From Stairs to Stumbles: Tinubu’s Slip-Up Joins List of Clumsy Moments by World Leaders Losing Their Balance

President Bola Tinubu, on Wednesday, slipped while boarding the parade vehicle at the venue of the 2024 Democracy Day celebration.

 

The President had approached the vehicle shortly after he arrived at the Eagle Square, Abuja venue of the programme.

 

It was observed that the President lost his footing momentarily as he was about to step into the vehicle and slipped while he was quickly attended to by his security personnel.

 

In this report, highlights other world leaders aside from Tinubu, who had had clumsy moments and were caught on camera while boarding vehicles or disembarking official aircraft.

 

 

1. June 1975 – US President Ford slid down the Air Force One stairs

The then United States President Gerald Ford slid Air Force One in 1975 while visiting Vienna in Austria for talks with Egyptian President Anwar Sada.

 

2. October 2004- Cuba leader, Fidel Castro falls from stage

Cuban leader Fidel Castro, in 2004, fell off of the stage in Santa Clara, Cuba. Castro broke his knee and arm in the fall, sources say. The fall brought back memories of when he collapsed two years before the 2004 fall.

 

3. February 2015 – Zimbabwe President, Robert Mugabe, slid the Airport staircase

Zimbabwe’s 90-year-old President Robert Mugabe fell down a staircase as he walked off a podium after addressing supporters at Harare International Airport, an AFP correspondent said.

 

He had just returned from Ethiopia, where he took over the rotating chairmanship of the African Union.

 

4. March 2015 – Barack Obama recovers after near fall down steps of Air Force One

US President Barack Obama came close to falling down the steps of Air Force One. Obama was returning to Washington DC from a golfing trip in Florida when he bounded from the door of the plane only to lose his footing. He recovered and continued across the tarmac with the same spring in his step.

 

5. June 2020 – V.P. Mike Pence Falls Up The Steps Of Air Force Two

Vice President Mike Pence had a moment remarkably similar to President Biden’s upward slip. Pence was filmed running, then tripping, up the staircase of Air Force Two.

 

6. March 2021 – President Joe Biden trips three times on Air Force One stairs

President Joe Biden trips three times on Air Force One stairs while scaling the steps to Air Force One to Atlanta to meet with Asian-American community leaders on a massacre.

 

7. October 2023 – Senator Tommy Tuberville 

Senator Tommy Tuberville, who has previously criticised President Joe Biden for falling in public view, was mocked online after a video showing him falling down a flight of plane stairs himself went viral.

 

Alabama Republican, who at the time was coaching the University of Cincinnati football team, appeared to lose his footing after three steps and slid the rest of the way down.

 

8. Yemen 2011 – Hillary Clinton

The then-Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton, was boarding a plane to Yemen when she slipped to her knees at the doorway and was only saved from further embarrassment when an aide gave her a helping hand.