20 most popular hashtags that trended in 2017

9. #YepaChallenge

In July, someone started a challenge where people basically captioned images that depicted ‘mogbe’, ‘yepa’ or ‘hey God’ moments, and you can trust Nigerians to be extra creative when it comes to memes. Custodian Insurance was later revealed to be the guys behind the hashtag, and it was pretty dope how they linked moments like that to being insured.

https://twitter.com/LazyWrita/status/882162408718053376

10. #LekkiFloods

Sometime in July, the rains fell heavier than usual, and in one particular week, it rained for 3 days (5 in some areas) continuously. As a result, many parts of the Island became flooded. Movement came to a standstill as roads became impassable – except for people who had swimming trunks and boats. Lekki was seemingly the most affected as roads, cars, houses (as in, inside houses) were submerged. People shared their unfortunate experiences using the hashtag #LekkiFloods, making it a hugely popular hashtag.

The floods did not stop on the island though, many parts of the mainland experienced flooding too.

11. #MeToo

This may not gone viral in Nigeria but it had ripple effects here. The campaign moved from a social media campaign to (arguably) the biggest social change campaigns of 2017. Although the Me Too campaign gained popularity in 2017, the initiative actually began in 2006, when Tarana Burke, an activist started the movement to help survivors of sexual violence. Many celebrities joined the conversation to share their sexual harassment/assault stories this year, and some others exposed their ‘attackers’. It was therefore only right that Time Magazine decided to make those who shared their stories the ‘person of the year’ for 2017.

12. #FreeEvans

Remember the kidnap kingpin who was eventually arrested by the Police earlier this year? Yeap, Evans, the guy who received up to $1million ransom money for some his victims and was responsible for the deaths of many people. That guy. Yes, people did ask the police to free him, and trended #FreeEvans. Everybody who supported the hashtag is mad. That is all there is to it