Can I have my iPad, please? They stole it!” Somebody decided they want to dispossess me of my iPad, so I want that. Two of Africa’s regional superpowers – Nigeria and South Africa – have produced their own extraordinary moments of presidential faux pax that could win global prizes, too.Īs he came up to the podium, the president declared in a confused, stricken voice, “I am looking for my iPad. I must say quickly, however, that presidents in the so-called advanced countries don’t have a monopoly of awkwardness. In another incident infamously known as the “Kokanee Grope”, Trudeau handled one female reporter inappropriately and a few days later reportedly told the reporter, “I’m sorry, if I had known you were reporting for a national paper, I would never have been so forward.”

President Justin Trudeau of Canada is only 49, but he topped the global Awkward Moment League a few years ago when it came to light that this same man who loves to pose as sympathiser-in-chief of blacks and racial minorities had mocked them serially by dressing up in “blackface” a number of times in the past. The President picked and dusted himself up gingerly but doubts about his fitness and presence of mind linger on, highlighted by his double Syria-Libya mix-up during the recent NATO Summit in Brussels.īut you would be mistaken to assume that presidential awkwardness is purely gerontocratic. Trump always taunted him as “Sleepy Joe”, insinuating, in fact, that his presidency would be ruined by poor health and possibly, dementia.Īn awkward moment that got even the staunchest Biden supporters worried was when he tripped up twice on the stairwell of Air Force One.

President Joe Biden, gifted for gaffes, has had a couple of awkward moments in his six-month presidency. I’m not so sure how that awkward moment would, in future, affect Macron’s warmth toward even the most well-intended exuberant supporter. Whether he was on cheap drugs or possessed by holy anger or the demons from his village, that is the day his madness would have been cured – and that would be long before he would ever dream of having his day in court!īut Macron, though initially shaken, took the slap in his stride, while security hustled away the assailant, just the way you might have tackled a wayward fellow at a playground.

I can’t imagine, much less write what fate would befall him, and possibly, all those who know him, dead or alive. I’m still wondering what would happen if an unarmed protester disguised as a fan of President Muhammadu Buhari’s, for example, suddenly did what that fellow did to Macron. The assailant’s effrontery is hard for me, an African, to imagine.

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