By Modupe Gbadeyanka
In October 2021, a séxtape involving a music star, Tiwa Savage, was released on social media and because some wanted to feed their eyes, there was a scramble for the video.
As a result of this, internet users used the Google search engine to make queries about their motion picture and made Tiwa Savage séxtape one of the top searches on the platform this month.
Before the 11-second video was released, the former Mavin Records had informed the public that she was being blackmailed over a séx tape.
She claimed the video was mistakenly posted online by her partner and this triggered a frantic search for the tape before it was eventually released some days later.
Another trending topic for the month was the first anniversary of the October 20, 2020, #EndSARS protest, which shook the country and attracted international attention because of the alleged shooting of peaceful protesters by Nigerian soldiers at the Lekki Toll Gate in Lagos.
On October 20 this year, at the #EndSARS memorial protest, some Nigerian youth and celebrities like Folarin Falana, aka Falz, and Debo Adebayo, aka Mr Macaroni, drove through the toll gate in a memorial automobile procession.
In addition, the conclusion of the much-anticipated boxing bout between Tyson Fury and Deontay Wilder piqued the interest of Nigerian sports fans. Boxing match reviews and images of Wilder taking beatings and being slammed into the ropes by Fury filled the Internet, prompting fans to search for more.
Also, October 5 was World Teachers’ Day, and Nigerian teachers celebrated like the rest of the world. Hundreds of teachers from around the federation gathered in Abuja, Nigeria’s capital, for a commemorative celebration.
The Federal Government of Nigeria announced plans to pay teachers higher salaries effective January 2022, along with other promised benefits and this spurred reactions online.
Other interesting searches by Nigerians in the month of October were the releases of hit songs Alcohol and Levels by Joe Boy and Flavour respectively.
‘Nmandi Kanu Biafra’ was also a top searched term by Nigerians who were interested in the ongoing trial of the pro-Biafra political activist and the adjournment of his court case until November 10 by the Federal High Court in Abuja.
Below is the full list of the top trending search topics that captured the interest of Nigerians in the month of October:
Top Trending Searches by Nigerians in October 2021
Tiwa Savage sex tape
Teacher’s day
Joeboy Alcohol
Olu Jacobs
Naira Marley first time in America
Chiwetalu Agu
Tyson Fury vs Wilder
Levels by Flavour
Nnamdi Kanu Biafra
Endsars protest
Search trends information is gleaned from data collated by Google based on what Nigerians have been searching for and asking Google. Google processes more than 40, 000 search queries every second. This translates to more than a billion searches per day and 1.2 trillion searches per year worldwide. Live Google search trends data is available at https://trends.google.com/trends/trendingsearches/daily?geo=NG
