TheCable

BBC Africa has withdrawn its description of Akinwumi Adesina as a “flamboyant Nigerian banker”. 

The news medium had described Adesina as flamboyant in its headline announcing his reelection as the president of the African Development Bank (AfDB) on Thursday.

The description was followed by backlash from many Nigerians who expressed their reservations on Twitter.

Subsequently, BBC Africa tweeted on Friday that the use of “flamboyant” was “absolutely unintentional”, adding that it has also corrected the description of Adesina as the AfDB “chairman” instead of “president” as written in the previous post.

It also explained that describing him as such was irrelevant to the news story.

“We have removed the description of Dr Akinwumi Adesina as ‘flamboyant’. We recognise this – absolutely unintentionally – may have caused offence, and is irrelevant to the story. We have also corrected his title to African Development Bank president,” the tweet read.

We have removed the description of Dr Akinwumi Adesina as "flamboyant". We recognise this – absolutely unintentionally – may have caused offence, and is irrelevant to the story. We have also corrected his title to African Development Bank president.https://t.co/y3EQHN4coY

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— BBC News Africa (@BBCAfrica) August 28, 2020

Adesina became the first Nigerian to be elected two-term president of the AfDB on Thursday after he was voted unopposed at the annual meeting of the bank.

A former Nigerian minister of agriculture, Adesina will start his new five-year term as AfBD president on September 1, 2020.