Some media personalities for strategic reasons have to remain anonymous for them to do their job more effectively. For instance, Africa’s arguably best investigative journalist, Anas of Ghana goes behind a veil as his face is hidden from the public glare while his controversial works which have greatly rattled different corrupt governments precede his name and reputation. In his/her case, his anonymity is necessary for security reasons since he has stepped on so many powerful toes and there is the need to adequately protect his life and those of his loved ones.
In Nigeria, two popular blogs have anonymous owners – Instablog9ja which Linda Ikeji once erroneously said was owned by John Abayomi, a former online Editor with Vanguard and Punch to which she later recanted and apologized, and Gistlover.


Nobody really knows who owns Gistlover and the blog is a huge poodle for fish market gossip and to use the words of Prof Wole Soyinka – a ghetto tract. They frequently spew out gibberish aimed at tarnishing the image of popular personalities all in their sinister and morbid bid to drive traffic to their gutter-like platform.

My last piece on Gistlover was seen by the toxic blog as an attack from politicians. I was even accused of being sent by the government.


What these blogs do is latch on the popular social trends and tell people what they need to hear or read: play on the minds of the people, especially on the perceived misgivings against the government, to give themselves a sort of legitimacy. To appear to be on the side of the masses.

What Gistlover blog and other toxic blogs do is add a half-truth, and mix it with dozens of lies to drive a certain narrative to feed the minds of its ever-pliable and gullible followers.
The followers, oblivious of the damage the blog has done/is doing to their psyche, are being entertained daily with what they called gists laced with ‘vawulence’.

Little did they know their minds are being towed to become dark, only if they know.
Blogs like Gistlover are popular because we edge them on due to our penchant for gossip and news that do not add positive energy to our minds.


The blog has over the years displaced Instablog9ja, another faceless Instagram blog but it has come with more bile than the latter.
The blog had some months back released a list of actresses purported to have dated Pastor Johnson Suleiman in the past and present. Names like veterans, Ngozi Ezeonu, Omotola Jalade, Lilian Bach, Shan George, and actresses like Iyabo Ojo, Mercy Johnson, Anita Joseph, Ini Edo, Ruth Kadiri, Nengi, and many others made the list.


The blog goes further to assert categorically that the listed actress dated him, with some of them having spiritual issues after that.
The associated reaction of its followers was to go to the pages of these celebrities to bully them, leading to some of them locking their comment sections.


Some have come out to debunk the allegation, and some kept mum but the social media mob does not want to hear of that;
Gistlover is always right!


Even if the allegations are not proven, it is true so far Vawulence Headquarters had said it.
The society is encouraging anonymous, faceless blogs like Gistlover to run riot without caution, giving it the power to unilaterally defame, and malign people at will without recourse to a fair hearing.


The blog has arrogated itself the moral compass to determine what is right, the behaviors expected of people et al.
The blog has over the years replaced critical fair reportage with a mixture of conjectures, falsehood, and little correct information about its target.


To some people, it is their daily dose of news tonic.
The blog is one of the nemeses of 21st-century social media and must be stopped before it ingrains into the minds of the average youth the culture of Bilic wokeism.


The culture of such destructive journalism isn’t new in the country and precedes the internet age. The older especially the baby boomer generation will recall the presence of Prime People in the mid-1980 which took the nation by storm. It was published by veteran journalist Muyiwa Adetiba former Sunday Editor of Punch and later Pioneer Editor of the Vanguard. It was so popular that it sold well over two hundred thousand copies every week and it was the hard-copy clone of Gistlover for its stories which were soft-sell-like in nature.

After a disagreement between Adetiba and his investors, he went solo to found Vintage People which was an even greater success before its surprise demise in the 1990s. These two magazines were the tonic that led to Seye Kehinde berthing City People in 1996 that was a thorn in the flesh of the elite whose peccadilloes real or imagined were regularly exposed before the era of social and the new media arrived which saw its displacement with Gistlover and Instablog9ja.


The damage done by Gistlover has made it imperative to regulate the social media space so as to adequately protect the interests of the members of the public who have the right not to have their minds polluted by salacious gossip laced with outright lies and impudent half-truths.


For starters, the identity or identities of the owners of Gistlover should be known so that they can be sued for libel. Their anonymity is against public interest as they have caused untold damage to the lives of many Nigerians, especially the elite.

I also advise that the website be permanently pulled down in national interest given the incalculable damage it has done to many prominent members of our society who have been reduced to mere laughing stocks by people who ought to emulate them.

Enough is Enough!


Ayoola Faseyi
Abuja, Nigeria.