IT was the first year remembrance of the family’s patriarch. The preparation for the main event began about three months ago with meetings on the sharing of responsibilities such as who would be in-charge of the aso ebi (ceremonial uniform), food and drinks, among family members.
No expense was spared in organising the party. The venue, one of the many choice event centres located close to the Lagos lagoon, was filled with gaily-dressed people who turned out in various shades and colours of aso ebi.
Of course, the menu was top class. All you needed to do to get served with steaming amala or any delicacy for that matter was to snap your finger. The drinks, ranging from the moderately soft to the highly expensive, were stored in a giant mobile refrigerated vehicle parked by the side.
On the band stand was a popular fuji musician who sang the praises of the deceased man as the children, friends and other family members wound their waists to the thrilling sound that beamed from giant loud speakers. It was an open display of wealth and class.
It is probably for such wild celebrations that Nigerians were rated as the happiest people in the world in 2011. That year, in a 53-country Gallup poll, Nigerians were rated at 70 points for optimism.
Fast forward to 2016, Nigeria dropped to 103 on the happiest nation chart of the world, and 6th in Africa in the World Happiness Report. The World Happiness Report 2016 update, which ranks 157 countries by their happiness levels, was released in Rome in March.
The reason for the drop may not be difficult to guess in the face of the current economic realities. Nigerians, irrespective of class or creed, are hard hit by the downturn in the economy.
The surprise, however, is the fact that in spite of the harsh economic condition, Nigerians have continued to organise social events that tend to paint the picture that may not be as bad as they look.
Investigations conducted by our correspondents revealed that rather than organising austere social events popularly called owambe, the menu list has widened to accommodate new delicacies, particularly in Lagos and other parts of the South West.
Among a people who place high premium on how the children of a deceased old man or woman bury him, nothing short of an elaborate party is expected.
“If you fail to organize a befitting farewell for your deceased father or mother, you are regarded as a failure,” says 70-year-old Emmanuel Ayodele.
The septuagenarian, who said he had already told his children how he would love to be buried, said: “We are Africans and we don’t spare any expense in the way we honour the dead. Even if you have to borrow, you just have to make sure that you honour your dead parents.
“It is for that reason that you hear people pray for children of the dead who organise befitting burials for their parents that their own children will reciprocate the gesture.”
But it is not only for burials and remembrance parties that the people roll out the drums. It is same for weddings, naming ceremonies and even graduations, among others. And for these events, new innovations are brought in daily to add colour to them.
Before now, the common foods served at social gatherings were limited to rice (white, jollof or fried), amala, eba and pounded yam. But all that has changed with the inclusion of new delicacies like beans and dodo (plantain), porridge, ofada rice wrapped in leaves, small chops, gbegiri soup and other variety of food on the menu list.
Perhaps more interesting is the way amala is now served at parties. Instead of the old way of serving the delicacy wrapped in nylon and placed in containers, it is now served hot directly from a pot that is placed on fire as done by roadside food vendors popularly called Mama Put. It is even fortified with gbegiri or ewedu soup.
The introduction of new delicacies, according to Mrs. Bolatito Balogun, is meant to give the guests wider choice of food.
She said: “The main reason is to give the people more and better choices to pick from. However, aside from providing the guests with more choices, it has also added spice to the way parties are organised. Imagine being served hot amala at a party? You’ll agree with me that alone may attract anyone to want to try it.”
Investigations by The Nation showed that the culture of African families joining hands to organise social events may be one reason why the effect of the harsh economy situation is not having significant impact on the frequency and intensity of parties.
Our findings show that while the organiser of a social event would be the one to shoulder the major financial responsibilities, other members of the family are usually around to offer different forms of assistance.
For instance, while the children of a deceased man or woman are responsible for organising befitting ceremonies for them, other family members, like cousins, uncles, aunties, nephews, nieces, friends and even neighbours are also actively involved. This pulling together of resources lightens the financial burden on the organiser and ensures that the party flourishes.
According to a sociologist, Azeez Ibrahim, this form of assistance from other members of the family contributes significantly to the success of any social event.
He said: “You know that the African culture is very unique for keeping the family as one. It does not matter whether you are uncles or aunties, our culture recognizes us as one entity. Therefore, whenever there is any social function that brings everybody together, it is the responsibility of the entire family to rise to the occasion.
“That is the reason why you see different kinds of foods served at parties. Aside from the main foods served by the organisers of a party, other members of the family as well as friends and neighbours would also come with their own foods which they would serve to their own guests. That way, you take a lot of burden off the shoulders of the organizer of the party. It is one of the beauties of our culture,” Ibrahim said.
According to Mrs. Adedayo Adeyemi, the boss of Seven Folds Events, a Lagos-based events planning outfit, while it has become an open secret that the nation’s economy is going through bad patches, its effects have not significantly manifested in respect of social parties.
Adeyemi, a former banker turned events planner, said her experience between January up until now has not shown that Nigerians have toned down on social events.
“As an event planner, I cannot really say that the harsh economic condition has affected the way Nigerians organise parties. As a matter of fact, no month has passed without me getting between three or four briefs.”
She, however, explained that efforts have been made to cut down on waste, which she said people didn’t pay much attention to in the past.
“One thing that you can say has changed significantly is that wastage has been reduced, if not completely eliminated. For instance, what we have now is that people base their preparations on the number of expected guests. In the past, what we had was that organisers simply cooked in large quantities without necessarily considering whether the food was too much.
“But now, right from the time of preparing for the party, they would plan based on the number of guests. Afterwards, based on that information, the caterer would be advised to cater for that number of people. So, give and take, the caterer may add a couple of plates to those numbers. It is the same for drinks and other things that make social events successful.”
Adeyemi, however, admitted that while there may not have any significant change in the way individuals organise social events, same cannot be said of corporate organisations who she said now organise only very important and unavoidable social events.
She said: “You know that I also organise events for corporate entities. But the number of events we organise now have reduced. You see, those companies would organie only if it is very necessary. So, in that aspect, you can say that the economy has affected our job.”
Speaking in similar fashion, another planner who caters to high society events, Mrs Bolanle Farotade of B-signature Events, said bookings had not reduced in spite of the economic crunch.
“The truth is that despite the economic downturn, people are still having events. For the event industry, whatever form the economy takes, people still have to get married, celebrate birthdays, burials, corporate functions, and so on.
“What I will say is that a lot of people are more cautious about how much they are spending. So, unlike before that you could go on lavish and all, I am not saying that we still don’t have some very big lavish events. We still do, but it is on the average.
“Lots of people are trying to cut down on their spending. So, that is the one way I can say that it has affected the events industry.”
According to her, the particular measures that have been adopted in cutting down cost have been to spend less on imports and look inwards for local manufacturers.
“Since we also do decorations, there are lots of things that ordinarily I would have ordered from China or Dubai, but I am trying to find more ways of booking those things to help beat down the cost because of the high rate of foreign exchange.
“Rather than buy from China, I would find someone that can make something for me locally. It is forcing us to look inward for the resources we have available to us and what we can do with that.”
Farotade explained that despite the harsh economy, the people have resolved to move on and put the troubles behind.
“You can’t say because of what is going on, you won’t move on. The way Nigerians are, no matter how bad the situation is, we always learn to adapt. So it is just that we may not be spending as much as we used to.
“Although you still have big clients who would do big weddings and all that, you have those who will tell you they are trying to cut down cost,” she said.
But Titus Igwe of Speedmeals Mobile Kitchen, an industrial catering outfit, insisted that the economy has had a devastating effect on the food industry. This, he said, can be attributed to the fact that 90 per cent of ingredients are sourced from outside the country.
He said: “Many of our colleagues in the industry are not getting jobs like they used to. Many clients are turning wedding ceremonies into private ceremonies in order to reduce cost. The cost of food has gone up significantly. One kilogramme of chicken, which we used to buy for N6,000, is now N10, 000.
“Now, a bag of rice is twice the price. Patronage has become so low compared to what we used to have. By this time last year, we would have seen companies talking about end-of-year parties. August–October is the peak period for weddings, but at the moment, not much is going on,” he said.
He added that some corporate organisations, who before now provided food for workers, have stopped doing so.
“Even workers who order food from Monday to Friday have reduced their orders to twice or three times a week. I went to an office recently and I noticed that when it was time for lunch, people were bringing out their food packs from their desks. Most workers now bring food from home to cut down on the cost of buying meals on a daily basis.
“For an outfit like ours, we are now looking at menu change. Instead of serving rice daily as a staple meal, we are looking at what is very cheap in the market that we can substitute for rice.”
The young entrepreneur, who lamented the fact that the country is at the mercy of imports, urged the government to encourage local production.
“One reason why it is difficult to produce here is getting certification from the regulatory authorities. I know a friend of mine who is trying to produce our local seasoning and he has been struggling since to get NAFDAC certification. If it is that difficult for people to manufacture things in our own country, how can we be able to compete with manufacturers from outside the country?
“The majority of the egg we consume here is imported through Cotonou. If you have that coming into the country, how can our own local poultry survive? I think it is God that brought us to this time for us to be wise by looking inwards. This is a wonderful opportunity that the government has to make a lasting impression.”
The story is the same for Adetola Akinbiyi, manager of Nikoms event centre in the central part of Yaba, Lagos.
According to him, the state of the economy has affected businesses negatively and there has been a drop in event dates.
“Usually, we are booked from Thursdays to Saturdays. But now there are even few events holding on weekends. Clients are no longer booking like they used to. This makes the business less profitable, as we are losing to the cost of maintenance and logistics even when the cost of renting the hall has not changed.
“We are running on diesel and the cost has increased from N150 to N190.”
Akinbiyi further said that a hall, which is rented for N600, 000, usually gives about five per cent discount for week day events, such as luncheon, AGM and workshops among others. However, owing to the lull in the economy, they have been forced to reduce the rate by a larger percentage, so much so that the hall is now given out at N500, 000 on week days.
“We are forced to do that because we don’t want clients to take the money away. People are now starting to fix burial reception for Wednesday rather than Thursday. The cost of maintenance has gone up and we cannot increase the rent rates. This is not minding the fact that we still have to pay our staff,” he lamented.
