With the growing political awareness currently flowing among young people in Nigeria, the expected decline in interest in political affairs, following the commencement of the Big Brother Naija season 7, has been met with a twist in narrative.
Why this matters: Earlier, Former Presidential media aide, Reno Omokri taunted the supporters of Labour Party’s presidential candidate, Peter Obi as he said that Africa’s most popular reality TV show #BBNaija has shifted their attention from trending on Twitter.
Omokri is known for criticising Obi’s supporters popularly branded ‘Obidients’ for months, as his arguments are that they are abusive and without political structures to make the former Anambra governor emerge as the nation’s President in the 2023 presidential election.
Top trends in Nigeria: However, in analysing the most trended topics around both subjects, based on news stories and audience interest, Beauty Tukura and Peter Obi top the trends for the last 24 hours.
Who is Beauty Tukura?: Beauty Etsanyi Tukura, is the 43rd Miss Nigeria. Beauty became a reality TV star after her debut on BBNaija season 7.
Etsanyi got disqualified on the second week of the show but still tops trends on as of the 8th week.
Why Beauty Trended: the disqualified BBNaija housemate, trended today after her ex-housemates engages in a conversation around their relationship with her.
The conversation sparked up conversation online and landed her the top spot trend.
Peter Obi takes over: Less than three hours later, political topics swept off Tukura from top three trends, to conversations around Obi.
In this Google Trend chart, Obi (Red) lags behind Tukura (Blue) by just one point.
Why Obi trended: Obi's conversations were pushed by reports of his visit to Goodluck Jonathan, in view of commencing election campaigns, as reported by Pulse.
What you should know: In previous times, Omokri's argument that the BBNaija show diverts the young audience's attention away from political conversations may have been valid.
Who has the audience attention: However, according to the trend chart, the audience has successfully sustained both subject matters with almost equal intensity.
Peter Obi leads polls in politics today: In related news, if Nigeria’s presidential election was held today, Peter Obi of the Labour Party would win, according to an opinion poll conducted by NOI Polls.
The poll, commissioned by ANAP Foundation was conducted this month and suggests a three-horse presidential race between Mr Obi, Bola Tinubu of the All Progressives Congress (APC) and Atiku Abubakar of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).