By Kelechi Esogwa-Amadi
Night clubs, bars, beer parlours, suya and sharwama joints bubbled on Monday, February 14, 2022 as residents of Port Harcourt celebrated the Valentine’s Day from evening into the night hours.
Fun lovers were seen flocking these joints in large numbers, some of them adorning red, white or a mix of both colours, to reflect the Valentine’s Day celebration mood. Most social joints were overcrowded with celebrants – largely young men and women as well as the middle-aged.
At Arcania place, a popular night club/bar at Ada George Road, it was simply a jamboree of sorts as fun lovers basked in the euphoric mood spiced with an array of drinks, sharwama, fried meat, suya, chicken and hip hop music.
It was the same for the Peculiar Karaoke Lounge, also at Ada George Road. Usually a busy spot for fun seekers every evening, the bar went a step further to introduce a special Valentine programme tagged Valentine’s Hot Groove, for the night.
As at 8:15 p.m, the premises of the bar was almost filled to the brim and operators of the place were seen having a herculean time ensuring that every guest got a chair and space to sit down.
The place was virtually invaded by Valentine Day celebrants. As usual, various genres of music blared uninterrupted while the Sharwama spot was expectedly busy trying to meet up with demands.
However, checks revealed that the
high demand for sharwama by fun seekers posed great challenge to the various sharwama joints as they could not meet up. In all the joints visited, the situation was the same. They were seen to be under pressure to meet up with demands.
Suya and fried chicken joints also witnessed overflows of patronage from Valentine’s Day celebrants in various parts of Port Harcourt last night. Fast food eateries were not left out of the celebration as they glittered with decorations and arrays of assorted foods, drinks and a flood of customers.
Ironically, some new generation churches were not left out of the Valentine’s Day evening celebration.
These churches not only fixed evening programmes for their members but encouraged them to wear the Valentine colours of white and red to such programmes.
It was observed that these programmes were attended only by the youthful members of such churches, meaning that it was strictly for them.
Explaining the reason for fixing such programmes, an assistant pastor in one of the churches situated at NTA Road, said it was to redirect the attention of youths from the immoral aspect of the Valentine’s Day celebration to the true meaning of love which it signifies.
He said: “Today’s youths have misunderstood what Valentine is all about. They think it’s all about love with their girl friends and that’s why they commit atrocities on that day, especially fornication.
“So, the church has looked at it and felt that this is an opportunity to capture these youths and teach them the real message of St Valentine and why the world is honouring him every 14th of February.
“That’s why we fix these programmes, so that we use the opportunity to preach the word of God to them instead of allowing them to go and mingle with those in the world in the name of celebrating Valentine. And we encourage them to bring gifts and share among one another.”
