Nigeria’s presidency has admitted that it lied to public when it falsely claimed that President Bola Ahmed Tinubu was the first African Head of State to ring the NASDAQ bell.
The spokesman to President Tinubu, Ajuri Ngelale had issued a statement on Thursday to the effect that Tinubu had set a global record as first African President to ring the bell.
“In honour of President Bola Tinubu’s determined global push to aggressively attract foreign direct investment into Nigeria.
“the world’s second largest stock exchange, the National Association of Securities Dealers Automatic Quotation System (NASDAQ), on Wednesday in the world’s financial capital, invited President Tinubu to ring the closing bell making him the first African President to ever receive the honour,” the false statement had claimed.
However, in a statement retracting the false claim, carefully issued on Friday night, Ajuri Ngelale said, “We inadvertently referred to President Bola Tinubu as the first African leader to ring the bell at NASDAQ on Wednesday in New York, based on the information provided by a third-party event organizer
“We have since found out that this information was/is incorrect as a former African leader has indeed had the privilege.
“This error is sincerely regretted.”
President Jakaya Kikwete of Tanzania of Tanzania had on September 21, 2011 rang the bell. Many Nigerians believe that the claim without any form of cross-checking by Tinubu’s massive media team is an indication of the shoddy way Nigeria’s government information is handled.
