Return of the Night

After many years of lull, night life picks up in Lagos, as new outlets spring up

By Tony Egbulefu & Osamudiamen Ogbonmwan

Passing through downtown Opebi-Allen about 10p.m, one gets more than enough to behold about night life in the city of Lagos. By this time, the volume of commercial vehicle traffic has drastically ebbed, giving way to private cars and chartered cabs– a good number of which empty their occupants at fun destinations spread through the Opebi-Allen stretch, all bearing eloquent testimony to a resurging night life in the city.

Interview

“Our deal at The Q ” –Ndubuisi Mgbeahurike, vice president, The Q night club By Osamudiamen Ogbonmwan ow did you come about setting up a night club? It's been a long dream. The president of the company has always been in the line of entertainment for a while now. I came into it hoping I could help him tidy his documents and the legal part of his business until he showed me how much fun one could derive from entertainment. This is what we've been doing from the streets of Washington DC in the United States of America, Los Angeles and presently in Toronto, Canada. When did you start setting up this place? We started building this place sometime last year. But really this place has been in operation now for about 60 days. We've been doing a test-run of the place and it has been wonderful. The response from people who troop in is awesome. I am overwhelmed by the patronage. People come in to encourage us from the (Lagos) Island and far away. How do you feel about other clubs which have been existing before yours? Are you not concerned about competition? Basically, some people call it competition but I call it co-operation. If you prefer calling it competition, no problem, but I think that is what would drive us to do better. We are not afraid of competition. We'll just carve a niche for ourselves. We've got gadgets you'll never find in any other club in this country. Every club has its clients. Even if its 50, 100 or 200 who come in here, we want to give them our very best. We have champaign buckets, metal detectors to make our client safe and special. Would you say Nigerians are now more alive to night life? Night life in Nigeria has gone through phases. It goes up and down. The way it is now, we know we can do better. Most people who run away from night life are those who are conscious of security but I believe that the security, system is getting better just as the economy is. People are coming out to enjoy themselves. But it can get better as it used to be in the old days when people came out at nights to unwind in a relaxed atmostphere. I hear you do quite a lot of shows here. Yes, that's one of the packages we have here. Nigeria has come a long way in entertainment. So what we are doing is trying to encourage and assist artistes. We do whatever we can to bring them to limelight and its been very interesting and interactive. We don't have a stage were artistes are miles away from fans. We have a stage where fans can see their idols and touch them and don't see them as being larger than life. What are those activities you often line up for client, that you think keep bringing them back? We have shows for people who can't come out at night on Sundays between the hours of 12p.m - 6p.m. It's called The Q-trend . On Tuesdays are ladies nights, Wednesdays are Karokee nights Thursdays for old school, Fridays for Q-party and Saturday and Sunday nights for dance-hall party. In a few years time, how do you envisage night life and clubbing would fare? Well, as far as show business and entertainment is concern, I know the sky is the limit. In five years time, I see The Q in Abuja and Port Harcourt. Also, we intend to work with people as long as what they are doing is legitimate to move the country forward. See, going a club is not wasting one self. It is a place you go to unwind and also interact with other professionals. You can meet someone that can discuss business worth multi million naira and so on. Finally, what does Q stand for? Q is an acronym for Quality. Essentially, I am Ndubisi Mgbeahurike but friends call me Black . 'Am from Mbaise in Imo State and I live in Lagos. I am the Vice President of The Q , a new club in Lagos.

At Opebi, the newly opened Page night club has combined with Do-it-All and Options to position the area effectively as a red-light district. At weekends, for instance, the vicinities hosting these three night clubs teem with fun-seekers, especially sexually active youngmen and women, and the young at heart. Similar scenes replicate on Isaac John Street, Ikeja GRA, which hosts Sandra Bar and Metro Park .

But the spectacle one beholds within the ambience of nightclubs, as the night falls, pales in both significance and inanity, when weighed against what obtains on the days of free night clubbing for ladies. Free night outing for ladies, by Lagos nightclubs, as it were, has proved to be an effective marketing strategy that exerts irresistible pull on both men and women. On such nights, ladies file out in droves, certain that the allure of a large pool of them would draw out the men. And a visit to The Q night club, Page, Do-it-All, Option, Sandra Bar, Metro Park and any other club for that matter on such free night for ladies, tells convincingly that the Lagos ladies, know very well how to predict the men.

Night clubs, no doubt, are resurging as ideal hang-outs for fun lovers. And it seems that the days are gone when all there was, was to drink, dance, and perhaps hit ‘ cloud seven ' with the opposite sex.

Ndubisi Mgbeahuruike, Vice President of The Q night club , which made its entry about two months ago, told The Source that aside being a place for unwinding, present day night clubs, afford rendezvous for professionals to meet and interact. “You can meet someone that can enhance your career. Clubbing is a complete package. It's not only for ‘let's drink and dance. You can discuss business worth multi-million naira and so on.”

For the purpose of elevating night clubs from mere tarverns and dance halls, night club operators now lace their menu with a variety of shows– which are days and time specific– such that the clubber, depending on what he wishes to savour, can have a choice of day and time, he may visit his favourite night club.

For instance, a variety of shows such as ladies night, Karokee night, old school party, dance-hall party and celebrity nights are hosted on different days of the week by night clubs and at specific times.

As night life comes alive in Ikeja with Page, The Q, Colliseum, Options, Sandra Bar, Metro Park and Do-it-All, Base 2, D Vault, 11.45 and Y-Not , keep the highbrow Victoria Island agog at night. Though some of the present night clubs are elitist and attract as much as N5,000 entry fee, they all buzz with patronisers, such that their environments tend to become more alive and busy in the night than in the day.

There is little doubt that this high patronage volume translates to good business for the operators. Though only about two months in operation, Mgbeahurike says business in The Q has been wonderful. “We have been doing a test-run of this place, and it has been wonderful. The response from people who troop in is awesome. I am overwhelmed by the patronage. People come in to encourage us from the Island and far away. We are about to take-off fully now and we are optimistic that greater things are on the way”, he told The Source .

A testimony to the boom is the rapidity with which night clubs are mushrooming. In Ikeja, Page and The Q surfaced few months back, while yet another is about to join from Maryland. D Vault , which came on board about a year ago, is owned and run by expatriates.

The resurgence in Lagos night life, apart from the urge to unwind, also hinges firmly on impaired entertainment packages of the present night clubs and, of course, emphasis placed on security. Incidences of frequent run-ins are becoming few and far in- between due to security and moderated behaviours. Indeed, some of the night clubs now stipulate dress codes, in a bid to screen out social miscreants. Security is further enhanced in a good number of them with the presence of both the police and private security operatives. As Mgbeahurike told The Source , “we have metal detectors. This is to make our clients safe and special”.

The import of the enhanced organisational and managerial content in night clubs is such that has made night clubbing in the city an attraction for the upwardly mobile and the enlightened. The improvements so far witnessed, however, owe a lot to competition. Mgbeahurike, in fact told The Source that the current competition “drives us to do better. We've got gadgets you will never find in any other club in this country”. Though the competition is mounting, Mgbeahurike is of the believe that every night club would continue to enjoy good business. This, he said, anchors on the fact that every club has its patrons, which it must have earned through niche-marketing.

Despite the plaudits in the present Lagos night clubs and night clubbing, its downsides are expressed in increased prostitution as evidenced in the horde of scarlet women that crowd the ambient of night clubs, every other night. The ladies, who obviously cannot afford to pay their way into some of the clubs, loiter about, prospecting for men. For a fling, during the prime time of between 10 and 12 midnight, the ladies go for N500, and hurry to the street to continue their trade. “Take away”, till the break of dawn, within prime time, can cost as much as between N3,000 to N5,000.

When male patrons become too few and the struggle to grab any man available becomes fierce among the ladies, especially from the early hours of the morning, a fling can go as low as between N100 and N200– and it can happen just anywhere: the street corner, behind a tree or inside a car. To those involved, “it is night life, anything can happen under the cover of darkness, as one crawler put it.”