Sunday Dare, the Special Adviser to the President on Public Communication and Orientation, has taken to his official X handle, @SundayDareSD to claim that President Bola Tinubu conferred the national honour, Commander of the Order of the Niger (CON) on Narendra Modi, India’s Prime Minister.

The special adviser’s statement contradicts the Presidency’s official account and confuses the CON with the GCON (Grand Commander of the Order of the Niger).

Dare shared this claim at 4:08 pm on Monday, and at press time, it had gained over 16,000 views.

He referred to Modi’s Sunday visit to Nigeria and said Tinubu and Modi signed MoUs on culture and cooperation, customs cooperation, and survey cooperation.

Dare’s post read, “The bilateral proceeding was chaired seamlessly by President Bola Tinubu. Both Nigeria and India exchanged signed MOUs on Culture Cooperation, Customs Cooperation and Survey Cooperation. The Indian PM was decorated with an honorary national honour CON by President Bola Ahmed Tinubu.”

The post includes a 43-second video that captures Tinubu, among other things, putting a garland around his Indian counterpart’s neck.

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Sunday Dare’s X post

FIJ reviewed the presidency’s public statements and found an announcement published 24 hours before Dare’s post.

On the official Nigeria president’s X page @NGRPresident, the presidency shared a post at 4:34 pm on Sunday titled, ‘President Bola Tinubu confers GCON (Grand Commander of the Order of the Niger) honour on Prime Minister Narendra Modi’.

Attached to this post was a statement and a picture of both heads of state in a handshake pose.

Presidency’s X post

Before the presidency made its post, Modi shared the development with his over 103 million X followers some three hours earlier.

Narendra Modi’s post

Dare’s claim that the president conferred CON on Modi is misleading. The CON honour is below the Commander of the Federal Republic (CFR) and GCON honours. Being one of the president’s spokespersons, the publication could mislead members of the public.
The post Tinubu’s SA Contradicts Presidency, Confuses GCON With CON Award appeared first on Foundation For Investigative Journalism.