President Muhammadu Buhari’s personal assistant on New Media, Bashir Ahmad, has explained why he did not attend the Social Media Panel organized by Enough Is Enough Nigeria, a social advocacy group, holding in Abuja from Thursday.

Mr. Bashir told PREMIUM TIMES on Thursday that he officially wrote organisers of the event that he would not be attending because it coincided with another important event he was scheduled to attend outside Abuja.

In the October 25 letter to the organisers, Mr. Bashir said, “I have an official engagement out of Abuja on that same day of the event which make it impossible for me to be at the conference and it is highly regretted.

“I look forward to working with you on future projects too”, he concluded.

One of the organisers, Yemi Adamolekun, wrote back to acknowledge receipt of Mr. Bashir’s letter.

“Thanks for informing us. It is quite unfortunate you won’t be able to join us as we were looking forward to a robust conversation about Hausa Facebook; how it’s mostly unrecognized in mainstream discussions about social media. This is particularly interesting because Facebook is a sponsor of the conference.

“We look forward to working with you on future projects.”

The Social Media Panel has generated intense interest among Nigerians on social media, particularly with the inclusion of Idris Okuneye, a Snapchat sensation also known as Bobrisky.

Mr. Okunleye has been speculated to be gay. But he flatly denied this, saying he is a “cross-dresser who spends exactly 48 minutes applying makeup for every outing.”

When it became public that Mr. Bashir would not be attending the event, it was speculated that he pulled out just as Alder Consulting, an advertising agency, to avoid being on the same stage with Mr. Okunleye because of public perception of his sexuality.

Mr. Bashir is currently attending the Kano state All Progressives Congress retreat holding in Sokoto.