In a video that has now gone viral, South African President Cyril Ramaphosa was seen greeting other African leaders during his inauguration ceremony, but appeared to briefly ignore Nigerian President Bola Tinubu.
The footage showed Ramaphosa shaking hands with dignitaries seated in the front row, but he did not immediately offer a handshake to Tinubu, who was seated in the second row next to the president of Tanzania, Samia Hassan, and other leaders.
However, in a separate video posted by the South African presidency, Ramaphosa is seen later approaching the second row to interact with the heads of state and government. “My president, it’s so good to have you here. Thank you so much; we will talk later,” the South African president told Tinubu.
Reacting to the viral video, O’tega Ogra, senior special assistant to Tinubu on digital communications, strategy, and new media, said the front row at the inauguration was reserved for South African royalty. Ogra also explained that Ramaphosa was not expected to start greeting dignitaries at the time in the viral video, which is why he abruptly ended after being called back to his seat by the compere.
“Immediately after President Ramaphosa finished the anthem, he went ahead to greet the visiting presidents, who were all seated in the second row,” the aide said.
Ogra also chided social activist Aisha Yesufu, who had posted the clip on X (formerly Twitter) and written that Tinubu was “disgraced once again,” for her “consistent display of crass ignorance” and “hatred” for Nigeria.
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