Hardship: How poor families bribe ways into parties just to feed

Poor Nigerians

A few years back, one could walk into a party as an invited or uninvited guest, eat, drink and even go home with bags full of varieties of food, if he or she wishes.

But those days are gone. Today, the strained economy has affected such lifestyles.

Very few people even get invited to parties now, as a few who can afford to host parties reduce the number of invitees and restrict access to the barest minimum.

I’ve been selling Ice cream with bicycle for 57 years; I need shop and freezer-

But, in an economy that can eat it’s own people, such that Nigeria runs today, people also desperately design means to survive. In most circumstances, the means are not conventional. They are mostly woven around ‘the end justifies the means’ crude analogy

Certain that their little earnings cannot hold their families some average Nigerian households move into the towns, search for where parties are held, bribe the gate keepers and guest tenders alike, to feed themselves and even get packed remnants to serve them for the next day

This strategy according to those who spoke to Economy&Lifestyle work, because both the gatekeepers and guest tenders also suffer same fate. They have very lean and strained pockets.

An eye witness account, Mrs Alade Shodimu, shocked beyond marrows at the new development, said: “I find it difficult to describe what I witness in some parties today. I don’t know whether to put it on the bad economy or on the decayed moral fabrics. The situation where a woman leaves her house, goes to a party venue, bribe the men at the gate to enter the ceremony and also pay the food bearers to get take-away packs of food, defies sound principles; but it now happens regularly”.

Continuing, Shodimu, a lace fabrics merchant in Lagos Island, narrated: “I attended the child dedication ceremony of one of my customers recently in Ikeja. At first, I was shocked that my customer whom I knew to be flamboyant, only had a few guests and access to the venue was restricted to only those with invitation cards.