Draft:Fredrick O. Nwabufo

Fredrick Okechukwu Nwabufo is the senior special assistant on public engagement to President Bola Ahmed Tinubu. He was appointed by the president and Commander-in-chief of the Federal Republic of Nigeria on Monday the 9th of October 2023. He served in the public affairs directorate of the All Progressives Congress (APC) Presidential Campaign Council (PCC)  for the 2023 presidential elections in Nigeria won by his candidate.

Before his foray into politics, the Nigerian journalist was at different times between April 2014 and August 2022 the Federal Capital Territory bureau chief and deputy editor at TheCable. He branched out briefly in September 2018 to co-partner on the launch of TheDetail online newspaper and in October 2022, founded TheLink NG. Headquartered in Abuja, he was the news platform and media company's chief executive officer until he resigned in 2023 upon his appointment.



Career
The former publisher and chief executive began his career in journalism as the editor of "Ekiti Corper" magazine. The official publication of individuals who have completed undergraduate studies - deployed to Ekiti State for the mandatory one-year National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) program. Nwabufo went into full-time journalism with radio broadcasting as a newscaster and presenter of an urban radio where he anchored topical and entertainment news. He was the producer and anchor of an acclaimed radio talk show "Straight Talk" which aired on Fridays. He was also a former editor of The News Chronicle, Aso Villa, Abuja. In 2014, he joined TheCable and until 2022 led in roles as the news platform's FCT bureau chief and deputy editor before launching out to start his news media company TheLinkNG.

In the course of his journalistic career, he has written and continues to write articles across print and new-age media mediums. He has appeared on programs and platforms like Newsday on The BBC World News Service, London; AIT, Silverbird TV; TVC, ITV, etc. Nwabufo has also conducted high-profile interviews like the sit-down with President Muhammadu Buhari in the run-up to the 2015 elections in Nigeria and the Nobel Laureate, Malala Yousafzai regarding girl child education advocacy in 2017.