Street parties, or more appropriately, people organising parties with streets as the venue, are back in Lagos, an aberration Fashola’s administration not only outlawed, but stopped in 2008. Just this past weekend, a major street in the Yaba axis was partially blocked for a party held smack in the middle of the road. Pray, why are we really like this?
It appears we are never content if we don’t inconvenience others. Feyi Olugbodun, in his excellent book, The Villager, in which he talked about the African consumer, surmised that the African (read: Nigerian) is very outward facing, more performative, and has the need to validate his status by being acknowledged by others. As in, my jeep is bigger than yours. See, I can close the street to celebrate for two days to mark my babe’s birthday. Can you do that for your wife? Although my thoughts diverged from his somewhat when I read the book a couple of years back, with the return of parties to the streets, I think his view of the African consumer is spot on.
For many years, Lagos residents had respite from noise pollution from religious activities, street parties and trading at major road intersections. Now, you can’t sleep at night because of some casting of demons during all night prayer and when you manage to fall asleep at 3am, it is disrupted by a call to prayer at 5am. One of the major causes of traffic jams is traders and betting kiosks taking over setbacks of some major road intersections. In fact, their effrontery knows no bounds, staking claims on portions of roads by using tyres and boulders to extend their spaces, further making roads smaller.
One may be accused of capping unnecessarily. The negative impact of street parties can be felt many kilometres from the frolickers because of the way Lagos is interconnected. Take, for instance, the partiers that blocked Queens Street, Yaba this past Saturday. Traffic spilled into Herbert Macaulay all the way to Adekunle!
I had even a worse experience in 2005. A party was organised in the middle of University Road, close to UNILAG main gate, completely blocking the road from 12noon till the following day. Traffic was diverted to other streets. Can you believe such level of insanity?
Banning street parties led to the opening of a new business sector, event centres, creating jobs and wealth but most importantly, bringing a measure of sanity to Lagos. Unfortunately, we appear to be running fast back to a better forgotten past.
The current government has been quite lenient in enforcing laws, perhaps taking on the disposition of its chief executive, Governor Jide Sanwolu who is said to be kind-hearted and feels a kindred spirit with the economically less advantaged. But, if laws are enforced and there is sanity in the society, everybody benefits. Taking a cue from his okada ban, sanity has returned to major roads. While writing this column, it was announced the ban has been extended to many more local governments. Well done, Governor! Please, enforce the law on staging parties on roads.
Enough of the griping. This week, we bring you a list of five of the best hangout spots in Ibadan, the Oyo State capital. We know how difficult it is deciding where to go to relax, so you find people becoming habituated to the same watering hole. Our list is a guide. You could check all of them out to see which of the spots offers the best deal and customer service. If you do, buzz us on info@meiza.ng or drop a comment on any of our social media handles. We’d like to know what you think of our list.
We are about to enter fully into electioneering. It’s important to keep a proper perspective of the process and don’t get caught up in some of the rather unsavoury aspects. We can support our candidates and still maintain our friendships. And one of the best ways to deepen our relationships is to hang out together, check out fun places and, just for one moment, forget it’s the political season. Your surest guide for finding the best places in Nigeria is meiza.ng.
So, keep reading and sharing your thoughts with us.
Adewole Ojo
Ayodelé is a Lagos-based journalist and the Content and Editorial Coordinator at Meiza. All around the megacity, I am steering diverse lifestyle magazine audiences with ingenious hacks and insights that spur fast, informed decisions in their busy lives.
