Lere Olayinka, the official spokesperson of the Minister of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Nyesom Wike, has revealed that he earns an average of N400,000 monthly from the social media platform X (formerly known as Twitter).
Olayinka disclosed this in a post shared on his Facebook page on Sunday in a veiled defence of the First Lady Mrs Remi Tinubu’s recent message to Nigerian women to venture into small-scale businesses of frying akara and roasting corn to survive.
According to him, he was an early advocate of using social media platforms for information dissemination, recalling a conversation he had with a journalist colleague in 2011.
He wrote, “In 2011, I mentioned Facebook to a journalist friend in Ado Ekiti. He was Director of Media of a political party then and I told him he can be writing Press Releases and post on Facebook instead of waiting for money to give to journalists to publish in newspapers.”
Olayinka said the journalist, however, dismissed the idea at the time.
“He looked at me and responded MOCKINGLY, ‘I am not a Facebook Journalist.’”
The FCT minister’s aide said the perception of social media journalism has since changed significantly.
“I am sure that today, he knows better,” he added.
Highlighting the impact of social media on his career, Olayinka noted that digital platforms contributed immensely to his success as a journalist.
“Whatever I have become as a journalist, Social Media contributed hugely to it,” he said.
He further disclosed that despite currently serving as a political office holder, he still generates monthly income from content posted on X.
“As a political office holder, I still earn average of N400k from X (Twitter) per month,” Olayinka stated.
