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Nigerians’ reactions to President Bola Tinubu’s speech at the World Economic Forum in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia on Sunday, April 28, 2024, have been largely positive as many considered it a clear departure from his infamous, gaffe-ridden pre-election outings.
During the build-up to the 2023 general election, Tinubu delivered some unforgettable slips that instantly subjected him to ridicule, especially in the opposition camps.
His bulaba bala blu gaffe was undoubtedly the major highlight of his blunder-laden presidential campaigns. His public campaigns recorded at least six embarrassing verbal slips.
Tinubu’s inaugural presidential campaign started with a hilarious blunder. This goof ended up becoming a tool used by Labour Party supporters to affirm the narrative that the All Progressives Congress (APC) and the main opposition party, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) are cut from the same cloth.
On the campaign trail, Tinubu after addressing his party members and the people of Plateau State, intended to end his speech with a prayer for his party but instead of saying God bless the APC, he said “God bless PD…APC.”
The gaffe set the tone for more blunders. Tinubu disappointingly entertained Nigerians with gaffes upon gaffes to the point where some Nigerians began to question his intelligence and senility.
These pre-election slips created an impression about the president in a way that many Nigerians expected him to commit blunders whenever he addressed the nation or spoke in public.
But somehow, the president seems to have gotten rid of what many had thought would become an embarrassing trademark of his administration.
If the repeated gaffes that got him reduced to social media memes were a campaign gimmick, Tinubu acted the script to the letter, to the extent that, even his fellow politicians thought he had an underlying ailment that predisposed him to uttering unintelligible words like bala blu.
A federal lawmaker, Amobi Ogah, elected on the platform of the Labour Party was prompted to praise the president after his encounter with him shortly after he was sworn in probably because he didn’t seem to expect him to sound ‘so intelligent’ during their encounter.
“Today is my best day. Today, I’m so happy that I’m an elected member seeing my president talking. In fact, I’ve never known that this man is so intelligent,” he said.
“I never knew that this man is so prepared to serve this country. I saw the love, character, and charisma — the belief that Nigeria can be a better nation.”
Obviously, the impression Tinubu created during the pre-election campaigns is no longer the case. While speaking at the World Economic Forum in Saudi Arabia, the 72-year-old demonstrated profound confidence as he spoke about his policies and plans for Nigerians.
Without mincing words, the president spoke on the need for the removal of subsidy and also marketed the potential of Nigerian youths to the rest of the world in terms of their educational attainments and technological innovativeness.
Tinubu also spoke on behalf of Africa, stressing the need for an inclusive programme approach to drive the global economy.
As he delivered his extemporaneous speech, he got world leaders to listen with rapt attention and his sound delivery was rewarded with a resounding applause.
When the snippets of his speech surfaced on social media, many Nigerians said Tinubu deceived them during the campaign because they could not believe he was the same person who got pilloried on social media for his endless gaffes in 2023.
It was clear that the Tinubu whose campaign speeches were punctuated with blunders was completely different from the president who calmly and confidently addressed the world leaders in Saudi Arabia.