements. And it was historic. First Nigerian state visit to the UK in 37 years. Biggest port financing deal in nearly five decades.

But there were two agreements signed in London. The cameras stayed mostly on one.

The £746 million financing deal will fund a full rebuild of Apapa and Tin Can Island ports, backed by UK Export Finance. The Apapa port alone handles over 70% of Nigeria's imports and exports. It hasn't had a serious overhaul since the 1970s. If this deal lands as promised, it changes the cost of doing business in Lagos in ways you'd actually feel: faster cargo clearance, less demurrage, less time stuck in that traffic that begins three kilometres before the gate.

That's the deal that made the front pages.

The second agreement was signed the same day, in the same room, between Nigeria's Interior Minister and the UK Home Secretary. Under it, Nigeria will now accept what the UK calls "UK letters" as valid identification for its citizens without passports. What that means in practice: the paperwork that used to delay deportations can no longer delay them. The UK currently has about 961 Nigerians who've exhausted their asylum appeals, and another 1,110 convicted offenders waiting to be removed. Both backlogs just got easier to clear.

Nigeria's presidency was quick to clarify: only Nigerian nationals, not third-country deportees. And technically, a failed asylum seeker is someone who had no legal right to remain. This is not an argument that the deportation deal is wrong on its face.

But here's the thing to hold. The same government that flew to London to ask the UK to invest in Nigeria's ports also flew to London to make it easier for the UK to send Nigerians home. Both deals improve something for someone. The question is who.

The port deal improves the infrastructure that businesses, importers, and supply chains depend on. British Steel gets £70 million in contracts. UK Export Finance backs the loan. Nigeria services the debt.

The deportation deal improves the UK's removal pipeline. Nigeria absorbs the returnees, provides "reintegration support," and takes on the administrative cost of what the UK calls "restoring order to the border."

This is what bilateral diplomacy looks like when one country is the investor and the other is the market. You get the deal you need. You also agree to the deal they need.

This isn't new. When you need investment badly enough, you don't just negotiate your priorities. You absorb theirs.

The ADC called the port arrangement a skewed commercial loan that benefits the UK. The government called it a transformational milestone. Neither is completely wrong.

What's worth asking is simpler than either position. The UK gets £236 million in contracts for British suppliers, including £70 million for British Steel. Nigeria gets modernised ports, serviced by a loan it will be repaying for years, in a facility that handles 70% of its trade. If the port works, that's a reasonable exchange. If the port follows the pattern of previous Nigerian infrastructure announcements, the debt stays and the transformation doesn't arrive.

Now think about the second agreement alongside it. The deportation deal doesn't cost the UK anything. It removes an administrative bottleneck. For Nigeria, it means absorbing returnees, funding reintegration programmes, and taking on the processing cost of what the UK describes as "restoring order to the border." And it gives Keir Starmer something to take home to British voters: proof that he's tackling the immigration crisis, signed and photographed at a state visit.

What's true is this: the Apapa port hasn't worked properly in fifty years. That's real. And if you're a Nigerian in the UK right now with an expired visa, a failed asylum case, or a conviction you've served time for, this week's visit to London was also about you. Not in a way that made the front pages. But in a way that's now on paper, signed and dated.

A handshake in London means different things depending on which side of the deal you're on.