Undeniably, 2020, is indeed a year that is hard to forget for any grownup Nigerian that experienced the challenges faced during the year, ranging from the COVID-19 outbreak that caused the federal government to impose nationwide lockdown to the End SARS protests aimed at putting an end to police brutality in Nigeria.
In spite of the challenges, Nigerians have a way of bringing out humour from social media trends with the aim of “catching cruise” in this turbulent year. This is no surprise as people are stuck at home due to the pandemic and are turning to social media as a means to ease boredom.
Here are some of the notable challenges that went viral in 2020 majorly on Twitter, Instagram and Tik Tok.
Everybody sanitize
In the early days of COVID-19 in Nigeria, and after the government imposed the nationwide lockdown. Nigerians engaged in the “everybody sanitize” challenge as a way to curb the further spread of the virus by using hand sanitizers in videos.
A Nigerian musical skit maker and singer, Lord Sky, released a song dubbed “Corona virus”, which eventually served as the soundtrack for the challenge.
Don’t rush
The idea behind #DontRush Challenge was to empower women worldwide as many women have been made to question their beauty without makeup.
The song “Don’t Rush” by Young T and Bugsey is the sound track for the challenge as people transform from different attires and makeup-free faces to another glammed up look at the flick of a makeup brush on the recording camera.
Bop Daddy
The #BopDaddyChallenge has the same concept with #DontRushChallenge, but it has a different soundtrack. Folarin Falana professionally known as Falz, started the trend to challenge the #DontRushChallenge with his song featuring Ms Banks, dubbed “Bop Daddy”.
Both male and female Nigerians jumped on the trend to ease boredom and stay clear of depression.
Don’t leave me
Undoubtedly, the “don’t leave me challenge” is one of the most prominent social media challenge in 2020. The creator of the challenge, Josh Alfred, a Nigerian comedian popularly known as Josh2funny, curated the challenge by using thoughtful puns in a humorous manner.
The challenge, of course, requires thinking deep to create an interesting and funny “don’t leave me challenge”.
Duduke
The Duduke challenge went viral after Nigerian singer, Simisola Ogunleye professionally known as Simi, released the video of her song “Duduke”. In the music video, Simi showed her love and delight for motherhood with her pregnancy.
Many pregnant and non-pregnant women jumped on this challenge as the post videos of the challenge with real and staged pregnancy-sized stomachs.
The challenge later transformed as pregnant women take photo shoots with their pregnancies.
Detective Fash
After the killing of peaceful End SARS protesters at the Lekki Toll gate in Lagos, the Minister of Works and Housing, Babatunde Fashola, led a team to inspect the area.
There was a surprise as the former governor of Lagos state found a camera at the scene after different agencies have cleaned the Lekki Toll gate. As usual, Nigerians jumped on the trend as they pose ‘detective Fashola’ in viral videos.
Slow motion
The “slow motion challenge” started this December, and might be the last challenge of the year. The challenge is all about making slow motion moves in between a normal rhythm dance moves with a steady-beat song.
The most used soundtrack in Nigeria with the challenge is Olamide’s track, “Infinity” featuring Omah Lay.
Which one of these challenges did you join?
You can add other challenges that went viral in 2020.
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