ANKARA, Turkey – Nigeria’s President Bola Tinubu is “in great shape” despite falling over at a reception ceremony in Turkey, one of his aides said. Tinubu, 73, was being welcomed by his Turkish counterpart at an official ceremony in the capital, Ankara, when he stumbled. After walking past a line of soldiers and dignitaries Tinubu can be seen on the official video on the Turkish president’s X account moving to his right when he stumbles and falls.
The film briefly shows people helping the president before cutting to an aerial shot and 45 seconds later Tinubu and Recep Tayyip Erdogan are seen next to each other. A spokesman for the president, Bayo Onanuga, later said that Tinubu had stepped on a metal object “on the floor, which made him lose his balance”. “This is not a big deal, except for those who want to make mischief out of a fleeting incident.
It was a mere stumble, thank God, not a fall,” he added. At that time the incident was described as a “mild misstep” by an aide, and there was also a lot of sympathy for Tinubu, including from leading opposition politician Atiku Abubakar, who called it an “unfortunate incident”. Another politician, Shehu Sani, said that it showed the president was a human being and no different to anyone else.
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In an apparent move to allay concerns on Tuesday afternoon, in an all capital letters headline, Dare said on X: “President Tinubu in great shape as state visit proceeds smoothly. “After a stately welcome ceremony in Ankara [he] proceeded to scheduled bilateral meetings with President of Turkey and other senior government officials from both countries.”He did not give further details. Tinubu’s visit to Turkey was “aimed at strengthening the existing cordial relations”, the president’s office said in a statement before he left for Ankara on Monday.
After the two presidents met, Turkey announced new economic, trade and defence cooperation agreements with Nigeria. Speaking at a joint press conference with Tinubu, Erdogan said both countries had reaffirmed a target of increasing total bilateral trade to $5 billion.
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