Oh Linda Ikeji! Why hast thou birthed monumental plagiarism and then
slain the Nation’s reportage with the nauseating stench of your online,
professional misconduct?
From the inceptive conception of weblog – contemporary version of
journalism - to when it started to garner contending popularity in
Nigeria, you have been the only one winning the war on perfecting
plagiarism and piracy. You are the only one revelling on the fortunate
bounty of online illegality.
The truth be told, Linda Ifeoma Ikeji is the ‘numero uno’ of Bloggers in Nigeria; she is the cynosure and criterion of the Nigerian blogosphere in the sight of the World as much as the Jay Z of the blogging community.
Just like the CNN of the United States and the BBC of the United Kingdom, Lindaikeji.blogspot.com (LIB) is indubitably a household name in Nigeria.
LIB is collectively like the two sides of a coin: the good news about Linda’s success is that the Forbes ranked most successful Nigerian blogger, who attracts an alarming influx of audiences on daily basis, has really gone a long way in carving her appellation indelibly as Nigeria’s number one blogger; however, the bad news is that she went the wrong way in portraying the illustrious standard of journalism in the world’s most populous black Nation as most of her articles have been found to be tainted in plagiarism.
It is a known fact and one that has stirred several conflicts in the country’s ‘ever-pulsating’ blogging community as reputable Nigerians, who are conversant with the internet, have accused LIB of either publishing articles that are plagiarised, baseless or highly scandalous.
On October 8, 2014, LindaIkeji’s blog was shut down by her service provider, Google for undisclosed reasons. It was then restored on October 10, 2014.
Apparently, the rationale behind the closure might not be unconnected to her chronic indictment to the use of several authors’ hard earned materials without getting getting permission from them or crediting them accordingly.
Reacting to the closure of her blog, Mr. Kola Ogunlade, a Google correspondent, said: "We take violations of policies very seriously as such activities diminish the experience for our users. When we are notified of the existence of content that may violate our Terms of Service, we act quickly to review it and determine whether it actually violates our policies. If we determine that it does, we remove it immediately."
It is seemingly a pathetic breakthrough for African journalism as several international pundits and onlookers have relied on such blogs (her blog) for a broad definition of regional reports within this geographical ambit.
LIB has deviated from the basics, ethics and rudimentary necessities of reportage and has delved into malevolent and maladroit journalism, with the sole aim to promote social media ruckus and imbroglio.
Infamously known as ‘Nigeria's Queen of Blogging’, Linda Ikeji’s blog strikes a chord as a genuine contender for the World’s best ‘copy and paste’ blog of the year – I think she merits a Grammy or better still any well recognised award for that.
I would also not be astounded if she is nominated as one of the top 10 lifter of materials ‘word for word’ from other website for the past 10 years, for LIB is notoriously known to tiptoe into other websites with the untoward aim of obtaining information she knows little or nothing about, and then claiming the stolen information – with her watermark or seal - brazenly.
She needs to be adorned with a sobriquet of grand-travesty to show for her immense contribution to copyright infringement and content piracy.
She is synonymously a religious high priestess, who has succeeded to guile her lackeys and staunch followers to always read from her platform of interesting balderdash.
Just like a shaman, Aunty Linda is nothing but a false god.
LIB is the apex predacious bugaboo in the food chain of Nigeria’s blogosphere, who buffets on the hard earned materials of her prey - several authors - in other to satisfy her unsavoury lust for unprecedented fame through a well-processed shenanigan.
LIB is overly submerged in the ocean of ‘weblog lifting’; she barely knows she is a culprit. She seeks for instant gratification, while peddling her gossips, without painstaking effort.
She is bankrupt to invention and creativity.
Linda is doggedly unapologetic to angst-ridden outcry of resentment when carrying out her poignant ‘faux pas’, as she believes the country’s blogging community is a laissez-faire; a global village where she can do whatever she likes and go scot-free.
She is never bereft of provocative stardom as her rare breed of crafty ingenuity draws a thin line between joyous flippancy and ruthless precision, which then embellishes the mark of the Midas touch in her to wreck more chaos in the country’s blogging community.
Linda wakes up every morning to serve a section of the celebrated members of the society with the gifts of pain, misery and agony as she believes she has been decorated with the prerogatives to braggadocio and the bragging rights to approve and veto.
She is not just an online criminal, but a debased misanthrope, who feels most alive when disparaging other humans. But this time, the exported jibes point at her.
Beneath the veneer of what she calls professional journalism lays acrimonious schadenfreude.
LIB is a haughty demagogue, who is quick to rabble-rouse a social media commotion, quicker to want to prove the outcome of her professional curiosity as being right, quickest to emotionalise the whole situation by introducing gender prejudice or partiality with phrase like ‘I went as far as I did for me and for other women.’
Even when Linda tries to defend the interest of women, we all know she does it only with ulterior motives. Permit me to use the ‘ugly sighted’ scenario, where the Olomofin brothers publicly mortified Beat FM OAP Gbemi Olateru-Olagbebi with profanity-filled Instagram posts. Linda’s reaction (via her blog) betrayed the solemn pledge she made to always stand for womanhood.
Just recently, I was skimming through the accounts of popular Nigerians on Twitter and Linda Ikeji, with more than 1 million followers is the most popular Nigerian with an unverified account.
Allegorically, it means that the social networking service has not yet acknowledged her incredible impact in the Nigerian blogosphere. I mulled over repeatedly on why Twitter did not recognize Aunty Linda even when she had met all the necessary requirements; knowing well that she commands droves of parody accounts.
It might not be unrelated to the fact that she has been perceived to be a Quasi-celebrity who has had an extensive career in promoting public nuisance.
The only mania comprehendible to the millions of Naira Linda ‘chop money’ has garnered from blogging is her proclivity to controversies and scandals about basic celebrities.
As a side-celebrity or perhaps a quasi-celebrity, LIB has the special knack to eavesdrop into celebrities’ privacy to get reports that are merely figment and restrained of veracity, or perhaps beautified in calumny; one meant to dishonour and question the credibility of the public figure.
Not long ago, an old vendetta was triggered between she and Wizkid which later developed into a full-blown, heated war of words.
Linda had on Instagram posted that the Landlady of the Lekki home, which Wizkid claimed to have purchased, gave him a notice to quit, arguing further that the Porsche bought by the ‘Ojuelegba’ crooner was on hire purchase. Not still satisfied, she said he was more than 25 years, an age he claimed to be.
The outcome of the domestic drama was nothing short of shame and infamy as morally inexcusable words were traded openly to the delight of netizens around the world.
Aunty Linda’s odious courtesy is a real oddity as she has continuously amassed odium and foes.
She has in the past years earned notoriety with scandalous publications on celebrities such as Tonto Dike, Funke Akindele, Toke Makinwa, Richard Mofe Damijo, Pastor Chris Okotie, and then not on friendly terms with the likes of Jim Iyke (her alleged former boyfriend), Olamide, Wizkid, 9ice, Tony Payne among others.
It will be recalled in 2013, the founder and general overseer of the Household of God Church, Pastor Chris Okotie, was peeved by the unpleasant taste of Linda’s gossip on him, where she accused him of endorsing tattoos for Christians.
Addressing the false publication, Rev Chris said: “As you read this, a causal remark made by Rev Okotie in response to a parishioner’s question on the propriety of Christians having tattoos was twisted to portray the man of God as endorsing the untoward practice.
“One Linda Ikeji used her blog to promote this falsehood when a refutal was sent to her, she refused to publish it because invariably it would call to question the credibility of her medium which enjoys considerable following because it is one of those mills whose offering is consumed by the gullible public. “
“In a craze to stay popular on the web and maintain a huge following, bloggers like this often do not bother to ascertain the veracity of stories before publishing. “
“They get away with this professional misconduct because they are not bound by any ethical standard; all they care about is money made from inflicting untold injuries on the integrity of credible citizens. This is the down side of the social media.”
“But ultimately, purveyors of falsehood do not last because conscience is an open wound that only truth can heal. You may fool the people some of the time but you cannot fool them all the time.”
“One day monkey will go to the market and will not return, is a local adage. That should be the consolations for victims of the social media mob like Okotie and others who are suffering in silence. The days of the jackals are surely numbered.”
What interested me most in this quoted statement by the charismatic Man of God was the aspect he spoke about “Linda getting away with the professional misconduct because they are not bound by any ethical standard”.
Indeed, he was right as no effective, ethical standard or stringent law bind copyrights infringement and content piracy in Nigeria.
I think there is a need for the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) to check and scrutinise the activities of bloggers of nowadays, who have found a new line of vocation to purvey gossips and peddle ‘unconfirmed’ hate speech, and then treat those culpable as criminals.
Quite a lot of us have been victims of this tragic breakthrough, but whenever the country’s premier anti-graft agency is ready to wield the interrogative hammer, please do start with Aunty Linda, the ‘Mother of Plagiarism’.
Meanwhile, Reverend Chris Okotie has served you (Linda) with a strong-worded caution, “one day monkey will go to the market and will not return.”
The truth be told, Linda Ifeoma Ikeji is the ‘numero uno’ of Bloggers in Nigeria; she is the cynosure and criterion of the Nigerian blogosphere in the sight of the World as much as the Jay Z of the blogging community.
Just like the CNN of the United States and the BBC of the United Kingdom, Lindaikeji.blogspot.com (LIB) is indubitably a household name in Nigeria.
LIB is collectively like the two sides of a coin: the good news about Linda’s success is that the Forbes ranked most successful Nigerian blogger, who attracts an alarming influx of audiences on daily basis, has really gone a long way in carving her appellation indelibly as Nigeria’s number one blogger; however, the bad news is that she went the wrong way in portraying the illustrious standard of journalism in the world’s most populous black Nation as most of her articles have been found to be tainted in plagiarism.
It is a known fact and one that has stirred several conflicts in the country’s ‘ever-pulsating’ blogging community as reputable Nigerians, who are conversant with the internet, have accused LIB of either publishing articles that are plagiarised, baseless or highly scandalous.
On October 8, 2014, LindaIkeji’s blog was shut down by her service provider, Google for undisclosed reasons. It was then restored on October 10, 2014.
Apparently, the rationale behind the closure might not be unconnected to her chronic indictment to the use of several authors’ hard earned materials without getting getting permission from them or crediting them accordingly.
Reacting to the closure of her blog, Mr. Kola Ogunlade, a Google correspondent, said: "We take violations of policies very seriously as such activities diminish the experience for our users. When we are notified of the existence of content that may violate our Terms of Service, we act quickly to review it and determine whether it actually violates our policies. If we determine that it does, we remove it immediately."
It is seemingly a pathetic breakthrough for African journalism as several international pundits and onlookers have relied on such blogs (her blog) for a broad definition of regional reports within this geographical ambit.
LIB has deviated from the basics, ethics and rudimentary necessities of reportage and has delved into malevolent and maladroit journalism, with the sole aim to promote social media ruckus and imbroglio.
Infamously known as ‘Nigeria's Queen of Blogging’, Linda Ikeji’s blog strikes a chord as a genuine contender for the World’s best ‘copy and paste’ blog of the year – I think she merits a Grammy or better still any well recognised award for that.
I would also not be astounded if she is nominated as one of the top 10 lifter of materials ‘word for word’ from other website for the past 10 years, for LIB is notoriously known to tiptoe into other websites with the untoward aim of obtaining information she knows little or nothing about, and then claiming the stolen information – with her watermark or seal - brazenly.
She needs to be adorned with a sobriquet of grand-travesty to show for her immense contribution to copyright infringement and content piracy.
She is synonymously a religious high priestess, who has succeeded to guile her lackeys and staunch followers to always read from her platform of interesting balderdash.
Just like a shaman, Aunty Linda is nothing but a false god.
LIB is the apex predacious bugaboo in the food chain of Nigeria’s blogosphere, who buffets on the hard earned materials of her prey - several authors - in other to satisfy her unsavoury lust for unprecedented fame through a well-processed shenanigan.
LIB is overly submerged in the ocean of ‘weblog lifting’; she barely knows she is a culprit. She seeks for instant gratification, while peddling her gossips, without painstaking effort.
She is bankrupt to invention and creativity.
Linda is doggedly unapologetic to angst-ridden outcry of resentment when carrying out her poignant ‘faux pas’, as she believes the country’s blogging community is a laissez-faire; a global village where she can do whatever she likes and go scot-free.
She is never bereft of provocative stardom as her rare breed of crafty ingenuity draws a thin line between joyous flippancy and ruthless precision, which then embellishes the mark of the Midas touch in her to wreck more chaos in the country’s blogging community.
Linda wakes up every morning to serve a section of the celebrated members of the society with the gifts of pain, misery and agony as she believes she has been decorated with the prerogatives to braggadocio and the bragging rights to approve and veto.
She is not just an online criminal, but a debased misanthrope, who feels most alive when disparaging other humans. But this time, the exported jibes point at her.
Beneath the veneer of what she calls professional journalism lays acrimonious schadenfreude.
LIB is a haughty demagogue, who is quick to rabble-rouse a social media commotion, quicker to want to prove the outcome of her professional curiosity as being right, quickest to emotionalise the whole situation by introducing gender prejudice or partiality with phrase like ‘I went as far as I did for me and for other women.’
Even when Linda tries to defend the interest of women, we all know she does it only with ulterior motives. Permit me to use the ‘ugly sighted’ scenario, where the Olomofin brothers publicly mortified Beat FM OAP Gbemi Olateru-Olagbebi with profanity-filled Instagram posts. Linda’s reaction (via her blog) betrayed the solemn pledge she made to always stand for womanhood.
Just recently, I was skimming through the accounts of popular Nigerians on Twitter and Linda Ikeji, with more than 1 million followers is the most popular Nigerian with an unverified account.
Allegorically, it means that the social networking service has not yet acknowledged her incredible impact in the Nigerian blogosphere. I mulled over repeatedly on why Twitter did not recognize Aunty Linda even when she had met all the necessary requirements; knowing well that she commands droves of parody accounts.
It might not be unrelated to the fact that she has been perceived to be a Quasi-celebrity who has had an extensive career in promoting public nuisance.
The only mania comprehendible to the millions of Naira Linda ‘chop money’ has garnered from blogging is her proclivity to controversies and scandals about basic celebrities.
As a side-celebrity or perhaps a quasi-celebrity, LIB has the special knack to eavesdrop into celebrities’ privacy to get reports that are merely figment and restrained of veracity, or perhaps beautified in calumny; one meant to dishonour and question the credibility of the public figure.
Not long ago, an old vendetta was triggered between she and Wizkid which later developed into a full-blown, heated war of words.
Linda had on Instagram posted that the Landlady of the Lekki home, which Wizkid claimed to have purchased, gave him a notice to quit, arguing further that the Porsche bought by the ‘Ojuelegba’ crooner was on hire purchase. Not still satisfied, she said he was more than 25 years, an age he claimed to be.
The outcome of the domestic drama was nothing short of shame and infamy as morally inexcusable words were traded openly to the delight of netizens around the world.
Aunty Linda’s odious courtesy is a real oddity as she has continuously amassed odium and foes.
She has in the past years earned notoriety with scandalous publications on celebrities such as Tonto Dike, Funke Akindele, Toke Makinwa, Richard Mofe Damijo, Pastor Chris Okotie, and then not on friendly terms with the likes of Jim Iyke (her alleged former boyfriend), Olamide, Wizkid, 9ice, Tony Payne among others.
It will be recalled in 2013, the founder and general overseer of the Household of God Church, Pastor Chris Okotie, was peeved by the unpleasant taste of Linda’s gossip on him, where she accused him of endorsing tattoos for Christians.
Addressing the false publication, Rev Chris said: “As you read this, a causal remark made by Rev Okotie in response to a parishioner’s question on the propriety of Christians having tattoos was twisted to portray the man of God as endorsing the untoward practice.
“One Linda Ikeji used her blog to promote this falsehood when a refutal was sent to her, she refused to publish it because invariably it would call to question the credibility of her medium which enjoys considerable following because it is one of those mills whose offering is consumed by the gullible public. “
“In a craze to stay popular on the web and maintain a huge following, bloggers like this often do not bother to ascertain the veracity of stories before publishing. “
“They get away with this professional misconduct because they are not bound by any ethical standard; all they care about is money made from inflicting untold injuries on the integrity of credible citizens. This is the down side of the social media.”
“But ultimately, purveyors of falsehood do not last because conscience is an open wound that only truth can heal. You may fool the people some of the time but you cannot fool them all the time.”
“One day monkey will go to the market and will not return, is a local adage. That should be the consolations for victims of the social media mob like Okotie and others who are suffering in silence. The days of the jackals are surely numbered.”
What interested me most in this quoted statement by the charismatic Man of God was the aspect he spoke about “Linda getting away with the professional misconduct because they are not bound by any ethical standard”.
Indeed, he was right as no effective, ethical standard or stringent law bind copyrights infringement and content piracy in Nigeria.
I think there is a need for the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) to check and scrutinise the activities of bloggers of nowadays, who have found a new line of vocation to purvey gossips and peddle ‘unconfirmed’ hate speech, and then treat those culpable as criminals.
Quite a lot of us have been victims of this tragic breakthrough, but whenever the country’s premier anti-graft agency is ready to wield the interrogative hammer, please do start with Aunty Linda, the ‘Mother of Plagiarism’.
Meanwhile, Reverend Chris Okotie has served you (Linda) with a strong-worded caution, “one day monkey will go to the market and will not return.”
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