The trends for the past week can easily be likened to what is commonly known as the ‘Domino Effect’. In this effect, one action triggers a series of continuous actions. The political player responsible for the week’s domino is ‘Peter Obi’.
Throughout the week, various issues that were trending, appeared to be interconnected, resulting in a significant online response.
The ‘Yes Daddy’ Saga
During the course of the week, the hashtag ‘Yes Daddy’ dominated social media with over 200,000 tweets. Alongside this hashtag, other trending hashtags such as #PeterObi, #ItIsPossible, #ThankYouDaddy, #Oyedepo, and #MrPeterObi have collectively received a considerable number of tweets, surpassing 400,000 tweets over the course of the week.
The widespread coverage of these tweets by various media outlets led to curiosity about the origin of the ‘Yes Daddy’ trend.
The CDD Election War Room has analysed and explained the phenomenon behind the trend.
An audio clip allegedly containing a phone conversation between Peter Obi, the Labour Party presidential candidate, and David Oyedepo, founder of the Living Faith Church Worldwide, was leaked on April 1, 2023.
In the leaked audio, the two alleged individuals discussed a range of topics including politics and religion, with Peter Obi reportedly seeking votes and referring to the 2023 election as a “religious war”.
The audio was first reported by the online news outlet, Peoples Gazette, on their official Twitter page and has since gained widespread attention, with over 10.3 million views of the 4:17 minute recording.
The leaked audio has triggered series of debates amongst Nigerians, with some individuals urging for an inquiry into the credibility of the audio, contending that it is a form of propaganda and completely false.
Conversely, there are those who maintain their conviction that the audio is genuine. A few examples of responses to the audio are presented below:
On April 5, 2023, Obi took to his Twitter page to debunk the audio and inform the public of his legal team’s intention to pursue appropriate legal actions against the Peoples Gazette and other parties involved.
This statement has gained significant coverage, accumulating over three million views and 26,000 retweets.
Minister Lai
One of the trends at the top in the last week was #MinisterLai with over 48,000 tweets. Lai Mohammed is the Minister of Information and Culture.
The minister who travelled to Washington to interact with international media organisations and pundits to discuss the recently concluded 2023 elections, made a statement on April 4, 2023, suggesting that “it was wrong for Obi to seek redress in court over the outcomes of the poll and in another, inciting people to violence.”
Numerous individuals have responded to this statement and shared their perspectives.
Peter Obi responded to the statement, refuting the accusation made against him. He stated that “Minister Lai accusing me of stoking insurrection is totally malicious and fictitious” This response has now amassed over 3.6 million views.
CDD Election War Room also fact-checked the claims made by Mohammed and you can read what we found here.
Nobel Prize laureate Wole Soyinka
Wole Soyinka was also a new addition to the trend table. With over 38,000 tweets, with harshly laced criticism for the Nobel Prize laureate over his statement regarding Datti Baba-Ahmed.
The trending hashtag #Datti garnered over 39,000 tweets. Soyinka made a statement regarding Datti’s interview held on March 22, 2023, on Channels Television.
Speaking with Channels Television in a one-hour interview, where he denounced the menacing utterances of a vice-presidential aspirant as ‘unbecoming’.
It was a gladiatorial challenge directed at the judiciary and, by implication, the rest of the democratic polity. This was reported here.
The reason for the response was not solely Soyinka’s interview denouncing Datti; rather, it stemmed from his use of the term “fascism.”
A quick definition of the word ‘fascism’: Merriam-Webster defines it as a “political philosophy, movement, or regime (such as that of the Fascisti) that exalts nation and often race above the individual and that stands for a centralised autocratic government headed by a dictatorial leader, severe economic and social regimentation, and forcible suppression of opposition”.
On April 5, 2023, Soyinka spoke to Arise Television, further providing a detailed explanation of his statement in response to the matter.
He further went on to challenge Datti to a one-on-one interview. This was reported on Channels Official Twitter page and had over one million views. See the tweet here. Here are some of the reactions to this:
Chimamanda’s letter to Biden
On April 6, 2023, Chimamanda Adichie, an award-winning Nigerian writer, addressed a letter to Joe Biden, the US president, expressing her discontent with the process of the presidential polls that took place on February 25th, 2023.
In a post on her official page, she wrote “I supported Peter Obi, the Labour Party candidate, and hoped he would win, as polls predicted, but I was prepared to accept any result because we had been assured that technology would guard the sanctity of votes …”
This post has since had over 2.2 million views. As usual, the post had mixed reactions from individuals with different viewpoints.
Multiple members of the APC have responded to the letter, notable among them are Femi Fani-Kayode, Dele Alake, and Festus Keyamo, all spokespersons of the APC PCC.
In conclusion, these were a few of the topics that gained the most popularity on social media during the past week.
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