According to Abike Dabiri-Erewa, chairman of the Nigerians in Diaspora Commission (NIDCOM), Turkish authorities called the Nigerian controversy over President Bola Tinubu’s minor misstep during his official visit “silly.”
In response to a post on X by a user named Oguntoye Opeyemi, commonly known as Equityoyo, who criticized the amount of attention Nigerian media paid to the incident, Mrs. Dabiri-Erewa made this statement on Wednesday.
Just that. She stated, “On the ground here in Ankara, their officials were shocked to learn that it was an issue in Nigerian media/blogs.”
The head of NIDCOM clarified that while Tinubu’s visit was being well greeted throughout Turkey, Turkish authorities were taken aback by the incident, with one calling the attention to the event “silly and mischievous.”
Dabiri-Erewa continued, “One of them called it ‘silly and mischievous,’ and reiterated how their country was excited about the incredible success of the visit by @officialABAT, which is all over their media here.”
Opeyemi noted in his post that the incident was not covered by Turkey’s major media.
During a ceremonial march-past held in his honor on Tuesday at the Ankara parade site, President Tinubu momentarily slipped.
He temporarily attracted attention as he moved forward to join the guard of honor, but the event continued uninterrupted.
Video of the event shows Tinubu walking beside Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan before briefly losing his balance. It was first shared by Turkish digital source Nefes Gazetesi and later became viral on X.
Security staff quickly assisted him.
The goal of Tinubu’s first official visit to Turkey is to strengthen diplomatic relations and promote cooperation in fields including defense, trade, investment, energy, media, and scientific research.
