Wizkid Still Most Followed Nigerian On Twitter

Ayo Balogun, popularly known as Wizkid, has remained the most followed Nigerian on Twitter, a position once occupied by the Founder and Senior Pastor of Christ Embassy, Pastor Chris Oyakhilome.

While Wizkid tops the list with 1.55 million followers, Oyakhilome maintains the second position with 1.36 million.

The popular pastor has not grown much on Twitter since 2013. Then, he was on top of the ladder, leading his closest rival (Wizkid) by more than 50 per cent.

In the last two years, the clergyman only gained a little over 200,000 additional fans on Twitter, while the Afro-pop singer moved up by close to a million followers.

Davido’s handle, @iam_Davido, also ‘harvested’ large followers on the site within the period, with the figure rising from 300,000 to 1.26 million.

Other entertainers that have over a million followers on the platform are D’banj (1.16 million), Don Jazzy (1.12 million), 2Face (1.07 million) and Tiwa savage with 1.03 million.

Some other stakeholders in the entertainment industry who have many followers on the social networking site, but they are yet to hit the one million mark. Such people include Peter Okoye, one half of the sensational musical group known as P-Square. He has 841,000 people on his handle, while Genevieve Nnaji, a Nollywood actress, follows with 834,000.

Basket Mouth, a standup comedian, has 776,000 followers, just as Omotola Ekeinde and Tonto Dikeh, who are both actresses, are followed by 621,000 and 559, 000 fans, respectively.

A search conducted by our correspondent on Thursday shows that entertainers have remained the most sought-after on Twitter, leading politicians and pastors by wide margins.

For instance, who would have believed that the General Overseer of The Redeemed Christian Church of God, Pastor Enoch Adeboye, is followed by just a little above 200,000 people? The figure contrasts sharply with the large population of worshippers in the church worldwide.

Adeboye’s counterpart at the Living Faith Church, David Oyedepo, has 62,400 — a number very low when compared with the size of his church.

The charismatic televangelist and Pastor of the Household of God Church International Ministries, Christ Okotie, still struggles to exceed a 2,000 mark.

Politicians are also far behind celebrities on the microblogging site. Dele Momodu, publisher of The Ovation, is the most popular politician on social media. Yet, he is not in the race for the top figure-pulling personalities on Twitter.

Perhaps what has helped him to gain a reasonable acceptance on the platform is his celebrity status and not because he is a politician. Even at that, he has just 387,000 followers.

It is “Just” because the figure does not match half of the ‘account’ of Don Jazzy, Wizkid, D’banj or 2face.

The President-elect, Muhammadu Buhari, who, understandably, joined the platform during the recent campaigns, is followed by 256,000 people.

In other parts of the world, politicians sit on top of social media tables in their respective countries. President Barack Obama, with 59.1 million followers, remains unbeaten in the United States. The British Prime Minister, David Cameron, is also in the million-follower range.

In Nigeria, Instagram, which is a photo-centric platform, is also dominated by celebrities. Most politicians and clerics are not present on the site.

However, there are indications that this trend will change in the future, as newly-elected office holders, who have seen the impact of social media during the last general elections, prepare to embrace the various platforms.

For instance, Bukola Saraki, a former Kwara State Governor and member of the Senate, had promised to increase his presence on Twitter. Pledging to keep his account active, he described the platform as the best place to “feel the pulse of Nigerians.”