Laolu Akande

He is currently the Editor in Chief of Empowered Newswire and the Host of the popular Inside Sources with Laolu Akande on Channels TV, Nigeria.

[1][2][3][4] Before he was named Vice Presidential Spokesperson, Akande was reporting for Empowered Newswire, a US-based news agency which he had founded in New York.

He has also interviewed eminent personalities, including Billionaire Bill Gates in New York on different occasions ahead of his annual philanthropy report; current US President Donald Trump for a Newsday story on how a staff of his organization saved a suicidal woman who jumped into the Hudson; former US Secretary of States, Colin Powell, at the United Nations Headquarters in New York after he addressed a donors’ conference on Liberia; and Nobel Laureate Professor Wole Soyinka.

That interview led to Soyinka's eventual exile after Nigeria's military rulers then in power declared him wanted for his pro-democracy views.

He lived seventeen straight years in the United States and has travelled to several other countries in Europe and Africa on different journalism assignments, including the UNESCO General Conference in Paris, France.

[12] He also worked as a media consultant for the enunciation and implementation of a Communications and Advocacy Campaign strategy for the New Partnership for Africa's Development, NEPAD.