Tolu Ogunlesi, a Nigerian presidential aide who handles President Muhammadu Buhari’s social media accounts has drawn the ire of Nigerians on social media after labelling citizens who criticised the President Buhari’s viral photograph with Naomi Campbell as “animals.”
“Naomi Campbell met Nelson Mandela more than once. He hugged her, called her his “honorary granddaughter”. She visits Nigeria for a fashion festival and meets President @MBuhari, and some of you animals are slandering her,” Tolu Ogunlesi said on Twitter Friday, and further emphasised that: “YOU’RE RAVING MAD WITH NOBODY TO TELL YOU”, Mr. Ogunlesi tweeted.
President Buhari on Friday morning met with Ms. Campbell, a British supermodel, on an inspection tour of the Eko Atlantic real estate project in Lagos. The assessment was part of the president’s visit to Lagos for the 66th birthday events of Bola Tinubu.
The State House immediately posted images of President Buhari’s encounter with Ms. Campbell on Twitter at noon Friday, in one of the rarest sightings of a leader widely seen as modest and conservative.
Two hours later, the model, known for her controversial involvements with African rich men, returned the recognition with a tweet, although she ambiguously described it as a “private launch.” She initially said she was invited by President Buhari, but later deleted the tweet after a tweet by Bashir Ahmad, the Personal Assistant to President Muhammadu Buhari on New Media.
For the sake of clarity, President @MBuhari didn’t invite Ms. Naomi Campbell to any event during his 2-day visit to Lagos State. They only met at the Eko Atlantic City while Mr. President was touring the project, and she requested to take photos with him.
— Bashir Ahmad (@BashirAhmaad) March 30, 2018
Ms. Campbell’s inconsistency with her deleted tweet only raised more controversy about whether the president knew the model’s history prior to the encounter.
While Ms. Campbell, 47, is based in the UK, she’s known to have been involved with rich men from Africa spanning decades.
In 1997, she met with Charles Taylor, a former Liberian warlord currently serving a long sentence for war crimes and crimes against humanity, at a parry organised by former South African President Nelson Mandela.
Taylor allegedly gave Ms. Campbell a bag that contained diamonds worth millions of dollars and believed to have been mined illegally.
When she testified in the trial of Mr. Taylor at the International Criminal Court, Ms Campbell acknowledged receiving “small, dirty-looking stones” from the former Liberian president’s staff.
The testimony earned her a worldwide ridicule.
Also, in recent years, Ms. Campbell has been rumoured to be dating Kola Aluko, a Nigerian oil dealer currently on the run for alleged fraud. The duo had been sighted cruising in Mr Aluko’s luxury yacht as well as on shopping sprees across Europe.
As Premium Times put it, “Ms. Campbell, who later said she was in Nigeria to participate at the Arise Fashion Show in Lagos, became an instant subject of partisan bickering between Mr. Buhari’s critics and supporters, with some opposition voices implying that she might have been paid for her brief appearance and photo op with the president.”
Apparently angered by the criticisms, especially against Ms. Campbell as he later stated, Mr Ogunlesi, 36, posted the controversial tweet shortly after 11:00 p.m. Friday calling Ms. Campbell’s critics “animals”.
When called out by Nigerians on social media for his very poor choice and condescending use of language unbefitting the office of a presidential aide, Mr. Ogunlesi doubled down, waxing linguistical about the dictionary meaning of the word “animal”.
“Synonyms for ‘animal’ include brute, beast, monster, savage, devil, demon, fiend, villain, barbarian, ogre, according to the Oxford Dictionary”, he tweeted.
Ogunlesi’s “animal tweet” was widely panned by social media, with many users, including a serving Senator of the opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and media mogul Senator Ben Murray Bruce lashing out at the aide for lacking the emotional rectitude expected of a presidential spokesperson.
But as outrage mounted on Saturday morning over his post, Mr. Ogunlesi attempted to retract his indiscretion, but felt short of explicitly apologising.
Mr. Ogunlesi, a journalist and social critic, was named as a special assistant to the president on new media in 2016. He has widely been seen as one of the best hands in the administration, especially given how he had managed to amass top-rated journalistic accolades within a few years in practice, including a CNN Africa Journalist of the Year laurel.
“His work largely entails coordinating government social media accounts and websites for effective and coherent communication strategy. This had seen him escape social media backlash for the most part. But recently, as the administration reels from one scandal to another, opposition voices are exhuming old tweets of Mr. Ogunlesi’s to portray him as a hypocrite”, Premium Times reports.
On Thursday, one of his tweets from 2012 in which he called former President Goodluck Jonathan a despot for the traffic gridlock that occurred when he visited Lagos was unearthed by administration’s critics to demonstrate Mr. Ogunlesi’s double standard.
See more reactions to Mr. Ogunlesi’s tweet:
I had some conversations with my Professor regarding Tolu Ogunlesi’s Animal calling saga.
His response: “Tolu is an accidental product of a failed system, who rode on the back of public accolades in his days of anti-GEJ activism in the social media”.
Damn!
— Olumuyiwa Amao (@talk2smat) March 31, 2018
Abike Dabiri called Deji an idiot on live Radio programme
Tolu Ogunlesi called Nigerians raving mad animalsThe APC South West intellectuals are under pressure to defend Buhari’s failed admin
Sophisticated attack dogs
— IKECHUKWU (@iykimo) March 31, 2018
Tolu Ogunlesi is an everlasting retard. If he likes let him write English from here to Kutuwenji, he’s an animal – a useless one.
— – jeffrey (@VillageParrot) March 31, 2018
Just so u understand, Tolu Ogunlesi is a disgrace to his kind, for him we are all animals for pointing out that it is bad optics for @NaomiCampbell to flaunt her meeting with President @MBuhari knowing what we know & u wonder why they are all living in a bubble? He will regret it
— For Thou Art With Me???????? (@kmbiamnozie) March 31, 2018
Tolu Ogunlesi always came around as a calm individual. It is sad that defending Buhari has made him to lose all reasoning.
Tolu you will need animal’s votes for your principal to continue paying you. This doesn’t look good on your resume. 2019 is already here.
— KolaDiamondLawal (@naijateddy) March 31, 2018
In a country that has values and respects its citizens, if a presidential aide like Tolu Ogunlesi calls fellow human beings “animals” for whatever reasons, he would be promptly sacked. But we are in Nigeria where… https://t.co/7BOYTeG808
— Azuka Onwuka (@BrandAzuka) March 31, 2018
That Tolu Ogunlesi who is himself a confirmed lunatic is calling Nigerians “raving mad animals” doesn’t surprise me one bit.
A madman ordinarily has no control of his faculty. I do not hold this against him. He is mad https://t.co/lhPH5YqMAr
— Solopenja (@solomonapenja) April 1, 2018
Tolu Ogunlesi has blocked over 100 people since yesterday over Miss @NaomiCampbell and @MBuhari romantic saga, he called great people of Nigeria ANIMALS on twitter, they cant withstand the seed they sowed that brought them to where they are today. Tolu Ogunlesi is the real animal pic.twitter.com/nNsA55TvAR
— BOLANLE????????✍ (@bolaNLee_c) March 31, 2018
Tolu Ogunlesi, an average individual, with very mean achievement and no known record of public service called Nigerians ANIMALs for exposing his Principal’s crude lies.
Tolu was born in 1982, but he cld insult folks old enough to be his grandparents.
That is what POWER does!
— Olumuyiwa Amao (@talk2smat) March 31, 2018
@MBuhari refuses to fire people, but for what @toluogunlesi said in his capacity as a public servant about Nigerians (he serves) being animals, he deserves to be fired immediately. Such language is unbecoming and innapropriate.
— Mr. Aye Dee (@MrAyeDee) March 31, 2018
The APC Overlords including Tolu Ogunlesi abused the hell out of Jonthan and his wife. Nothing was spared. I don’t favour such dirty tactics, but don’t come and sound sanctimonious over the Campbell and Buhari issue.
— Nnamdi Anekwe-Chive (@nnamdianekwe) March 31, 2018
Tolu Ogunlesi is a Dan Blocker. He should win the award of the greatest blocker in Nigerian Twitter. Ironical for a communications aide to the President! pic.twitter.com/5fppifsnPC
— Olaudah Equiano® (@Uruokpala) April 1, 2018
_________
Follow us on Twitter at @thesignalng
Copyright 2018 SIGNAL. Permission to use portions of this article is granted provided appropriate credits are given to www.signalng.com and other relevant sources.
