2018 Top 7 Hottest Trends In Nigeria Social Media...

Social media platforms; Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, and Snapchat have been deemed the wildest spots for young Nigerians. Since we sleep on social media, we must have had some wild moments. Here is a list of the wildest moments on Nigerian social media across 2018;

1. #EndSars

Nigerians have long been in the wilderness afforded by our own government to shelve criminal activity and make our streets a habitable bed for easy movement and security of lives and property across homes.

The first experiment of this kind in recent times was the Operation Sweep, introduced to Lagos by then Military Administrator Mohammed Buba Marwa, and replicated across Nigeria in split down versions; most notably as Operation Gbale in Ibadan, Oyo State.

Special Anti-Robbery Squad (SARS) got popular across the country circa 2005 and 2006, to cut the infamous wildfire of armed robbery and criminal activity across the nation. Later on, they morphed into a full-on aggressive body with a fixation on crime. The problem though; they excessively grew in power when they started chasing cultists across Universities. This then morphed into a destructive relationship with yahoo boys whom they extort.

The madness was then that erupted into an oppressive promotion of stereotypes that crucified people for their looks and properties. Then, they began tiring Nigerians, choking us till we could barely have Yahoo Messenger on our phones without fear of being harassed. We also couldn’t carry our own electronic devices without fear of being harassed.

Around September 2017, #EndSARS debuted on Twitter to eradicate the cancer a once-feared organization had become. It aimed to pile pressure on the government to close the arm of the Nigerian Police. The government, however, didn’t budge till August 2018, when Vice President Yemi Osinbajo ordered the Inspector-General of Police immediately overhaul SARS and merge into another body.

This was after prominent characters in the struggle; Segun Awosanya AKA Segalink, rap veteran, Ruggedman and bodies like new-age law practice focused on human need, Citizen Gavel, an arm of BudgIT NG joined the fight.

In a world fraught with gender wars, it was something we agreed upon.

2. Berger To Ajah

The infamous Berger to Ajah was a result of the conversations of sexual consent gone terribly awry. Necessarily, rape and consent became a big topic amongst Nigerian millennials. Against the terrible trend of entitlement from Nigerian men towards Nigerian women.

Nigerian feminist and founder of #MarketMarch , Damilola Marcus (@OmogeDami) had started a ‘call-out’ session against alleged rapists, without naming anyone when she clashed with Programmer and Influencer, Uche Daniel (@ UcheDandyMUFC ). One bad thing led to another, she called Uche out over an alleged rape another feminist, Bimbo (@B_moree).

Receipts were produced in form of chat history from two years prior to that. The ‘rapist’ narrative had started thriving against Uche, with a significant chunk of Twitter celebrating his ‘fall,’ when he produced a raft of receipts of his own; chat history to share his own side of the story.

The infamous ‘Berger to Ajah’ tag originates from where Bimbo left for her soiree with Uche. The event fostered the mad gender wars and created a storm that only fell victim to our terrible attention span a week later.

3. #MeToo

The incredible moment a good act went tour over a badly conceived idea. A Twitter user, @ Mayowade equally tried to aid Nigerian rape and domestic violence victims with a version of #MeToo, the American — progeny to #TimesUp — and ended up aggravating an already heated conversation.

#MeToo was a blunt call-out against alleged rapists and molesters and it was a movement which ended stalwarts like Harvey Weinstein and elevated feminists like Asia Argento and Rose McGowan.

The incident shook the tenets of Twitter NG as people with sketchy records begged dear mercy to not have a moment of madness.

4. #Russia2018

A watershed moment in Nigerian history. Triggered by the virally loved Nigerian jersey that sold out in minutes after the overload on pre-orders, fanfare, fan madness and the pure riot of global spotlight on Nigerian came to a head.

The cause was also aided by the unrequited love shown by the English Twitter account of Italian giants, AS Roma (@ASRomaEN) and the Naira Marley anthem, Issa Goal, which merged the Shaku Shaku movement with mainstream appeal and added the streets via Olamide and Lil Kesh.

Nigeria is a football nation, with sands of Nigerian time being stamped with the loyalty of fandom and the madness of football hysteria or delirium. Football Mundials awaken the Nigerians who stan international football to their erstwhile loyalties and abusive heartthrobs; the Super Eagles of Nigeria.

It happened at the 2018 World Cup in Russia where a lot of Nigerians had hope that we could actually win the competition. We crashed out, but social media was a filled space anytime Nigeria was playing.

5. Stew

Wizkid had an eventful 2018

The pop titan topped his year with a viral, headline-grabbing, music video ‘Fewer’ featuring his rumoured love interest Tiwa Savage

Within 24 hours of release, this video his over one million views on YouTube. It exemplified the possibilities of the modern world if you play it right.

6. Sweet Boys Association

The Sweet Boys Association came to revamp the image of men tarnished by the advent of Twitter publicity for some of their more unsavoury acts. Some of those things they, however, brought on themselves.

The multi-talented, multi-functional creative, Falz’s Sweet Boys Association is Falz’s gift to men on social media.

Like anything related to Falz, it has since created a storm on social media that looks set to be another weapon in the near-perpetual gender war. Even when Falz does not intend it, his products create a storm — it seems.

The idea of SBA was to change the portrayal around and perception of men as an evolving generation; sort of a rebrand.

#SBA quickly hit, but later, it was hit with criticisms of sexism but Falz smartly pushed on with SBA to accommodate women

7. Mr. Spell

BO GO LI NU EO KZ XQ HZ — BANG! Dadadang.

Shout-out to the amazing man who gave us some of the best laugh sessions of 2018, gave Kelechi Iheanacho another viral video and gave Paul Cleverlee a certified hit. What’s not to love; is it the seeming perpetual spelling of six-letter words or the pose he strikes before going on an ocean of letters.

While Nigerians definitely have a phenomenon for each quarter of the year, Mr. Spell gave us one to last us three quarters.