Linda Ikeji, the undisputed queen of gossip and the blogosphere in Nigeria, try hard as she may is unable to escape controversy. Her name is her brands and brands pay top Naira to be affiliated with her name on www.lindaikeji.blogspot.com.
The reason for the high level of patronage Ms. Ikeji enjoys from brands is her high ranking, her blog is one of the highest viewed internet sources of information by Nigerians across the globe. According to Alexa, a respected source, Linda Ikeji is only outranked by Nairaland, Vanguard and the Punch in Nigeria.
She commands her weight in Naira as fees from brands who want to advertise in her site continue to pour in, and she has an almost cult-like following among Nigerians. University undergrads, business executives, entrepreneurs, and even manly men go to Linda Ikeji to get information and sometimes plain old gossip.
Linda Ikeji has had her share of controversy but the latest one involves Aso Rock, and some Twitter powerhouses like Mallam Nasir El-Rufai’s son who blogs under the handle @HElrufai, Omojuwa and a host of other notable personalities.
The trouble started when a Presidential Adviser on New Media, a glorified title for the President’s Facebook and Twitter guy, Pastor Reno Omokri got online, after the Yobe killings and emailed a written press release to media houses. The press release implied that ousted CBN Governor, Mallam Lamido Sanusi was a Boko Haram sponsor and stated that the frequency of Boko Haram attacks increased after Sanusi was suspended from the CBN. He authored the article with a pseudonym Wendell Simlin but was not careful enough to remove his digital signature from the MS Word document. An error that proved to be fatal in his case.
Reno was busted less than a few hours later by social media commentators and IT experts. Punch, Premium Times, Sahara Reporters and many platforms carried the story, and Reno refused to deny the allegations.
Meanwhile Linda Ikeji who usually posts trending news did not choose to publish the story on her blog and many Nigerians noticed. Some of her readers commented on other stories on her blog asking her to treat the story but she did not. Days later she published an opinion piece from Reno Omokri. In her introduction to the piece, she wrote, “Before you people start, let me explain. Lol. Yes I did see all your comments about me not getting involved in the ‘Wendell Simlin’ scandal. I didn’t write anything about it because it was an accusation which could be true or false and I just refused to be pressured. I decided to leave it alone until Mr Reno reacts to it but he never did… so…:-). Anyway, here’s another piece written by him”
Then all hell broke loose. Social media commentators including El-Rufai’s son accused her of several things. Some said she was in the pocket of the PDP. Others said she may be dating Reno Omokri.
Some of the tweets (courtesy of kemifilani.com below)
