F.Shaw, #KeepTheChangeBae… Nigerian social media sensations of 2017

Many attain fame through music, acting and other entertainment ventures, but nowadays, social media has become a veritable vehicle for popularity.

It is now a norm to see regular people become famous and attract a following through their posts on social media.

Here are five Nigerians who attained fame from social media in 2017.

Bobrisky

Okuneye Idris Olarenwaju, popularly known as Bobrisky, is an internet personality and cross dresser who is well known on Snapchat.

Bobrisky, often referred to as male Barbie doll, is renowned for being highly controversial on social media.

He gets over a thousand views daily on Snapchat, with most of his viewers interested in his claim of having a rich lover whose gender remains unknown.

Bobrisky shows off monetary gifts and expensive items purportedly purchased for him by his wealthy lover.

HushPuppi

The Malaysia-based Nigerian became popular due to his jet-set lifestyle and the occassional flaunting of luxury items on Instagram.

Another scenario that made the internet sensation more popular was his claim that Phyno and Kcee, among other Nigerian artistes, were in the habit of purchasing and wearing fake wrist watches.

Huspuppi was involved in several social media controversies in 2017, some of which involved celebrities and his old associates.

Daddy Freeze

Apart from being known as a reputable radio personality, Daddy Freeze became popular around the country due to his social media posts about religion, particularly Christianity and the activities of pastors.

In 2017, he shook the Nigerian social media landscape by launching a campaign against the payment of tithes.

He criticised the payment of tithes to churches headed by billionaire pastors who own private jets and fleet of cars while church members who pay the said tithes live in penury.

His persistent criticism elicited responses from a number of popular clerics, including Matthew Ashimolowo of Kingsway International Christian Centre (KICC).

#KeepTheChangeBae

The hashtag #KeepTheChangeBae trended on popular social network, Twitter, for several days.

It started when a young bachelor, Adeniyi Adedeji, took a lady out on a date hoping that it would be the start of a relationship but when she rejected him, he took to Twitter to rant about a date gone wrong.

The recipient of his vitriol @Missmoshiku, after seeing his tweets, sent N5,000 to him – more than what he spent on her – and told him to keep the change.

Her reaction piqued the interest of Nigerians, brands and celebrities – who quickly identified with her.

Some of the brands who reached out to her for support and commendation were MTN, Stanbic Bank, and Adekunle Gold.

F.Shaw

Olufemi Adeyemi, also known as F,Shaw, become famous after being unveiled as the handler of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) social media accounts.

He had earlier attained prominence among Nigerians on social media due to the humor and sarcasm he brought to his job — but his identity was not known.

All that changed when the EFCC announced F.Shaw’s departure from the commission, saying he was taking time out to work on releasing new music as a rapper/lyricist.

However, Adeyemi later took up a job as Union Bank’s new handler.