Well, I already said it. Tolu Ogunlesi is the special assistant on Digital/New Media, to Nigeria’s President, Muhammadu Buhari. Spokesperson, Garba Shehu announced the appointment in a series of his trademark numbered tweets (which for some reason are never arranged in a thread). Good luck finding his tweets from a year ago.
1. President @MBuhari Thursday appointed Mr. Tolu Ogunlesi (@ToluOgunlesi) as his Special Assistant on Digital/New Media.
— Garba Shehu (@GarShehu) February 18, 2016
Okay, so why did I write this article?
Well, because this isn’t the first time we’re hearing this news. In fact, we’ve heard it multiple times, from a number of “sauces”.
Feels like I picked up the newspaper from 6 months ago. https://t.co/DSeLLiLBgn
— ִ (@xylemic) February 18, 2016
This guy might as well start his outcome prediction startup: TB Joshua for Android.
can we all agree tolu ogunlesi is Buhari's SA on new media lowks?
— Mr. Monsieur Kachi (@DiKachii) December 22, 2015
Some overzealous publications went as far as saying he “publicly rejected” the position – a position he wasn’t offered in the first place. Sigh.
I’m not surprised, though. Tolu was in the vanguard of the APC/Change/GEJOut narrative, on Twitter – the narrative that handed President Buhari the presidency on a platter (a number of Buhari’s appointments since then have been rewards for loyalty).
Well, it’s also because he’s won multiple awards, worked for the Africa Report Magazine and is a New Media Fellow of the U.S. State Department’s International Visitor Leadership Programme (IVLP). At the moment, I can think of no one better, to curate President Buhari’s image on the internet.
Tolu graduated from the University of Ibadan in 2004, and in 2011, went on to cop a Masters degree in Creative Writing, from the University of East Anglia, Norwich. He will be assisted by Bashir Ahmaad, the new personal assistant to the President on New Media.
It turns out that the “sauces” were right, after all.
