A recent report by Burson Cohn and Wolfe, BCW, a global communications agency and published by the reputable online news medium Premium Times revealed a very positive report of the numver of friends President Muhammadu Buhari has on Twitter.
The report Titled “Buhari most followed sub-saharan African leader on Twitter- Report” did not come to most Nigerians as a suprise for two strategic reasons.
Firstly, president Buhari’s credentials as a selfless, transparent, patriotic and accountable leader.
Secondly, President Buhari’s media team ably led by two terms each as Presidentsm of the Nigeria Guild of Editors, NGE in the persons of Femi Adesina and Garba Shehu.
The dual reasons have no doubt put President Buhari at an advantaged position that easily made him the African leader with the most followers on Twitter.
It is therefore not a matter for debate why and how President Buhari is leading his colleagues in having more Twitter followers.
According to the study by BCW in its newly released 2020 Twiplomacy findings, President Buhari, with 3, 121, 169 is ahead of the President of Rwanda, Paul Kigame with 1, 910, 159 Twitter followers.
President Cyril Pamaohosa of South Africa came third with 1, 386,849 followers. He has shown significant growth of followers over the last one year.
The report showed that President Donald Trump of the United States of America is the most widely followed world leader on Twitter with 81.1 million followers.
Other world leaders with significant Twitter followership include India’s Prime Minister, Narendra Modi; France’s Emmanuel Macron; Pope Francis and Spanish Prime Minister, Pedro Sanchez, among others.
It is interesting that BCW’s Twiplomacy also noted that Coronavirus, aka Covid 19, was the most tweeted topic by world leaders in 2020.
Even in Nigeria the traditional, print, electronic and social media, among other means of communication, have been dominated by stories, commentaries, analyses, discussions, updates and protocols by all manner people and professionals about Covid 19 for the past 6 months.
It is therefore gratifying that under PMB, Nigeria is not only enjoying support from the international community to put it back on track after a wasted 16 years of maladministration by the last PDP government, but also recognising its leader’s visible presence for good on Twitter.