Ask Abuja night crawlers about nightlife in the capital city, they
will tell you that Fridays and Saturdays remain the best days to hit the
club. During the week days, folks without the fear of terrorist attacks
can unwind at the countless beer gardens in the city center and
suburbs.Not even the fear of bomb attacks has reduced the penchant for hanging out in the open among residents of Abuja. The city gardens make the cafes in cities like France and Berlin look like a child’s play, especially when judged by the amount of booze and foods consumed in these places.
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A look around the city and a recent visit by Abuja Metro and some friends to the popular City Park, Wuse 2 on a Friday night proved this. On the night, a few people played tennis at the well lit lawn tennis court at the fun spot while majority took drinks and enjoyed Nigerian small chops like nkwobi, roasted ‘point and kill’ cat fish and different recipes of pepper soup.
After sharing ideas on which nightclub to hit, the friends settled for the Celebrities Nightclub at the Nanet Suites in the Central Area. Nanet Suites is managed by the duo of Ini and Lizzy Akpabio. The popular society couple has been in the hospitality and tourism sector for a long time and the hotels they run have managed to stay in competition even when some hotspots have come and gone.
After settling for the Celebrities Nightclub, the confidence was certain that a great time was surely on the way. The team of fun seekers left City Park by 11 pm and arrived the club ten minutes later. They were definitely among the early birds. Indeed, in Abuja, it’s better to step into the club around midnight. But the early callers have the benefit of choosing where to sit as the seats still remain vacant. But at such times, fun seekers at clubs have to endure the chill of air conditioners since the audience was still sparse.
Celebrities Nightclub has a good interior with six LCD TV sets, a well stocked bar and lights just bright enough for you to see only those who want to be seen. There are iron chairs and table in the middle of rectangle shaped club with the cushion settees lined up on both sides. The D.J boot is at the end of the club and on the night, two guys where in charge of the turn table.
Before the club got packed, the D.Js dwelled on old school tracks most especially from the 90s with songs from American musicians like Tupac, the Notorious B.I.G and Blackstreet. Once the dance floor came to life, it was Nigerian artistes all the way. From Burna Boy to Wizkid, P-Square, Yemi Alade and Davido, the D.Js had fun seekers on their feet dancing the night away. Though like some other high profile hang outs, the management at Celebrities Nightclub doesn’t charge gate fees, the pricing of food and drinks has a way of sieving the chaff from the wheat. And when waiters wait for your order and it doesn’t come, you are politely asked to leave as it seems the folks at this club don’t like hangers -on. At this swanky club, there are no bottles, all the beer and soft drinks are in cans. A bottle of wine, we soon find out is N6,000. When it was time to cool off, 75 CL bottled water was served at N400 a piece. But stuff like pepper soup and sandwiches start from around N1,000. Unlike the menu, there is no jacket detailing drinks available and their prices.
When informed of how much a bottle of wine costs, you understand many that call in step out immediately they are confronted with the cost of items.
For instance, a group of three ladies found the exit door immediately they were served what looked like champagne. The fleeing trio weren’t the only ones that smoked that night, they were even a few sisha smokers in the house. Experts say one sisha session is equivalent to 200 sticks of cigarettes. But this fact isn’t a problem to the girls around the club who held the pipe from the sisha bottle, puffing away for long periods.
Exotic dancing, just like sisha smoking is becoming common place at Abuja nightclubs. No hotspot worth its salt in the capital city operates without nice looking exotic dancers. At the Celebrities Nightclub, the exotic dancers certainly made the night more interesting. Amazingly, it was female clubbers who ‘sprayed’ the dancers much more than the men. Despite how much liquor was consumed at the club which showed a growing trend of clubbers settling for expensive spirits, there was not a single moment of rancor. Like other top-notch hangouts, patrons of the Celebrities Nightclub are mostly working class, mature, yet youthful people who love to party as often as they can. Nanet Hotels is a favorite among Nollywood stars, so clubbers could meet a movie star at the in-house club of the hotel. Due to the caliber of its clientele, security is tight at the club and potential nuisances are quietly eased out. expdonaloaded blog
These grooves still go on here as in some other top clubs in the city irrespective of the austerity measures the federal government has announced it would adopt to tax luxury items. In addition, as the FCT awaits this, the local administration is also getting ready its draft laws to further tax luxury goods and vanity businesses as well as the patrons in a frolic-and-pay manner. One of the ways the federal government said it would raise its income is the introduction of luxury tax. This kind of tax simply defined is one placed on items that are deemed not compelling and needful. It is an indirect tax to increase the price of the goods or service in the category and is only incurred by those who purchase or use the product. The term has remained even though many of the products that are in the same class with luxury taxes today are no longer seen as “luxuries” in the literal sense. Today’s definition leans more towards what was termed items for spoilt individuals, such as tobacco, alcohol, jewelry and high-end automobiles. Luxury tax is implemented as much in an attempt to change consumption patterns as to collect tax revenues.
No slowing down
Since this year when the tax regime is awaited, it is glaring that Abuja’s upwardly mobile crowd will not be slowed down by the fear of the introduction of luxury tax or even its full implementation. Though it rained on the night of Saturday March 21, a large number of fun seekers gathered at the XO V.I.P Section of the Cubana Lounge for a night of partying with rave acts Burna Boy and Kiss Daniels. The event was the Johnnie Walker Black Podium Party and the highbrow lounge was over following with the designer label wearing men and women many of who arrived in the latest editions of expensive automobiles. From the top range Toyota and Honda SUVs to luxury brands like Lexus, Benz AMGs and Porsche, there was no mistaking the fact that majority of those at the club had plenty of cash to spend. They also came with their ATM cards as many transactions were made with POS devices which are now part of the ensemble of the waiters at this club that has hosted some of the biggest parties, including the 40th birthday shindig of a Former Speaker of the House of Representatives.
Cubana Lounge
At the lounge, the bouncers just keep to the house rules of proper dressing and good behavior. The pricing of the food and drinks keeps unwanted individuals away. In fact, where you are allowed to sit at Cubana is determined by the kind of drink you buy. Not even the N20 thousand spent on two bottles of wine on the Abuja Metro table spared us as we were told that the section where we were wasn’t reserved for wine drinkers though we were directed there by the event organisers. Despite our well expressed angst which included a warning that we were going to call the managing partner of Cubana, it took the intervention of the event organisers for us to remain in the section.
Tax not a deterrent
But when the artistes mounted the stage, we moved to the stage area voluntarily. The star power which pulled fun seekers from different sections of the club, led to the discovery that Abuja night crawlers are not afraid of luxury tax as most of them came to the stage with their drinks in hand. A look around showed many groups drinking from bottles of champagne and costly spirit. A group of men who took countless ‘selfies’ drank from a bucket with three bottles of Ace of Spades and a bottle of Moet Rose. A bottle of Moet Rose cost about N13,000 in the normal shops, while Ace of Spades starts from N50,000 to N70,000. Both drinks cost much more at the club. According to the Euro Monitor, Nigeria is second only to France the home of Champagne in guzzling the pricey drink. The firm reported that Nigerians consumed N9.4 billion naira worth of Champagne in 2011 with a projection that as much as N616 billion would have been spent on the drink by 2017.
As Abuja Metro was exiting the club around 3.30 am, a few fun seekers signaled waiters for another round of drinks including the ‘big boys’ with the Ace of Spade laden drink bucket. If there is evidence needed to show the Euro International is likely to hit the bulls eye with its prediction even with the promise of austerity measures and luxury tax, a night out at Abuja high profile clubs will do.
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