President Bola Tinubu’s choice of bowing down to greet elder statesman and billionaire businessman, Alhaji Aminu Dantata, while welcoming the latter to his office in Aso Rock Presidential Villa in Abuja on Tuesday, has caught the attention of one of his media aides.

Special Adviser to the President on Information and Strategy, Bayo Onanuga, said what his principal did was not by accident but a default.

Taking to his X account (formerly Twitter) shortly after the meeting and its photographs surfaced online, Onanuga described Tinubu’s action as a ‘trademark respect’ for the 93-year-old patriarch of the famous Alhassan Dantata family of Kano.

Dantata is also an uncle to Africa’s most richest man, Aliko Dangote.

Onanuga wrote: “President Bola Ahmed Tinubu showed trademark respect to Alhaji Aminu Alhassan Dantata, Chairman of Dantata Group of Companies, when the latter visited him in Abuja on Tuesday. Dantata, 93 on 19 May, is the patriarch of the Alhassan Dantata family in Kano.”

Recall that bowing one’s head when greeting someone can convey different things depending on the cultural context in which it occurs. In some cultures, bowing the head can be seen as a sign of respect, humility, or deference. In these cultures, it may be entirely appropriate and even expected as a gesture of politeness.