Trump or Clinton?

CHUKS OLUIGBO

“Are you for Trump or Clinton?” That was how I shoved the question straight into the face of my Nigerian-American friend the other day. It was meant to be a parting shot after a half-hour-long animated WhatsApp chat.

“Both of them are complicated but I’ll go for Clinton,” she retorted, then fled before I could ask her to break it down.

Just a few days later, someone posted an emotionally-charged speech by Michelle Obama on a WhatsApp group where I belong.

In that speech, Michelle said Hillary Clinton’s opponent was “perhaps living life high up in a tower, in a world of exclusive clubs, measuring success by wins and losses and the number of zeroes in your bank account”, with “so little exposure to people who are different than you”, making it easy for him “to take advantage of”, “dehumanise”, “treat...with contempt” “those who are down on their luck, folks who play by the rules, pay what they owe, because to you those folks just aren’t very smart and seem somehow less deserving”.

“Maybe that’s why this candidate thinks certain immigrants are criminals instead of folks who work their fingers to the bone to give their kids a better life, to help build the greatest nation on Earth, because he doesn’t really know ‘them’. Maybe that’s why he thinks we should be afraid of our Muslim brothers and sisters, because he really has no idea who they are. He doesn’t understand that they are ‘us’. They are our friends, our family, our neighbours, our colleagues, people of faith just like so many folks around the country.” Et cetera.

“Great speech by Michelle. As always,” I commented. Someone concurred: “In fact after this speech, if I were a skinhead (KKK) I would vote two times for Hillary.” But someone else – let’s call him Mr. D – had a different view, though not about the message but the messenger.

“Michelle Obama is part of the problems of the world today. Those people are hypocrites. They are evil. She is not the saint she paints herself. If you know them, you will never admire them again,” Mr. D offered.

But I was not willing to be dragged into taking Panadol for another man’s headache. So I simply said I was not competent to discuss American politics, which gave me the imprimatur to stay on the sidelines and observe. But there were some who were ready, so they challenged Mr. D to simplify.

“First, if you know Hillary Clinton, I mean, if you know her and what she’s capable of doing and what she has done, anyone who supports her has a question mark,” he replied.

This only attracted more “voices” asking for specifics.

“That Hillary deleted 33,000 emails and bleached the server; that FBI on Friday reopened her investigation; that she is at the forefront of pushing for abortion, LGBT; that she uses her office to enrich herself, for instance, taking $12 million bribe from King of Morocco, etc,” Mr. D said.

“The greatest fear in America today is religious freedom. There is a gang-up against Christianity, especially Catholic Church. Hillary Clinton is at the head. There are legislations and laws to suppress religion. Taxes paid by Catholics are used to fund abortion, called Planned Parenthood. They plan to force churches to wed gays and lesbians. It is a whole lot, I mean, trying to go against people’s conscience and freedom of worship and backing it up by law, else you go to jail.”

More opposing “voices”. But just when it seemed Mr. D was running out of steam, a Nigerian-American on the forum came to the rescue.

“When we look at American politics from the surface, it looks harmless as the medium that promotes the flourishing of human freedom. But this post-Christian culture/politics has become forcefully secular, demeaning very frequently religious beliefs, especially Christian faith, and idolizing radical ‘atheistic humanism’. We often do not see how SOME of the current laws hamper religious liberty. Obama's 'Health and Human Services' contraceptive mandate immediately comes to mind – the legal challenges to HHS contraceptive mandate filed by religious nonprofits like the Little Sisters of the Poor. American mainstream media do not have interest in bringing to light these abuses of power,” he said.

“This quiet marginalization was what prompted Cardinal Francis George, the former Archbishop of Chicago, to observe that he would probably die in his bedroom/hospital, but his successors might die in prisons – because of faith-motivated dissent. It is sad, but if we read beyond CNN and others, we would encounter several Christians from different denominations who stood firm to their Christian convictions and who paid the great prices for it. In light of all of this, it is important to note some points. With the recent passage of Justice Antonin Scalia, if Hillary Clinton is elected president, and a liberal jurist joins the high court, the fortitude of a few jurists, like Thomas Clarence, could be further tested. God save us!” he further said.

Then he concluded on a rather sombre note: “The alternative, Trump, is also scary.”

Sincerely, it was the first time I’d seen folks vent such anti-Clinton sentiments. The groundswell of opposition right from the beginning of the campaigns has been against Donald J. Trump, especially in media circles and among the intellectual class. From the early days till now, articles opposing Trump’s candidature have flooded Project Syndicate, a highly reputable site that features “exclusive” Op-ed “contributions by prominent political leaders, policymakers, scholars, business leaders, and civic activists from around the world”.

“Why Trump?” by Elizabeth Drew, “Trump’s Italian Prototype” by Bill Emmott, “Donald Trump’s Message” by Joseph S. Nye, “Republicans Ride the Trump Tiger” by Theda Skocpol, “Trump the Traitor” by Bernard-Henri Lévy, “Trump’s Fiscal Follies” by Jeffrey Frankel, “What Putin Sees in Trump” by Christopher Smart, “Reason in the Age of Trump” by Ana Palacio, “The Many Extremes of Donald Trump” by Simon Johnson, and “Trump Versus the West” by Dominique Moisi are just some of the headlines.

Ironically, the more they wrote, the higher Trump soared, ultimately proving a big threat to Clinton, whom many had thought would easily coast to victory with Trump as her major opponent.

Well, the die is cast. The election is just two days away. My opinion is that Americans are old enough to know what they want. Whoever they choose, it’s their choice to make. Nothing we say here can change that fact. Many Americans apparently believe it’s a between-the-rock-and-the-hard-place scenario. The campaign itself has been all mudslinging. Even the Financial Times has called it America’s “most vicious electoral campaign in living memory”. But choose they must.

Last year Nigerians had a similar scenario – or so we thought – but we made a choice and we’re living with it. Whoever the Americans choose, they’ll also live with it. The decisions of an American president cannot possibly affect us much more than Buhari’s are already doing, unless we don’t live in Nigeria. And for those who say they’d tear their green card if Trump wins, the choice is theirs as well. But aren’t they lucky to have a green card?

Education for underdevelopment?

There is an August 2015 publication on http://answersafrica.com that chronicles “10 Most Educated African Presidents”.

According to the report, at number 10 is Ellen Johnson Sirleaf of Liberia. She has an Associate Degree in Accounting from Madison Business College, in Madison, Wisconsin and a Master’s Degree in Public Administration from Harvard’s John F. Kennedy School of Government, Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States of America.

Faure Essozimna Gnassingbe, the Togolese president, has a Bachelor’s Degree in Financial Management from the Sorbonne in Paris and a Master’s Degree in Business Administration from the George Washington University in the United States. He is at number 9.

Ibrahim Boubacar Keita of Mali is at number 8. Keita is said to have “studied at the Lycée Janson-de-Sailly in Paris and Lycée Askia-Mohamed in Bamako, continuing his education at the University of Dakar, the University of Paris I and the Institut d’Histoire des Relations Internationales Contemporaines (IHRIC; Institute of the Modern History of International Relations). He has a Master’s degree in History and an additional graduate degree in Political Science and International Relations”.

At number 7 is Ameenah Gurib (Mauritius), who holds a Bachelor of Science Degree in Chemistry from the University of Surrey and a PhD in Organic Chemistry from Exeter University, England.

Ethiopia’s Mulatu Teshome is at number 6. He has a Bachelor’s Degree in Philosophy of Political Economy and a doctorate degree in International Law, both from Peking University, Beijing, China.

Alassane Ouattara, the Ivorian president, holds a Bachelor of Science Degree from the Drexel University in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA, and Master’s Degree and PhD in Economics from the University of Pennsylvania. He is Africa’s 5^th most educated president.

Peter Mutharika of Malawi, at number 4, holds a Degree in Law from the University of London, Master of Laws Degree (LL.M) from Yale University, and Doctor of the Science of Law Degree (JSD) from Yale University.

Morocco’s King Mohammed VI holds a Bachelor’s Degree in Law from the Mohammed V University at Agdal and a PhD in Law from the French University of Nice Sophia Antipolis. He is at number 3

Thomas Boni of the Republic of Benin, at number 2, holds a Master’s Degree in Economics from the National University of Benin, a Master’s Degree in Economics from the Cheikh Anta Diop University in Dakar, Senegal, and a Doctorate Degree in Economics and Politics from the University of Orléans, France, and another Doctorate Degree from the Paris Dauphine University.

At number one is Pa Robert Mugabe, Zimbabwe’s long-time president. Mugabe holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in History and English from the University of Fort Hare, Bachelor of Administration (B.Admin) from University of South Africa (Unisa), Bachelor of Education (B.Ed) from the University of South Africa (Unisa), Bachelor of Science (BSc.) in Economics from University of London, Bachelor of Laws (LLB) from University of London, Master of Law (LL.M) from University of London, and Master of Science (MSc.) in Economics from University of London, in addition to 14 honorary degrees from both local and international universities, out of which three (all from international universities) have been revoked.

The first striking thing from the report is that all of these heads of state have at least one degree from an overseas university, while the majority of them have all their degrees abroad. The second is that all of the 10 heads of state have at least one Master’s degree, while six of them have Doctorate degrees, with some boasting of even more than one.

The first question to ask is why all of these African heads of went to get degrees abroad. One answer may be that as at the time some of them went to school, their countries did not have enough facilities to help them achieve their educational aspirations. Another possibility is that it was in line with the thinking that higher institutions in the coloniser’s country would invariably be infinitely better than anything you would get in the colonised country. After all, the coloniser brought the education; he could have left the original in his home country and brought the imitation to the colonies.

Whatever the case, the other question is what these heads of state have done with the quality education they received, whether overseas or in Africa. Have these numerous degrees translated into good governance in their respective countries? Has their education brought about improved quality of life for their people in all ramifications? Have they replicated the quality of education they received elsewhere in their home countries through massive investment in schools? One would need further research to answer these nagging questions. But the fact is, as Teiresuas says in Sophocles’ Oedipus Rex, “When wisdom brings no profit, to be wise is to suffer.

Education is no doubt a great tool for development. The great Madiba, Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela, reputedly said that education is the most powerful weapon with which you can change the world. “No country can really develop unless its citizens are educated. Any nation that is progressive is led by people who have had the privilege of studying,” he said.

Malcom X, the late African-American human rights activist, also said, “Education is our passport to the future, for tomorrow belongs to the people who prepare for it today.”

But when education fails to bring about development, it invariably brings about the opposite. Then, it boils down to education for underdevelopment, the title of a sub-chapter in Walter Rodney’s How Europe Underdeveloped Africa.

The curse of Sisyphus

CHUKS OLUIGBO

Six years ago when Nigeria marked the golden jubilee of its political independence, a handful of budding and established writers in Owerri, the Imo State capital, under the aegis of Mbari Literary Society decided to stage a mini poetry contest around the theme of Nigeria at 50. The literary output was overwhelming and, expectedly, all the works turned in were lamentations.

Nnenna Ihebom, social commentator, newspaper columnist and multiple award-winning author of Patriots and Sinners, submitted “Memories”, a poem that laments how “The feel of newfound freedom” that ushered in “the birth of a baby state”, “The thunderous shouts of joy / That greeted morning light / The proclamation hoisted / At the peak of a towering dream” have given way to “tombs of virile dreams” and urges that “cannons hold their peace / Let drummers stop the noise / Let the healing job be done / Then the morn of joy may dawn”.

Chidozie Chukwubuike, playwright, teacher and author of The Poet Wept and Other Poems, who recently completed his tenure as chairman of the Association of Nigerian Authors (ANA), Imo State chapter, wrote “Golden Jubileeation”, in which the poet-persona, addressing a hypothetical character called “Country man”, unleashes a barrage of rhetorical questions, such as when “the ‘G’ of our greatness vaporised / And the `I' of ancestral intelligence vanished / Leaving behind the ant in Giant / The …ant of Africa”. Distraught that after “Fifty years of toil without a hill / The ant remains in the hole / Wallowing in self pity”, the persona asks: “What shall we sing / For this ant at fifty?”

Ikenna D. Ebuenyi’s “At Two Scores and Ten” decries how “A quasi union / Was foisted / On a people of diverse thoughts / Forced to speak alike / The cacophony of / This marriage cries / Like Babel to high heavens”.

Henry Chidubem wrote “Blooms in Seasons of Adversity”, and Yours Truly submitted “Cursed Shadow of a Blessed Woman”. And there were a couple of other submissions that I can’t readily recall their titles.

That evening, as we all gathered at a small hall within the precincts of Imo State Council for Arts and Culture (a.k.a Mbari Cultural Centre) in Owerri to listen to all the poets render their lines, it was like a commemoration of the sad chapters of Nigeria’s history.

In the end, the amiable Uche Peter Umez, award-winning author of Dark through the Delta and other books, who came in handy as the judge of the day, picked “Cursed Shadow of a Blessed Woman” as the winning poem. Below is the full text of the poem: 

“Years back I saw through a crack in the wall / the cursed shadow of a blessed woman / struggling frantically, sweating profusely / through a chequered life; / headless, blinded, fettered, crippled / by years on end of violent rape / by depraved minds, foreign and local; / incapacitated by decades of forced marriages, / of extorted passionless kisses, of host-parasite unions, / of perjured oaths, of solemn vows / broken between the vestry and the altar, / and, o! –

“I looked again this morning and there it was still – / an adult country crawling clumsily / on its underbelly like an overfed python, / and I wondered aloud: / how much longer shall we linger / in this wilderness? / And who will answer the riddle / of these vile enchanters? / Who? O who?”

Today, at the dawn of Nigeria’s 56^th independence anniversary, as I reflect on those poems of 2010, I realise how much worse things have become ever since and how deeper down the cesspool we have sunk. It reminds me of Sisyphus.

In Greek mythology, Sisyphus, the son of King Aeolus of Thessaly and Enarete, was the founder and first king of Ephyra (Corinth). He was avaricious and deceitful; the craftiest of men. Sisyphus seduced his niece, took his brother's throne, and committed numerous offences against the gods, such as betraying Zeus’ secrets.

When Zeus ordered Thanatos (Death personified) to chain Sisyphus in Tartarus, Sisyphus outwitted Thanatos and chained him instead. As a punishment from the gods for his trickery, Sisyphus was condemned to roll a particular huge rock up a steep hill, only to watch it roll back down, forcing him to begin again, and to repeat this throughout eternity. In other words, he was bound to an eternity of frustration.

This, sadly, is the Nigerian story. Fifty-six years after independence, Nigeria is still at the foot of the same steep hill where it began in 1960, still struggling in vain to roll up the same rock, still trying to solve the innumerable bottlenecks that have held it down almost since the dawn of creation – leadership deficit, tribalism/ethnicism, widespread corruption, social injustice and inequality, indiscipline, etc. 

Over the decades, it has been all motion without movement. Rather than improve, things have gone from bad to worse as each problem continues to reproduce its kind and assume wider dimensions. 

Today, as I write, things keep getting worse. As the economy continues to totter on the edge of a cataclysmic chasm and more and more Nigerians cross the red line into the region of abject poverty, the lamentation in the land has reached sobering proportions. The saddest part is that there are no signs that things are going to get better tomorrow.

So, I ask again, “How much longer shall we linger in this wilderness? And who will answer the riddle of these vile enchanters? Who? O who?

Do you understand government people? Because I don’t

CHUKS OLUIGBO

An old schoolmate who lives in the United States of America recently shared how a few years ago he returned to Owerri, the Imo State capital, where he grew up, and wanted to renovate the basketball courts in which he played while growing up, but the government people asked him to bribe them first before they would allow him to do it.

The old schoolmate also narrated how his family got sued by the Ideato North Local Government of Imo State, his home local government, for fixing the dilapidated road leading to their family house in the village.

"We got sued by our local government for fixing the road to our house in the village when my grandma died! We approached the authorities and begged them to help us and they refused, but people were coming for the funeral and the roads were bad, so we had to do something,” he says.

“We tried everything. Even when we fixed the road, we used the local government tractors and machines and we paid for the job. We paid them for their services to fix their road and still got sued. And even the local government chairman and his officials came to the funeral and enjoyed too. My father bought septic cement pipes to rebuild the roads but after the lawsuit, they were left there and are still there till date. You want to help and you are told to bribe government officials to do their work they abandoned!"

It may sound strange to some, but it’s an all too familiar story. We often hear of how government people are preventing public-spirited individuals or organisations from rehabilitating roads or providing other essential services to the people, services that government itself has failed to provide. Sometimes too we hear about traditional rulers (so-called royal fathers) that ask for bribes from government before projects could be done in their communities.

There is a road just off the Apapa-Oshodi Expressway in Lagos leading into and out of Ajegunle through a place called Otto Wharf. Residents refer to that whole area as Orege. If you pull down the walls separating both of them, that link road might as well be within the premises of the German construction firm Julius Berger, which Nigerians have come to see as the grandmaster, the be-all-and-end-all of road construction. But if you ever have the misfortune of passing through that road, whether during the dry or rainy season, you wouldn’t need to go elsewhere to locate that valley of shadow of death mentioned in the 23rd Psalm of the Holy Bible. You'd ask yourself how hell came to be so close to heaven, how such a terrible nightmare of a road could sit side by side with the offices of Julius Berger, and why the highly revered construction firm couldn't just fix the road as part of its Corporate Social Responsibility.

I once asked the question myself. The gist about town is that several times Julius Berger, as a socially-responsible company, had wanted to do the road and bring relief to commuters, but the local government people refused. I guess that would be Ajeromi-Ifelodun. I’m yet to confirm this gist from the local government authorities, but it’s believable given previous experience.

You would wonder why a government would do that. I’m wondering too. That’s why ask, do you understand government people? Do you understand how their brains work? If you have a clue, I’d really like to know, because I don’t understand.

Providing necessary services to the people is a very critical role of government. It is appalling when you see government not fulfilling this role, with all the money in its vaults, but it’s heartbreaking when the same government prevents individuals or institutions from providing these same services it has failed to provide.

Truth is that many Nigerian people do not feel the impact of government, except in the negative sense – through terrible gullies that pass as roads, epileptic or non-existent electricity power supply, taps that do not exist or have run dry, a ban on essential commodities that we do not have the capacity to produce without a corresponding policy to cushion the adverse impact, or heavy taxation on essential services that people have provided for themselves because government abdicated its responsibility in the first place.

That’s why many people in Nigeria carry on with their lives not caring whether there is a government or not. Self-help has always been the word. “If you want electricity, you buy your own generator; if you want water, you sink your own borehole; if you want to travel, you set up your own airline. One day soon, said a friend of mine, you will have to build your own post office to send your letters,” Chinua Achebe wrote in his 1983 book The Trouble with Nigeria.

And then, governments in Nigeria don’t seem to agree that a stitch in time saves nine. No. They won’t stitch that tear until it becomes many thousands. A small ditch on the road won’t be fixed until it becomes a gully and the road becomes impassable. Go round and see for yourself. They want to see people suffer first: several mishaps, broken limbs here, cracked skulls there, vehicles crushed beyond repair, scores of death.

A few weeks ago, it took an avalanche of ugly newspaper articles and audio-visual reports to attract the attention of the Federal Government to the disaster lurking at the section of the Apapa Bridge leading out of the city that harbours the country’s two most important ports. The Minister of Power, Works and Housing visited Apapa to see things for himself and, eventually, the outbound bridge was closed to traffic for a number of days for temporary repairs. But at that time, the approach to the bridge, even up to the foot of the bridge, was too bad to be ignored, but the government turned a blind eye. Now pockets of ever-widening gullies have rendered the road impassable. What next?

Talk about wastefulness! Imagine a government committing huge sums of taxpayers’ (or oil) money into a project, does the project halfway, and then abandons it! Evidence of this is everywhere – they call them white elephant projects. Or that a government claims to have completed a multibillion-naira project, commissions it with pomp and pageantry (oh, that phrase!), and then, years down the line, the project is not put into any use. Or that a government awards a contract worth billions of naira and does not follow up on it. Years later, citizens are told that a certain road is in a state of disrepair because those who got the contracts to do it pocketed the money without executing the contracts, and nobody is arrested, nobody is queried, nobody is prosecuted, nobody goes to jail.

Sadly, in all of this, the people are the worst losers.

Nigeria: Brothels, bars, lotto centres boom despite recession

CHUKS OLUIGBO & OBINNA EMELIKE

It was a rainy Wednesday morning in September. Businesses were anxious to open shop and workers were excited to resume work after a long Sallah holiday, but the heavy rain kept many indoors except a few car owners.

When the rain finally stopped, after three hours of downpour, a man was shocked to see the car of his neighbour that drove out in the rain parked at a popular junction. He went closer thinking the car broke down. To his greatest surprise, Daddy Loveth, his neighbour who works in an insurance company, was inside a makeshift lotto kiosk to review his lotto tickets and to book new slots for games the lotto operator insisted were "sure banker".

"So, you have money to play Baba Ijebu even at this time of the day, but none to pay for your street security levy and electricity bills. I have to get a prepaid meter," the disappointed man said.

The lotto addict ignored his neighbour and continued on his search for winning games. What marvelled the man was that despite the economic recession, Daddy Loveth, a perpetual debtor who barely managed his car, still spent money on lotto.

On further investigation, Mummy Loveth revealed that her husband spent close to N5,000 everyday on lotto and had won a net of N700,000 in four years, which he also used in staking for new games.

Daddy Loveth is not alone. He is only one of the millions of Nigerians whose lifestyles defy basic rules of economics. When hard times hit, like the current economic recession in Nigeria, it is only reasonable – and good economics too – for people to adjust their lifestyles and cut their expenses, especially frivolous, unnecessary and extravagant expenditures, and reorder their priorities in response to rising cost of living and less income flow.

There are, however, certain lifestyles that seem not to conform to this basic law of economic survival. Amid biting hardship, indulgees in these habits still ride high without flinching.

Gambling/betting

Like Daddy Loveth, many gamblers/betters have not been dissuaded by the worsening economic situation in the country as lotto centres across the country, especially in Lagos, still brim over with addicts who, rather than adjust their lifestyle, stake even more money even at the expense of their families’ needs.

Our investigations show that, in fact, many more young people have joined the chorus as it appears that gambling is the new employment in town. This is boosted by the fact that there are now many offline gaming and sports betting centres available across the country as well as many online betting sites.

Apart from traditional betting, such as the popular Baba Ijebu in Lagos, betting platforms have practically proliferated in Nigeria in the last couple of years, drawing in many more young people whose participation is made easier by the increasing penetration of mobile telephony and access to mobile data.

Our check revealed the presence of such sports betting centres as BET365NAIJA, 360BET, SUREBET247, NAIRABET, BET9JA, 1960BET, MERRYBET, BETREPUBLICANA, BETCOLONY, LOVINGBET, as well as online betting sites like www.9japredict.com, www.mybet9ja.com, www.winnersgoldenbet.com, www.winnersbet.ng, www.betcolonyafrica.com, www.parknbet.net, www.stakersden.com, www.sportybet.com, www.sportsbet.com, www.kickoffbet.com, www.nairastake.com, among numerous others.

Chisom Okanumee, a student of the Federal Polytechnic, Nekede, Owerri, Imo State, who worked part-time in a betting centre near the polytechnic until recently, said that many students were engaging in betting as a pastime, while many others are attracted by the prospect of winning it big, having seen one or two students who hit the jackpot in the past.

“It’s very risky because it is a chance game. It’s gambling. There is no much calculation or any form of analysis involved. You can only win if luck is on your side, otherwise you will keep losing,” Okanumee said.

“But it can also be very rewarding when you win. And while working at BET9JA in Owerri, I witnessed quite a couple of winnings, and it felt so good for the winners. But I don’t personally bet. I am a risk taker, no doubt, but I take only calculated risks. I don’t play that kind of chance game,” he added.

Indeed, a 2014 report by the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) revealed that about 60 million Nigerians between 18 and 40 years of age may be spending up to N1.8 billion on sports betting daily. According to the investigation, these gamblers commit on the average N3,000 daily on sports betting.

Our checks on betting centres around Lagos showed that these numbers may not have been affected by the economic downturn in the country as gamblers, especially young people, were seen trooping in and out of these centres with pieces of paper.

“Money is not an issue for a gambler. A real gambler can bet his car, his house, even his wife or his mother. A gambler is an incurable optimism; he always hopes to win, and he does not understand that times are hard,” said a betting analyst who craved anonymity.

Overflowing beer parlours

At the beer parlours, alcohol drinkers are still having a field day as a keen observer will notice growing patronage at local bars these days. Before now, weekends were usually the peak of beer drinking across bars. But our investigations reveal that nowadays bars are getting considerable patronage during the weekdays despite the fact that beer is no longer cheap.

On the average, bars do not sell beer at normal rates, especially those that provide viewing centre, air conditioner or any form of comfort.

At Momentum, a popular bar in Isolo, Lagos, a bottle of beer goes for N300, while same brand is sold at N400 at another bar just opposite. Yet, some beer lovers visit nearby Felixity Hotel to drink at N500 per bottle as status symbol.

If you do a little mathematics, if patrons drink an average of three bottles each, that amounts to N900 or N1,200, excluding pepper soup and barbecue that complement it. But the three bottles amount to N1,500 in the hotel. Of course, those who claim to be ‘big boys’ go to five-star hotels where a bottle of beer goes from N1,000.

"Some patrons drink as much as six bottles each, especially during football matches. Many are combining it with red wine, but those who drink the most are those who don't have money. They claim that drinking makes them to forget their sorrows," an attendant at the popular Nwanyi Nteje Bar in Festac, Lagos, who simply identified herself as Nma, said.

Other alcohol lovers who cannot afford the costly beer brands go for the cheaper ones, while yet others settle for the various brands of spirits, especially bitters, laced with Fayrouz or other soft drinks.  

Our checks showed that there are many of these bitters drinks, most of which come very cheap and affordable. They include Alomo Bitters, Baby Oku De Man-Power Alcoholic Bitter Drink, Kerewa Bitters, Skelewu Bitters, Pakurumo Bitters, Action Bitters, Power Bitters, Maximo Bitters, Oganla Bitters, Heritage Bitters, Koboko Bitters, Ogidiga Bitters, Agbara Bitters, Kuemmerling, Dr. Iguedo’s Goko Alcoholic Bitters, Asheitu Adams Bitters, Beta Cleanser Bitters, Ruzu Herbal Bitters, Swedish Bitters, Opa Eyin Bitters, Osomo Bitters, Oroki Bitters, Washing and Setting, Kparaga, Monkey Shoulder, Kogbela, Ibile, Durosoke, Dadubule, Ogidigba, Pasa Bitters, 24/7, among others.

“A mixture of any of these bitters with Fayrouz or even Fanta gives you a very smooth taste, and with their very high alcoholic content, you will definitely get intoxicated faster than a beer drinker,” said Akin Daramola, a bar attendant in Satellite Town, Lagos.  

But do people really drink away their sorrow? Nelson Eku, a physiologist, said that drinking to drink away sorrow was coined and popularized by bar owners to stimulate patrons.

"It is a momentary relief. You get sad on realizing that more financial obligations await you on recovering from the influence of the beer that made you to feel less concerned a moment ago," he explained.

On average, a beer drinker can save N1,000 every day, N7,000 every week, N28,000 every month and N336,000 annually from cutting his drinking or stopping entirely. But the question is, how do people whose incomes are not up to N28,000 monthly manage to sustain their beer drinking habit in these difficult times? The answer is simple: addiction that has over time forced them to sustain lifestyles that truly defy economics.

"One can afford to live in luxury when there is surplus, and frugally in austerity. Austerity is staring on our faces but people are yet to adjust. It is a habit that has over time become a lifestyle. They will always find money to drink, borrow to drink, share with others, but hardly consider cutting down on their consumption level," Eku said.

Booming brothels

While addiction to beer drinking has become a lifestyle for some people, regular revellers are not also giving up on their visits to brothels. Despite the biting hardship, patrons of the world’s oldest profession are still doing their thing.

Our findings reveal that grand patrons of the ladies of the night still retire into the laps of some Eves in these brothels after a hard day’s job, the prevalent biting austerity in the land notwithstanding. And the women of easy virtue are still seen filing out in the dark on the streets, cocksure that there is still patronage out there.

“No matter how bad the economy is, I’ll always come here to answer the call of nature. I am not married yet, so after the stress I go through in the day time hustling for money, at least I need somebody to comfort me. This is where I come to find that solace. I have a regular customer here,” a young man of about 35 who said he’s a commercial bus driver said at one of the brothels on Old Ojo Road, near Agboju Market, Lagos.

Depending on the class of prostitutes, the location and timing, a night timeout with a prostitute, our investigations show, will cost nothing less than N5,000.

We took a risk of stopping by at a brothel before Ilewe Bus Stop on Ejigbo-Ikotun Road in Lagos. A prostitute who posed as Shama told our correspondent that a whole night service, professionally called till-day-break or TDB, costs N10,000. On pricing it down and pressing for consideration as a resident of Ikotun, the prostitute who is a secondary school dropout suggested a half-night stay in a room in the brothel for N5,000. 

While the bargain was still going on, a car stopped by and Shama entered, telling our correspondent: “This Oga is correct, him no dey ask for price. See Mama Pikin there, she dey give N2,000 show.” Afterwards, she slammed the car door and the driver zoomed off.  

When we visited some red districts in Ojo Road, Ajegunle, Lagos, it was discovered that the brothels were still filled to the brim and overflowing as men and their catches for the night sat out nursing their beer bottles in readiness for the long night ahead.

Of course, night clubbers, big time gamblers and casino players still stake millions on casino tables even as we speak. For them, life is not complete without those things they have developed as lifestyle, and they will not let any economic situation deter them from indulging in such fun.

Considering the economic crunch, it is only those who have made visits to prostitutes a lifestyle thing that will still go for their services. But with the activities inside and outside the brothel, there is huge patronage for the services of these easy-life ladies. 

“But where do these guys get their money in these hard times?” asked one driver whose car was blocked by the car of a patron of the brothel who was finding it difficult to reverse.

Well, as rhetoric as that question sounded, the simple answer is that there is no money anywhere. The patrons of these brothels are also facing hard times, but the fact remains that their regular visit is a habit formed over time, and this habit has become a lifestyle that they cannot do without, no matter the economic realities.

“Guys must enjoy,” one patron of the night said.