Valentine’s Day means more revenues to hoteliers, gift shops, drinking joints, restaurants and many other businesses. But IPOB’s sit-at-home rules out the South East from the economic bonanza
By Ishaya Ibrahim, News Editor
The business windfall Valentine’s Day offers hoteliers, drinking joints, restaurants, eateries, boutiques, transportation and many other sectors of the economy, will be missed in the South East on Monday, February 14.
The Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB), will rigidly enforce its Monday sit-at-home mandate, and may not ease it for any Valentine’s Day celebration.
IPOB is protesting the trial of its leader, Mazi Nnamdi Kanu, and may not heed any plea to ease movements because of Valentine’s Day.
In the past, IPOB had locked down the South East and denied students taking part in a particular WAEC examination which clashed with the Monday sit-at-home. Ease of movement on Monday is out of the question.
Valentine’s Day is a one day spending event. Lovers break the bank to express their love, especially the young ones.
Nigeria has no reliable data to show the spike in spending on Valentine’s Day, so we may have to cite data in other climes to make the point. After all, spending behaviours on Valentine’s Day is the same everywhere.
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In 2019, the National Retail Federation in the United States of America reported that Valentine’s Day shoppers added $20.7 billion to the economy, compared to $19.2 billion in 2018.
On Valentine’s Day, there is always a spending exuberance on gifts, drinks, transportation, food, hotel lodging, nightclubs, and even on illicit stuffs like drugs and condoms (only as it affects premarital sex).
The reason for the spending bazaar around Valentine is because love is an expensive venture, and Valentine’s Day offers lovers an opportunity to make that point.
But while lovers make the point about their love with their pockets, businesses make a kill. But in the South East, the largely trading economy will have to take this loss again, but hoping that by next year’s valentine, the federal government and IPOB may have come to an amicable resolution of the dispute.