Buhari to Appoint Tolu Ogunlesi as Special Assistant on New Media

President Muhammadu Buhari has appointed Tolu Ogunlesi, a journalist and a social commentator, as his Special Assistant on New Media.

Officials at the presidency told news men that  Mr. Ogunlesi has undergone security screening and his appointment is to be announced soonest.

Ogunlesi is a very active Twitter user, and was clearly in favour of Mr. Buhari’s election in the 2015 general elections.

He will be the Buhari administration’s social media anchor, a role played by Reno Omokiri for former President Goodluck Jonathan.

Mr. Ogunlesi, who trained as a pharmacist, worked as Features Editor for the defunct 234NEXT newspapers. In 2009 he was awarded the Arts and Culture prize in the annual CNN Multichoice African Journalism Awards.

He won the CNN award again in 2013 in another category. He was also shortlisted for the inaugural PEN/Studzinski literary prize.

Mr. Ogulesi tweets via @toluogunlesi and has 143,000 followers.