Museveni Named Third Most Influential African Leader on Twitter

President Yoweri Museveni has been named the third most influential African leader on Twitter.

According to Twiplomacy, an international digital diplomacy and intelligence forum in their 2022 World Leader Power Ranking report with a focus on Twitter, Kenyan President William Ruto emerged as the most influential African leader on Twitter and ranked 13 worldwide with an online following of 5.6million while South Africa’s Cyril Ramaphosa came second in Africa and 18th in overall performance with a following of 2.5million people. Uganda’s Museveni is the 3rd in African ranking and 29th most influential leader in the world.

In terms of worldwide performance, the report shows that India’s President Narendra Modi is the most influential leader in the world on Twitter, followed by US president Joe Biden and Recep Erdogan of Turkey respectively.

Others in the top 10 include; Colombian leader Gustavo Petro, Jair Bolsonaro (Brazil), Nicolas Maduro (Venezuela), Volodymyr Zelenskyy (Ukraine), Justin Trudeau (Canada), Nayib Bukele (El Salvador) and Gabriel Boric (Chile).

So what determines a world leader’s success on Twitter? According to the 2022 Twiplomacy report, the criteria used to rate world leaders’ success is authenticity and accounts that portray the real and human side of leaders.

“We have discovered that engagement matters most. Online influence is no longer about followers, it is about how engaged that follower base is. This signals a shift from the popularity contest of the last decade to a more earned approach, powered by people,” the report reads.

The report adds that whereas Russia’s Vladimir Putin and China’s Xi Jinping feature prominently in diplomacy, the two world leaders were not ranked because “both nations opt for administration-run accounts on controlled platforms.”

Uganda’s Museveni is also the most followed in Uganda on Twitter with 2.9 million people. This is not the first time Museveni has earned globe recognition. In 2018, a report released by New York University Economics Professor, William Easterly and World Bank Economist Steven Pennings ranked President Museveni among the best world leaders to have had a significantly positive effect on their countries' economic growth. Museveni was ranked highly for having steered economic growth in Uganda by a record 2.42% with only a shrinkage of 0.78% since 1986.