Tolu-Ogunlesi

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.

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”.

This guy might as well start his outcome prediction startup: TB Joshua for Android.

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.

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It turns out that the “sauces” were right, after all.

Osarumen Osamuyi Author

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