It has indeed being a September to remember because of all the interesting events that took place. From Big Brother Naija to the Edo state elections as well as the Daddy Freeze saga. If you have something to munch on, get it and let’s look at the topics that caught people’s attention the most in September.
In the first week of September, the two most-googled words are Erica and Nigeria’s school resumption date.
Erica (150,000+ searches)
Erica Ngozi Nlewedim, one of the housemates in the fifth season of the Big Brother Naija, made the news after she was disqualified from the house for threatening another housemate. She also got in the way of the production processes for the reality show and was the first head of the house to be disqualified from the show.
Upon her leaving, her fans raised more than N10 million through a GoFundMe account created for her. She made the news again when she apologized to the members of the house in an interview with the organizers of the BBNaija show.
All of the activities surrounding her eviction and donation led to the over 150,000 searches for her name on Google within the first week of September.
School resumption (10,000+ searches)
Schools have been shut down since March when COVID-19 forced the whole country into lockdown. And the long stay at home has definitely made students and parents wonder when things would return back to normal. As the number of recorded cases have continued to drop in the country, states have announced the gradual reopening of schools.
Lagos reopened schools on September 14 while its tertiary institutions reopened on the 21st of the same month. Osun state reopened schools on the 21st as well while Kogi state schools resumed on the 14th of September.
As each state announced the dates for schools reopening, the high level of anticipation for the news resulted in the over 10,000 searches for the topic.
The second week was equally interesting because of the story around Daddy Freeze and Davido’s FEM single.
Davido FEM (200,000+ searches)
After taking a 3-month social media break from Instagram and Twitter, Davido, whose real name is David Adeleke, released a single on September 10 around 7pm. The song is titled ‘FEM’ which is a local slang which means to shut up. It is a part of his forthcoming album titled ‘A better time’.
FEM video which was released on YouTube shortly after broke Davido’s previous record of fastest Nigerian music to hit a million views on YouTube after amassing 1.8 million views in 24 hours.
Announcing the song, the singer and songwriter said, “To the people talking about you because they don’t understand your shine, they don’t understand your grace, they don’t understand why they can never be what you are or have what you have, we say FEM.”
The hype around the song as well as Davido’s return from his hiatus led to the over 200,000 searches for ‘Davido FEM’.
Daddy Freeze (20,000+ searches)
After a 2-year-and-7-month-old video created by Ifedayo Olarinde aka Daddy Freeze resurfaced in which he criticised Bishop David Oyedepo, he shared another video in which he apologized to the cleric.
In the first video which resurfaced, he criticized the teachings of the Bishop, who is the founder of Living Faith Ministries, going as far as calling the respected minister a ‘bald-headed fowl’.
The video generated a lot of mixed responses from the general public. But the most ferocious were from the Senior Pastor of Dunamis International Gospel Centre, Paul Enenche, and founder of Salvation Ministries, David Ibiyeomie, with the latter issuing death threats against Freeze.
Daddy Freeze apologized for his words and conduct saying he “didn’t in any way intend to dishonour, disrespect or disregard the person of the bishop”.
The controversy surrounding the video, the responses, curses and death threats all led to more than 20,000 searches for Daddy Freeze in September.
Things got way more interesting in the third week as Godwin Obaseki emerged the winner of the Edo gubernatorial elections and Femi Otedola decided to ‘daddy’ his girls with a Ferrari each.
Edo Election (200,000+ searches)
The Edo state elections took place earlier this month with a lot of background drama. The incumbent governor, Godwin Obaseki, was disqualified from contesting again by the ruling APC, forcing him to switch to the rival PDP.
Under the PDP, he continued with his plans to contest for the governorship of the state again against Ize-Iyamu, who was endorsed by the APC.
Ize-Iyamu lost by 84,336 votes while Obaseki emerged winner and will be sworn in again for his second term as the governor of the state. In 2016, Obaseki won against Ize-Iyamu, although he contested under the APC while the latter was with the PDP.
The election and Obaseki’s victory prompted more than 200,000 searches.
(Femi Otedola 50,000+ searches)
Billionaire, Femi Otedola reportedly took his daughters Tolani, Temi and Ifeoluwa aka DJ Cuppy shopping and bought them a Ferrari Portofino each. The purchases were announced on Twitter on September 16 and generated a lot of comments about the lavishness of the gifts.
Each Ferrari Portofino is estimated to cost around $218,750 (N84.323 million), according to the Car and Driver price review for 2020, but does not have any serious financial consequence on the billionaire whose net worth was put at about $1.85 billion in 2016.
The buzz around the gifts culminated in more than 50,000 searches for Femi Otedola.
September came to a close with two major events: Israel Adesanya’s battle against Paulo Costa and Laycon’s victory in the Big Brother Naija.
Israel Adesanya (50,000+ searches)
Nigerian-born New Zealand fighter, Israel Adesanya, stirred the internet with his battle and victory against Paulo Costa on Sunday. The match was settled in the second round after Adesanya caught Costa with a leg kick in the face and brought him to the floor with punch after punch.
Before the battle on Sunday, the two fighters had threatened each other severally in a buildup to their eventful meeting for the Ultimate Fighting Championship; UFC 253.
After his victory, Adesanya has shared personal details about himself, including how his father had advised him to cut his dyed hair before the fight for tactical reasons.
There have been more than 50,000 searches for his name.
Laycon (200,000+ searches)
Laycon, whose real name is Olamilekan Mosheed Agbeleshe, was declared the winner of the fifth season of BBN on Sunday. As the winner, he was also awarded the cash prize of N30 million.
His victory has already caught the attention of the Lagos Internal Revenue Service (LIRS) which already reached out to him and asked him to pay his taxes. The LIRS tweeted at the 26-year old winner, “Congratulations @itsLaycon winner @BBNaija Lockdown edition. More wins!! We look forward to seeing you in Y2021 as you #payyourtax”
Out of the 20 housemates that made it to the show, Laycon, Neo, Nengi, Dorathy and Vee were the last five people standing. Of the viewer’s votes, Laycon got 60%, Dorathy got about 21.65% while the remaining was split among the three remaining finalists.
…And that is all for the most searched words in September. I trust that October will unfold with even more interesting events, but until then, Happy Independence Day in advance!
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