Tinubu slips, falls at Democracy Day event; Atiku, others react

President Bola Tinubu slipped and fell over at Eagle Square, Abuja, during the celebration of Democracy Day in the Nigerian capital.

Mr Tinubu, 72, fell while climbing the steps to an official vehicle that was to take him round the Eagle Square. He was helped back to his feet and continued with the celebration.

“He immediately went on with the ceremonial rounds. No issues,” Dada Olusegun, a presidential aide, wrote on X.

Mr Tinubu had hours before the parade addressed Nigerians via live broadcast on the occasion of the Democracy Day celebration, marking 25 years of uninterrupted democracy in Nigeria, the longest run in the West African country and Africa‘s largest democracy.

In his speech, Mr Tinubu praised both the dead and living heroes of democracy who fought for the return to civil rule from military dictatorship. He mentioned many by name including the late Moshood Abiola who won the 12 June 1993 presidential election that was annulled by the military and Mr Abiola’s wife, the late Kudirat Abiola, who state agents killed during the Sani Abacha military dictatorship.

Among the living that Mr Tinubu mentioned was an activist and former senator, Shehu Sani, who was imprisoned for several years by the Abacha dictatorship but is now an opposition politician.

Mr Sani, on Wednesday, said the trip by Mr Tinubu was no big deal.

“Not just President Tinubu, anyone alive can trip and fall; it happened to President Biden and Fidel Castro. Presidents are human beings and mortals,” he wrote on X.

One of Mr Tinubu’s main challengers in last year’s presidential election, Atiku Abubakar, expressed his sympathy for the fall.

“I sincerely sympathise with President Bola Tinubu over this unfortunate incident as he was set to review the parade on Democracy Day. I do hope that all is well with him,” Atiku, the first runner-up in the election, wrote on X.