This is arguable the best and most important hast tag in the history of social media activism in Nigeria.
In April, more than 200 Nigerian schoolgirls were kidnapped by terrorist organisation, Boko Haram, which prompted Nigerian social media users to start an intense online campaign with the hash tag #BringBackOurGirls.
The hash tag which was first used by, Ibrahim M Abdullahi- a lawyer in Abuja- became a phenomenon, with millions of mentions daily on social media platforms. The campaign was so intense that it drew the attention of the whole world, and even the First Lady of the United States of America, Michelle Obama, who also joined in the campaign.
The hash tag #BringBackOurGirls began to trend globally on Twitter as the story continued to spread and by May 11 it had attracted 2.3 million tweets
Beard gang
The latest trendy gang to belong to now as a male is the #BeardGang. It got so big on social media that our Nigerian celebrities had to join in the fun.
2Shotz during the year in review took to his Instagram account to reveal that he has joined the train of the #Beardgang. “Bearded; if you are a man and you aren’t got this look…grow some cause your gill keeps starring,” the rapper wrote alongside a snap of his bearded face on Instagram.
Jim Iyke was another celeb that joined the gang. “When u tell bae ur indoors watching movies buh ur boiz post pics of y’all Wildin out! “I’m here love! All dressed up buh indoors still watching movies. #lol joining the #BeardGang.”
Iyanya and Ebuka are amongst the celebrities that also joined in the trend.
The Ice bucket Challenge
The Ice Bucket Challenge, rave swept across all social media platform like wildfire. The Ice Bucket Challenge involves dumping a bucket of ice water on someone's head to promote awareness of the disease amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) and encourage donations to research.
Musicians, actors, reality TV stars, footballers, basket ballers, social medial enthusiast, all took to the activity, posting their videos on Vine, Instagram, Youtube, Twitter and Facebook. It went viral on social media during July to August of 2014.
According to The New York Times, people shared more than 1.2 million videos on Facebook between June 1 and August 13 and mentioned the phenomenon more than 2.2 million times on Twitter between July 29 and August 17. Mashable called the phenomenon "the Harlem Shake of the summer."
‘There is god oo’
When militants of the insurgent group, Boko Haram, in April, abducted more than 200 girls from a school in Chibok town of Borno State, the whole country was thrown into sadness.
Various campaigns were embarked through social media, street marches, petitions and various other means and the failure of the Government to rescue them left us with nothing to smile about
Then came our First Lady, Patience Jonathan who is known for her comic use of the English Language. “Na only u waka come,” she jarred on national television while addressing the principal of the school the girls were kidnapped from.
“There is God oo,” “All these blood you are sharing, there is God oo. There is God in anything we are doing,” she says in a video which became quite a comic sensation across social media platforms.
Memes, remixes, and all sort sorts of comic materials were created from this mantra, “there is god oo” created by the one and only Patience Jonathan.
Watch one of the comic parodies below.
Kermit the Frog
Kermit the Frog is a famous Muppet which was first introduced by Jim Henson in 1955 but became quite popular in 2014 because of its widespread use on social media.
The most Kemit the Frog parody on social media is the “but that’s none of my business” memes which shows Kemit the Frog character sipping something from a cup –usually a tea.
From there it became a favourite for social media users, making it one of the most trending items on social media platforms in 2014.
