In a bid to raise the bar of Tinubu’s administration, the Presidency has hailed Bola Tinubu as the first African leader to participate in the NASDAQ bell-ringing tradition.
The initial assertion, lauding Bola Tinubu as the first African leader to partake in this esteemed tradition, has been unequivocally debunked.
The State House admitted to the error in a statement released yesterday, expressing regret over the incident. According to the statement, “Based on information from a third-party event organizer, we unintentionally referred to President Bola Tinubu as the first African leader to ring the bell at NASDAQ on Wednesday in New York.”
In 2011, Jakaya Kikwete, the former Tanzanian president, made history by ringing the NASDAQ closing bell. The event, themed around global health commitments, particularly women’s health and cancer, was attended by first ladies, health ministers, and global health leaders.
The presidency has issued a statement regretting an error and clarifying that Kikwete was indeed the first African president to ring the bell.
This incident marks another instance where the Presidency has had to retract a previous claim, following a similar situation regarding the UAE ban lift as well as claims by the presidency of Biden extending an invitation to Bola Tinubu in the just concluded United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) in New York.