Adekunle Gold, Pius Adesanmi, Blessing Okoro, COZA and other trends of the year

With Adekunle Gold asking for a promise that Simi would “grow old with him” and Simi responding “I’ll ride with you till we’re 144”, these two love birds sure opened the floor of January 2019 by tying the knot in a low key planned wedding ceremony.

From excitement, to disappointment, to fear, to anxiety, to uncertainty, to joy, the year 2019 definitely brought several reactions to several trending issues, both online and offline and it is not a year we would forget in a hurry.

The 2019 elections definitely gave Nigerians something to talk about with its postponement. As expected, people on social media criticised the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) for postponing the general elections 5 hours before it was supposed to hold on 16th of February.

The month of March unfortunately started on a bad note. In the early weeks, the death of popular professor and columnist based in Canada, Pius Adesanmi, was announced. He was on the Ethiopian Airlines plane that crashed on March 10, 2019.

The month was also that of building collapses as a 3-storey residential/school building in Lagos and another in Ibadan, Oyo State both collapsed. More than 30 lives were lost in both.

That same month, the Senate approved N30,000 as the new national minimum wage. The month wrapped up on the 31st of month on a bad note with the death of Kolade Johnson, a young man, who was killed by a stray bullet by the men of the Special Anti-Robbery Squad (SARS) in Lagos. The circumstances surrounding his death shook Nigerians and instilled fear in them and on the 1st of April, most of them took to social media to lament and cry for justice using the hashtag #ENDSARS.

Tragedy also struck in Sri Lanka on Easter Sunday as three churches were targeted in a series of coordinated terrorist suicide bombings. The death toll from this attack was as high as 290 and this incident surely affected its tourism industry.

The month ended sadly again with another building collapse in Ibadan. No life was lost, however, more than 5 were left injured.

Popular ‘fake it till you make it’ preacher, relationship expert and Instagram blogger, Blessing Okoro, AKA Blessing CEO, set the social media agog in May when she was arrested after taking photos in a luxury mansion she claimed she completed to celebrate her birthday. She was disgraced by Onye Eze, the real house owner and after so many back and forth, she finally admitted she lied about the new house.

Popular singer, Naira Marley also shot into limelight in a twisted way in the month of May when he was arrested by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) for alleged advance fee scam and related cyber crimes. He had earlier come under fire by renowned rapper, Ruggedman, for promoting internet fraud in his music.

Chris Attoh, popular actor, would forever remember the month of May, not for good but for the death of his wife, Bettie Jennifer, who was shot dead in the parking lot of her office in Maryland in the United States. They had only been married for 7 months and to make matters worse, he was declared a suspect in the murder.

On the contrary, Zainab Aliyu, a female Nigerian student, who was detained for alleged drug trafficking by the Saudi Arabian authorities was reunited with her family after a four-month detention. She had traveled to Saudi Arabia for lesser Hajj but was arrested over allegations that the bag bearing her name tag contained tramadol. All thanks to the Federal Government who made efforts to investigate and establish her innocence, she was later released.

June came with a sea of controversies that arose from Biodun Fatoyinbo and Busola Dakola saga with hashtag #COZA over a rape allegation by the latter. This was followed by endless banter of why men should be tried and the church closed down. The finny part of social media was the fact that this trend simultaneously went along Big Brother Naija reality show which already kicked off themed Pepperdem, with 21 housemates in the house. Both trends were alongside all through the month and there was so much to talk about, from hot housemates gists to the court case about COZA.

Soyinka also trended this month, over the young man who refused to get up on the plane for Literary don and Nobel laureate Wole Soyinka. Social media ‘questioned’ morals and the state of Nigerian youths. But it was later discovered Soyinka was seated in a wrong sit oblivious to him.

The year went fast interestingly over a Nigerian senator Abbo’s leaked video via a CCTV in which he assaulted a female shop attendant in the wee hours of July. Senator Tinubu and other women stood up against the act, demanding justice for abused females and even males in the society as it had become regular for abusers to go scott free.

A reporter with a popular media house also lost his life at a live report scene half way in the month of July. The media stood up to write about protection of journalists and went down the history lane of Dele Giwa, who died a reporter.

July 19 toned down the tensed month as topics of African cup of Nations trended and accolades were given to Super Eagles, being first runner up in the tournament.

With August came visitors, of political mayhem and political redefinition. A ‘tiny’ revolution spearheaded by Sowore, astute journalist and presidential candidate set the nation agog. His fight for freedom from oppression brought the nation to experiencing another side of the National leaders and the president. Sowore was allegedly arrested for treason.

On the other side, Governor Makinde of Oyo state appointed the youngest, at that time, Seun Fakorede as minister of youths and sports, which was a delight to citizens supporting that no one was too young to lead at 28.

The seas got stormy again in September when the #Xenophobia hashtag was uploaded across most media houses and online as Nigerians raised alarms over shootings and destruction of properties of Nigerians in South Africa. The retaliation attack affected MTN and Shoprite outlets in some parts of Nigeria as Nigerians in South Africa were rescued with free flights back to their motherland by Air Peace.

Even the entertainment industry had her piece of the cake, with #VectortheViper and #MI topping the trends for so many weeks over their friction that led to both releasing diss tracks, musically attacking each other. The rap battles brought to popularity of the hashtag #gbasgbos.

Big brother Naija ended at the end of the month, trending #Mercy who became the first female winner of the reality show in Nigeria.

Pastor Wilson was next to be Twitter ‘dragged’, Instagram ‘searched’, and even google looked up at, over a leaked video of him in a compromising position with a woman who wasn’t his wife. Nigerians who trolled him only got a shocker when he told everyone the ‘f’ word and said he liked what he did; eating the female genital area.

The continuation of the #COZA saga resurfaced again, questioning the men of God in the present generation and the bad they do to church members.

As if on cue, Kiki Mordi of BBC investigative story began the #sexforgrades trend against men of university this time, not men of God. It was discovered that there was a ‘cold room’ where lecturers of popular University of Lagos had sexual interactions with some of the female students for disdainful reasons.

The month celebrated afterwards with Chioma, popular artiste Davido’s fiancée who delivered a baby boy on the night #Headies musical awards event went on at Lagos.

November was a month of love, as two couples became the talk of town, the first for the right reason and the other, an eyesore.

Bambam and Teddy, reality stars of Big brother season 3 tied the knot at their white wedding held at Dubai, themed all white. It was a moment on social media especially Twitter when it seemed as if most Nigerian celebrities traveled for the wedding. Others followed suit, taking pictures in fine architectural constructions and tagging as #Dubai. Most said ‘it’s like everyone is in Dubai’.

Still in November, two students of Babcock university who claimed love too, tied the knot in a hospital where the male student who had been expelled got visited by his undergraduate ex-girlfriend and both recorded themselves copulating as allegiance of love. The leaked sex tape halted the girl’s schooling with instant expulsion. Although most criticized the judgment of the school authority claiming the act did not happen on campus.

Instagram Mompha also got arrested by Economic and Financial Crime Commission later in the month over fraud allegations. Over time, Mompha had always been the guy who flaunts and flashes his possession on social media.

The Nigerian houses stirred up a movement soon after over a social media bill passed to regulate what ought and what not to type across all social media by Nigerians. The reactions of Nigerians was against this as top tweets and posts emphasized that the only outlet available to fight for rights and freedom is the social media and won’t be allowed to be taken away by leaders. #saynotosocialmediabill trended all month long.

The month rounded off on a lighter note with the #redflag tag, a thread of men discussing what to watch out for before starting a relationship with females. The red flag trend skyrocketed over the wrong spelling of ‘sneakers’ by a twitter user who said “I prefer snickers to heels”. Bad spelling and vocabulary became a prominent red flag in tweets that followed.

In response to the death of Moradeun, who was attacked by robbers but left unattended to at the hospital over a police report not presented there, December commenced intensely. Aggrieved Nigerians showed dissatisfaction over this act of papers being more important than saving lives.

The political sphere was also made the trending headlines in December, Orji Kalu was not spared as he got netted with EFCC over gross misappropriation of office funds and corruption.

Donald Trump faced impeachment in the month also and made worldwide trend and on boxing day, Bbnaija stars, Khafi Kareem said yes to Gedoni’s proposal.

It was a year filled with drama and more sensitivity of Nigerians to topics disturbing them.

The list is inexhaustible. But in summary, social media became a constructive ground for the nation at large and made indelible mark in influencing decisions in some sectors.