Goodluck Jonathan's controversial hashtag #BringBackGoodluck2015

In one sense, you can understand what the president's supporters were thinking. The #BringBackOurGirls hashtag, calling for 200 school girls abducted by Boko Haram militants in April, became one of the world's biggest ever social media campaigns. So why not borrow the slogan for the president's re-election campaign?



The hashtag #BringBackGoodluck2015 seems to have first been used on Twitter by a group campaigning on behalf of the president. On 30th August, they tweeted: "There is no vacancy in Aso rock [the president's palace] we want Goodluck Jonathan again #NigeriansDemand #BringBackJonathan2015." It is unclear whether it has been officially endorsed but it has been widely used on printed banners at campaigning events across the country.

But the slogan seems to represent a dramatic misreading of Nigeria's public mood. The abducted school girls are still held captive, despite repeated promises by the government - and President Jonathan himself - to secure their release. So far, the government has not taken military steps to rescue the girls, arguing that if force is used to rescue them, they may end up being killed by the militants.

There's now a major backlash against the hashtag, as people have taken to Twitter to label it as insensitive. It has appeared more than 1,500 times in the last 24 hours, and the vast majority been used to criticise the slogan.