How Wahalanetwork became Nigeria’s most trusted gossip blog

Kristen Dawodu’s Wahalanetwork has redefined Nigeria’s entertainment blogging scene with its commitment to credibility, exclusive content, and a strict gatekeeping process. — Kristen Dawodu

They say “true success is measured not by how much you win, but by how much you inspire others to raise their game.” This explains the huge influence pulled by popular entertainment gist blog, Wahalanetwork, in Nigeria.

Wahalanetwork is a news blog with massive presence on Facebook, TikTok and Instagram.Its website is consistently besieged daily by thousands of entertainment gist consumers and lovers.

Established in 2021, Wahalanetwork has brought tremendous paradigm shift to Nigeria’s entertainment blogging business. The news engine site is notably doing news coverage differently by bringing credibility and believability to the spectrum, with special focus on the local entertainment industry and local music industry. The platform feeds local gist consumers with exclusive news and content.

Its founder, Oluwagbenga Oluwafemi Dawodu, better known as Kristen Dawodu, attended King Emmanuel Primary School in Ore, Ondo State, and Hallmark Secondary School in the Sunshine State, before obtaining a bachelor’s degree in Business Administration from Tai Solarin University in Ijebu-Ode, Ogun State.

“We ensure we have evidence to back up the stories we post. Already, many of our followers know WahalaNetwork for that. Some of our followers often send messages to us to share some news, but once they have no evidence, we don’t publish them, we count such stories invalid. As long as there is no scintilla of evidence that will enable us to verify the story, we won’t post it.

“On our page, there is always evidence for every news posted. This is extremely important because we are trying to set a good example,” the Wahalanetwork Chief Executive Officer, Dawodu, explained the media company’s gatekeeping process.

“We are in an era of fake news; where stories, photos, and videos can be manipulated just to defame a target. Any serious blogger or owner of popular media needs to be careful about the content it disseminates to the public.”

Unlike the practice by some blogs in the country, Dawodu vowed that Wahalanetwork will never post nude images or videos, in line with community guidelines of social media platforms.

“Most blogs are being careful of posting nude photos or sex tapes even if it will bring a lot of traffic, because of Instagram guidelines which, once flouted, make it easy for pages to be removed. Remember, the likes of Tundeednut and Gossip Mill once had their pages removed and consequently had to start from scratch,” he said.

“I have spent a lot on my page and I have posted a lot of content. I don’t want to risk losing the page and then have to start all over again. Therefore, before we post any content, it goes through a thorough review to ascertain that it doesn’t go against Instagram guidelines.”

The founder of Wahalanetwork added: “Wahalanetwork is the blog that makes most blogs provide evidence as other slides. Wahala network also gives back to the audience often; at intervals, the blog picked followers and rewards them with funds, airtime, and sometimes posting of content for some of the content creators that are followers of the blog’s account.

“Wahalanetwork stands for credibility; several contents are not even posted because of evidence. The blog has evidence for all posts uploaded on the blog. The credibility aspect of any news is the main focus of the wahalanetwork,” he said.