Nigeria, Jan. 28 -- By the time reports emerged on Tuesday that President Bola Ahmed Tinubu had briefly missed a step during a welcome ceremony in Ankara, Turkey, Nigeria's political ecosystem had already reverted to a regrettably familiar script: converting a harmless human moment into a crude political weapon. Within hours, a minor incident, one that should have merited no more than a passing mention, was inflated into a carnival of mockery, conjecture, and ill-disguised hostility parading as opposition analysis.

Let us be clear, without pretense or manufactured outrage: the President is human. He stumbled momentarily. He did not collapse. He did not withdraw from his duties. He did not truncate his schedule. He regained his footing a...