By Sylvester Kwentua
Nigerians for ages, have been tagged the most happiest people on earth by foreigners.
For ages, a lot of non Nigerians have always wondered how citizens of the giant of Africa have been able to cope with the series of hardship they faced daily, due to the inefficiency of political leaders in the West African nation.
One secret a lot of them didn’t probably realize, was that Nigerians are fun loving people, and they create their own happiness for themselves, not allowing economical situations deny them of happiness.
However in recent times, the same Nigerians who always had ways of creating happiness for themselves, are finding it hard to do so, due to the harsh economical challenges prevalent in the country.
Weekends in Nigeria that used to be reserved for partying and celebrations, are now been spent as ordinary days.
Event centers or halls, that used to record high patronage in past times, are now been occupied by cobwebs and insects, as a result of low patronage.
A particular event center somewhere in Alimosho, Lagos, that used to be busy every weekend, has not recorded any form of patronage, for five months now.
This is according to the manager of the event center, who wishes to be addressed as Mr Seun.
“Since when Senator Tinubu became president, people gradually stopped hiring our halls for events. People now prefer to organize parties in there houses and communities. They say our charges are high, but people around us know that our charges are one of the lowest in town, but then can you blame them? For months now, we have not made sales and as a result, we have been laying off workers. Where is Nigeria heading to?” Seun queried.
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The event centers are not the only ones feeling the hardship. Even caterers, are feeling it, as people now prefer to cook at home, even when they have large parties.
Just last Wednesday, this reporter spoke to a caterer, who he overheard arguing with a market woman, over the prices of seasoning cubes. She sounded so downcast and couldn’t hold back her tears while talking.
“My brother, you see as I dey follow market woman drag price so? Things no easy for everybody for Nigeria, but then we must eat na. Imagine me coming to the market today and finding out that the price of seasoning cubes have increased! How I go do am now? For months, I have not gotten a client to cook for but just this weekend, a client contacted me for a job and even paid me advance. Now, the advance can’t buy anything meaningful in the market, and I must deliver. Nobody wan use caterers again to cook, even for wedding ceremonies. It is so bad. How I wan do am now?” She asked hopelessly.
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Even if Nigerians can’t afford to rent event centers and hire the services of caterers, one will think they should be able to at the least, hire the services of music providers, aka Disc Jockeys(DJ’S) right?
Well, according to recent findings, most parties in recent times, have resorted to the use of sound systems and portable Bluetooth speakers, as a means of providing music for themselves.
They can’t really be blamed for this; if one considers the high cost of renting party speakers, electricity generating sets and even microphones.
However, it will be worthy to note that despite all the challenges involved in organizing parties in the country, some individuals have still found a way of organizing owanbe parties, the way it used to be.
And when this individuals are asked how they went about it, they will say “Na God grace oh”