For years, anyone who spent time on Nigerian social media knew the name Instablog9ja, but almost nobody knew the face behind it. The account broke stories, stirred controversies, shaped conversations, and grew into one of the most followed media pages in Nigeria without ever revealing who was running it. The anonymity was clearly intentional and it worked beautifully for a long time.
That curtain has since been pulled back. The man behind Instablog9ja is John Abayomi Aruleba, a trained journalist, new media specialist, and digital strategist whose professional background explains exactly why the blog became what it is. This article covers everything known about John Abayomi Aruleba, the story of how his identity was revealed, and the platform he built into a Nigerian media institution.
Who Is John Abayomi Aruleba?
John Abayomi Aruleba is the founder and owner of Instablog9ja, arguably Nigeria’s most successful news handle on Instagram. John hails from Ogun State, Nigeria.
He is not a random internet personality who stumbled onto a viral formula. John Abayomi Aruleba is a credentialed media professional who spent years working inside some of Nigeria’s most respected newsrooms before quietly building his own platform on the side.
He is a social media strategist, creative content developer, documentary producer, and SEO expert. That is a combination that practically explains the Instablog9ja success story all by itself. A man with formal journalism training, years of hands-on newsroom experience, and a deep understanding of how digital content travels on social platforms was always going to build something significant.
John Abayomi Aruleba’s Education
The educational background behind John Abayomi Aruleba is one of the most impressive parts of his story.
John is a 2002 graduate of University of Agriculture, Abeokuta (UNAAB) and has a Master’s Degree in New Media and Society, Communication and Media Studies from the University of Leicester, UK, in 2014. He also holds an international Broadcast Presentation certificate and Broadcast Journalism certification from Radio Nigeria training school, Lagos.
The University of Leicester is one of the United Kingdom’s leading research universities. A Master’s degree in New Media and Society from that institution in 2014, when Instagram was still a relatively young platform and most Nigerian media organisations were barely thinking about digital-first strategy, was a prescient qualification. He came back to Nigeria with precisely the theoretical framework needed to understand how online information spread and how audiences behaved on digital platforms.
Combined with his broadcast journalism training from Radio Nigeria, John Abayomi Aruleba entered the media space with both the academic understanding and the practical communication skills to succeed. His formal training laid the foundation for everything Instablog9ja would eventually become.
John Abayomi Aruleba’s Career Before Instablog9ja
Before he was known as the force behind Nigeria’s biggest Instagram news blog, John Abayomi Aruleba was building a serious career in Nigerian journalism.
From 2005 to 2016, John Abayomi worked as an online news editor at Nigeria’s leading newspaper website, Vanguard Media Limited. While working at Vanguard, John implemented a 24-hour update of news and other content. He integrated and implemented social media strategy on Facebook, Twitter, and Google Plus. He designed and implemented interactive multimedia coverage of Nigeria’s 2011 general elections.
Think about that career arc for a moment. He was implementing social media strategy for a major Nigerian news organisation when most media houses in Nigeria were still treating social media as an afterthought. He was building 24-hour digital news operations and designing multimedia election coverage. Every skill he developed in that newsroom would later become a tool he used to grow Instablog9ja.
After his time at Vanguard, John moved on to become the online editor of Punch Newspapers, one of Nigeria’s most widely read and respected dailies. His trajectory was that of a professional ascending within Nigeria’s media industry. Meanwhile, behind the scenes, Instablog9ja was quietly growing into something the industry itself had not seen before.
What Is Instablog9ja?
Instablog9ja broke into the media scene in 2015 alongside many other blogs but is widely considered the most successful news blog on Instagram. The blog is also known for digging out rumours and putting the spotlight on stories that others may pass over.
Where most Nigerian blogs operate primarily through a website and use social media to share links, Instablog9ja was built natively on Instagram. The content was designed for the Instagram feed from the beginning. It met people where they already were rather than trying to redirect them somewhere else. That strategic insight, that social media native thinking, is exactly what you would expect from someone with John Abayomi Aruleba’s background in digital media strategy.
As of 2025, Instablog9ja has over 7 million followers on Instagram and has made over 125,000 posts. Seven million followers on a single Instagram account makes it one of the most followed media pages in Africa, and certainly the most followed news-focused Instagram account in Nigeria by a significant margin.
The account covers everything from celebrity news and Nollywood gossip to political developments, social commentary, and crime reports. Its mixture of serious news and entertainment content mirrors how Nigerians actually consume information, across all categories simultaneously rather than segmented by topic.
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How John Abayomi Aruleba’s Identity Was Revealed
The story of how the Instablog9ja owner’s identity became public is itself a piece of notable Nigerian media history.
In an article on Linda Ikeji’s Blog titled “LIB Exclusive: Meet the Owner of Instablog9ja” published on November 15, 2018, John Abayomi, who worked at Punch Newspaper, was mistakenly identified by his picture as the owner of Instablog9ja.
The original story caused an immediate uproar. Celebrities including Davido publicly reacted, and the man wrongly identified, John Abayomi of Punch Newspapers, suddenly found himself at the center of a controversy he had nothing to do with. The public backlash against the named individual was swift and significant.
In a recent development, LIB apologised to the Punch editor for the inconvenience caused and retracted the story, clarifying that the real owner was John Abayomi Aruleba. The blog also apologised for the mix-up, explaining it was the result of similarity in the names.
Linda Ikeji’s Blog stated in its retraction: “This mistake was as a result of the exact similarities in the names of John Abayomi who is an Online Editor with Punch and another John Abayomi Aruleba who is the actual owner of Instablog9ja. The picture identification mistake from our staff was sadly as a result of the uncanny yet not uncommon similarities in the names of these two individuals. LIB is happy to set the record straight, take full responsibility for the mix-up and we tender our unreserved apology to John Abayomi of Punch Newspapers for any inconvenience this mistake has caused.”
The correction also confirmed something else that has since become part of the Instablog9ja story.
John Abayomi Aruleba’s Business Partner: Tosin Dotun Adeyemi
The fact remains that John Abayomi Aruleba runs Instablog9ja with his partner, Tosin Dotun Adeyemi.
Beyond this confirmation, Tosin Dotun Adeyemi has maintained an equally low public profile. No detailed public information has been shared about his specific role in the operation of the platform. What is clear is that Instablog9ja, despite its massive scale, appears to have been built and sustained by a very small, focused team rather than a large content organisation.
The Family Connection
John Abayomi Aruleba shares the same business address as his father, Dr. Aruleba, the owner of Aruking Herbal Herbs, a business based in Lagos.
This detail, small as it might seem, adds a human dimension to the story of Instablog9ja. Behind one of the biggest media brands in Nigeria is a man who, at least in the early days, operated out of a space connected to his family. It is a very Nigerian entrepreneurial story, building something significant from a position that is not glamorous on the surface.
John Abayomi Aruleba is married and spends most of his time online. Very little else about his family life or personal circumstances has been made public, which is consistent with the deliberate low profile he has maintained since the platform launched.
Why Instablog9ja Succeeded: The Professional Blueprint
It is worth spending a moment understanding why Instablog9ja became what it is, because it was not accidental.
John Abayomi Aruleba came to the platform with more relevant experience than almost anyone else who was building Nigerian digital media at the time. He had spent over a decade implementing online news strategy at Vanguard. He had a postgraduate degree specifically in new media from a UK university. He had broadcast journalism training. And he clearly had a sharp instinct for what Nigerian audiences wanted to read, share, and react to.
His experience in news editing, his degree in new media and communication, and his training in broadcast journalism is what has pushed his platform Instablog9ja into the success it is today.
The decision to build Instablog9ja on Instagram rather than a traditional blog platform was strategically brilliant in hindsight. In 2015, Instagram was rapidly growing in Nigeria and the existing content on the platform from a Nigerian news perspective was almost nonexistent. John Abayomi Aruleba identified that gap, positioned himself directly in it with professional-quality news content, and grew at a rate that no traditional blog launching the same year could match.
Quick Facts at a Glance
Full Name: John Abayomi Aruleba
State of Origin: Ogun State, Nigeria
Education: Bachelor’s degree, University of Agriculture, Abeokuta (UNAAB), 2002; Master’s in New Media and Society, University of Leicester, UK, 2014; Broadcast Journalism certificate, Radio Nigeria training school, Lagos
Career: Online Editor, Vanguard Media Ltd (2005 to 2016); Online Editor, Punch Newspapers
Skills: Social media strategy, creative content development, documentary production, SEO, online news editing
Platform Founded: Instablog9ja (launched 2015)
Business Partner: Tosin Dotun Adeyemi
Father: Dr. Aruleba, owner of Aruking Herbal Herbs, Lagos
Instablog9ja Instagram Followers: Over 7 million as of 2025
Net Worth: Not publicly disclosed
Conclusion: The Man Behind the Blog
John Abayomi Aruleba built one of the most successful media brands in Nigerian digital history with almost no public profile, no press appearances, and no official company announcements. He did it the way serious professionals often do their best work: quietly, consistently, and with genuine expertise. His journalism training, his decade in Nigerian newsrooms, his postgraduate education in new media, and his instinct for what Nigerian audiences respond to all combined into a platform that seven million people now follow.
The keyword “John Abayomi Aruleba” exists because people want to know the man behind Instablog9ja. Now you do. He is a trained journalist from Ogun State who worked his way through Nigeria’s digital newsroom landscape and then built something that outgrew every platform he had previously worked for. That is a story worth knowing.
FAQs About John Abayomi Aruleba and Instablog9ja
Who is the owner of Instablog9ja? The owner of Instablog9ja is John Abayomi Aruleba, a journalist and digital media professional from Ogun State, Nigeria. He runs the platform with his business partner Tosin Dotun Adeyemi.
What is John Abayomi Aruleba’s educational background? He holds a bachelor’s degree from the University of Agriculture, Abeokuta (UNAAB), a Master’s degree in New Media and Society from the University of Leicester in the UK, and a Broadcast Journalism certificate from Radio Nigeria training school in Lagos.
Where did John Abayomi Aruleba work before Instablog9ja? He was an online news editor at Vanguard Media Limited from 2005 to 2016 and later served as an online editor at Punch Newspapers. Both roles gave him extensive experience in digital news strategy and social media integration.
When was John Abayomi Aruleba’s identity revealed? His identity became public in November 2018 when Linda Ikeji Blog published an exposé, though the initial story mistakenly named and pictured a different person, John Abayomi of Punch Newspapers, due to the similarity in names. LIB retracted the error and published a corrected article confirming John Abayomi Aruleba as the actual owner.
How many followers does Instablog9ja have? As of 2025, Instablog9ja has over 7 million followers on Instagram, making it one of the most followed news-focused social media accounts in Nigeria and Africa.
Does Instablog9ja have a website? Instablog9ja is primarily an Instagram-based platform, which is what distinguished it from traditional Nigerian blogs when it launched in 2015. The platform’s success was largely built on its native Instagram format rather than a website-first approach.
