The Nation Newspaper

Tag: Dirty December

  • Yuletide reflections: Dirty December, quiet hearts etcetera

    Yuletide reflections: Dirty December, quiet hearts etcetera

    By Ebuka Ukoh

    In Nigeria, December arrives like a festival competing with itself. The streets get louder, the music gets brighter, and the pressure to feel joyful rises faster than airline ticket prices. It is a beautiful season, yet many of us enter it carrying a quiet tension. We try to look happy while our hearts whisper a different truth.

    Christmas in Nigeria is loud, perhaps not so loud nowadays. The excitement is real, and December is dirty. But music blares from every corner. People travel home in droves. Photographers line up for family portraits. New clothes, new hair, new plans. All that joy deserves celebration. Yet, beneath the glitter, many of us feel a pull inside. We perform happiness while harbouring unspoken worries.

    I felt that tension myself. My mind drifted to checklists. Did I hit my goals this year? Did I grow? Did I become the person I hoped to be? Reflection matters, but I have assessed myself by outcomes. So, I pause. I ask a different question. Am I well?

    Christmas can be loud while we are not in tune with ourselves. We rush. We give beyond our strength. We pretend. Sometimes the external noise hides the innermost feelings.

    Name what is going on

    This year, some people celebrate their first Christmas in a new city. Some are spending it with a significant other. Some hold newborn babies. Some sit at tables with one empty chair. Some juggle quiet family tensions. Some hope the year ends without more chaos. Others pray the new year brings softness.

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    Before planning anything, take note of what is present. Notice yourself. Name your state. Joy. Grief. Pride. Confusion. Exhaustion. Gratitude. The heart deserves recognition before instruction.

    Jesus understood this

    If you study the life of Jesus, you see a man in tune with himself. He stepped away to think, pray, and reflect. He explained rather than convinced those who doubted him. He acted from clarity, not desperation. He paused at key moments, and those pauses shaped direction.

    We love to tell the stories of miracles. We forget the stillness that made them possible. Peace starts with inner honesty. He did not pour from an empty cup.

    Your feel-good self matters

    There is a type of helping that is not love but anxiety. We rush to fix others because we fear sitting with our own discomfort. We want to feel needed. Then we call it care. Sometimes it is avoidance.

    The best gift you can give anyone this Christmas is your well self. Not your decorated self. Not your pretending self. Your well self. When you show up with clarity, you create space for others to carry their responsibilities. You make room for truth. You create boundaries that protect growth. Things may not go smoothly, but you can be well. That presence changes the atmosphere more than any gift.

    Courage to say, “I am not okay”

    There is dignity in honesty. When you hurt, admit it. When you need rest, take it. When you need support, ask. Strength is not silence. Strength is truth spoken with care. You do not earn love by hiding your condition. You honour love by naming it.

    Slowing down is not failure. Pausing is not giving up. It is choosing to treat yourself as human and valuable. Remember, the body keeps the scores; if it is not cared for adequately, it manifests in mostly unpleasant ways.

    Look beyond yourself, then inward again.

    After noticing yourself, notice others. The neighbour who looks strong but feels alone; the cousin who jokes too much, and the friend who always plans and never receives care. True presence comes from being grounded. When you are well, you carry comfort without losing yourself.

    Christmas is not a competition of who looks happiest. It is a moment to be truthful about humanity.

    Real reason for the season

    People say Jesus is the reason for the season. That is true. Yet he lived with the conviction that you are worth showing up for. Your healing matters. Your peace matters. Your well-being matters. You and I are part of the reason for the season…because God saw value in us. Love requires healthy carriers.

    This year, permit yourself to be well. Permit others to take responsibility for their well-being. Let joy be real. Let grief be acknowledged. Let rest be honoured. Let’s be honest.

    Christmas begins in the soul before it reaches the streets. When we treat ourselves with truth, we treat others with grace. That might be the gift that makes the season meaningful again.

    I hope this season meets you with softness and gives your heart the space it needs to breathe.

    • Mr Ukoh, an alumnus of the American University of Nigeria, Yola, and PhD student at Columbia University, writes from New York.

  • How ‘Dirty December’ pushes intellectual property value and Lagos economy

    How ‘Dirty December’ pushes intellectual property value and Lagos economy

    • By Olalekan O. Akinwumi

    Unarguably, Lagos has established itself as the commercial capital of West Africa, and Dirty December is its most lucrative export culture.

    What originally began as a celebratory, end-of-year entertainment surge has now evolved into a substantial economic generator that adds material value to intellectual property (IP) in the form of music, fashion, digital content, event production, and consumer experiences.

    To businesses, investors, and policy leaders, there is an expected steady pattern of monetization, brand augmentation, and IP acceleration every year in the season.

    Dirty December is not a simple entertainment; it is a commercial infrastructure.

    The rise of the diaspora spenders, multinational brand activations, fashion pop-ups, content production, and back-to-back concerts creates a high velocity environment where intangible assets are transferred between cultural relevance and financial value.

    Lagos is the nexus of this change because it agglomerates creativity, the media, corporate appeal, and tourist movement.

    Demand concentration is the first business repercussion. The consumption of concerts, nightlife, hospitality, fashion, logistics, and digital media is on boom in Lagos.

    This spike can be directly converted into transactional revenue to the IP owners, artists, content creators, event promoters, and technology platforms.

    Music catalogues sharpen their streaming spikes, trademarks become visible, and fashion designs are adopted by the masses.

    The value of these assets increases due to greater income potential when standard models of the income approach are deployed.

    A second force is the power of prices. In dirty December, the creators who are based in Lagos charge high prices. Performance fees are doubled or tripled. This is connected to the season.

    Similarly, influencers can ask better brand rates; designers can sell limited versions at a higher mark-up event IP, including show format, brand name, and event design, and resell at a higher rate. The premiums promote the commercial appeal of creative IP and increase its revenue projections in the future to be valued.

    Visibility is also inflated by dirty December. The season turns Lagos into a worldwide cultural broadcasting centre with local content being presented to the world diaspora audience, international blogs, and global social media engines.

    One of the most important intangible assets is visibility, which influences the trademark equity, goodwill, and brand valuation.

    Greater recognition would include better licensing conditions and greater market-related similarity.

    Creators in Lagos are greatly beneficiaries by this cycle since brand awareness is a compound value.

    Diaspora capital is another factor of high impact. The season sees tens of thousands of returnees in Lagos, and most of them are better customers with an insatiable desire to experience premiums.

    The Diaspora consumers provide the demand in the live experience, fashion, and lifestyle products, generating an export-oriented market in Lagos. This international need enhances the business feasibility of the Nigerian IP in International Markets, and the Foreign licensing opportunities are enhanced. This season also witnessed intense collaboration.

    And, Lagos usually turns into some kind of melting pot: musicians, fashion designers, marketers, technology providers, and world brands all gather in the state of aquatic splendour, and several partnership deals are sealed.

    These partnerships result in new derivative IP, special edition march lines, co-branded experiences, joint content release, and new event concepts. Derivative assets expand the IP portfolios and establish new layers of monetization for creators and brand owners.

    Another significant resource is user-generated content (UGC). The season generates viral content on TikTok, Instagram, YouTube, and X, which has expedited organic event and creator promotion.

    Viral content prolongs the functionality of performances and branded experiences, increasing the level of digital discoverability and reinforcing the online brand equity. The concept of digital brand value has become an important part of the IP valuation models today.

    There is also the reshaping of the valuation scene by corporate players in the Dirty December. Competition for sponsorship is very high in Lagos. Banks, telecom, beverage, and fintech brands actively purchase presence in the form of concert sponsorships, branded lounges, influencer deals, and experience zones. Such a corporate demand increases the market value of event-IP, trademarks, and performance rights. It also contributes to the institutional interest in the Lagos creative economy.

    The season also increases the adoption of technology. Stress testing of ticketing platforms, event tech solutions, VR/AR experiences, and logistics tech is done in Lagos. Proven reliability and commercial traction enhance the valuation of functional IP such as software, algorithms, and experience structures.

    In a better economic sense, the Lagos engine created by Dirty December creates quantifiable spill-overs. The highest seasonal revenues are registered in hospitality, transport, retail, advertising, tourism, and food services.

    There is faster turnover in SMEs, particularly in the fashion industry, beauty, photography, printing, and catering sectors. This supports the role of the creative economy as a high-growth sector and gives more investor faith in the markets of intangible assets.

    The strategic implication on the part of businesses is evident that Dirty December is an opportunity worth creating value each year. Companies can use it for the creation of proprietary event IP, the introduction of limited but hot products, joining high-profile brand relationships, the acquisition of creative talent at the front, or investment in assets that go viral at the time.

    To creators, it is a time to formalize IP protection, negotiate more favourable contracts, and put data into place to be valued and raise capital.

    Lagos has created a world in which creativity is transformed into commercial value within a short time. This conversion is enhanced by dirty December. Those businesses that know how to place their IP in this intellectual property high-yield cycle will be able to gain high economic returns.

    Olalekan O. Akinwumi, Estate Surveyor and Valuer, an Intellectual Property (IP) Valuation and Securitization expert. He writes from Lagos.