By Patience Chat Moses
Every year, the 14th day of February is celebrated as Valentine’s Day. Despite having many events tied to the origin of the ritual which is celebrated annually, the most relatable one is connected to Valentine, a Christian Saint who lived in Rome around the third Century CE.
It is believed that the priest had been imprisoned, and later executed, by Claudius II Gothicus in approximately 270 CE. History has it that Saint Valentine fell in love with his jailer’s daughter and had written a letter to her. The final words of the letter allegedly read “from your Valentine.”
As a result of this popular story, Valentine’s Day is celebrated in the world as a day of love and romance. People use this day as an opportunity to express their affection and love for the significant people in their lives. They give gifts, such as chocolates, flowers and cards to their partners to express their regard and love for them.
Traditionally referred to as a day for lovers, Valentine’s Day is also associated with giving of gifts among friends and relatives. It is typically associated with giving, going to the movies, lighting red candles, going out to dinner, and creating a little extra fun for lovers.
This historic day, however, was almost in jeopardy due to the recent and underlying problems, in Nigeria, the largest economy in Africa. The twin challenges of lack of purchasing power coupled with cash scarcity which was caused by the current currency redesign policy of the Government has been the spoiler for this year’s event. Nigerians could not hide their fears that the volatile state of the national economy was going to affect Valentine’s Days celebration this year.
For instance, prior to February 14th, Nigerians could envisage how the celebrations might turn out to be, and possibly not a palatable, due to the cashless policy of the Federal Government and the decision to redesign 200, 500 and 1000 naira notes.
By this policy, citizens were directed to exhaust or deposit in banks their old naira notes that fell into the redesigned note categories before the end of January. However, few weeks after the deadline for circulation date for the redesigned naira notes, it dawned on Nigerians that the new naira notes were scarce, since the amount of currency in circulation was not sufficient for the entire economy.
Since then, it has been a cashless economy for Nigerians, and this became worse when other means of getting cash got overstretched, with fluctuations in digital financial-service networks making transfer payments difficult. This gave Point of Sale (POS) operators who had access to cash the leverage to use the naira crisis, in connivance with some bankers, as an opportunity to fraudulently cash out from customers by placing outrageous charges on any withdrawals made.
In the end, the naira scarcity made it difficult for Nigerians to shower their loved ones with gifts on Valentine’s Day, as many “lovers” couldn’t meet up with their dates with partners and their respective plans to appreciate their loved ones.
While waiting for February 14th, many singles took it out on lovers via social media memes on Twitter and Instagram. As a result of this, hilarious memes on how the Valentine’s Day was going to be celebrated were flying around social media, from “valentine without cash go choke” to “na only mumu dey love” and “single as a Pringle is perfect.”
Singles were all over social media sharing memes and posts on how they needed not to worry about salvaging a relationship, even without money, coupled with the high cost of items. Memes and posts on self-love being the best relationship spiced up the social media, and posts and memes on how money cakes and money bouquets would be scarce filled social media.
This is because, during the Valentine’s Day season, many people give their loved ones some money cakes as gifts. These are essentially cakes or bouquets made out of mint notes, with some people using 200 or 500 naira notes to decorate the cakes or make a bouquet. Some money cakes and bouquets are even decorated with 1000 naira notes or even US dollars, depending on how wealthy the giver is.
The drawback is that Nigerians have recently had to deal with significant cash deficits, making it challenging to build such money cakes or send money bouquets to loved ones during the 2023 Valentine’s Day.
It is important to note that, while getting access to money may not be completely impossible, the cost of doing so was much higher than it was during the same season in the previous years.
A common question has often been asked, “does money matter when it comes to love?” This is one question that would always attract a variety of responses. But as many people would often say, “love is not enough in a love relationship.”
And, truly, from the videos that trended on social media on Valentine’s Day, it was proven that, to some lovers, money is both key and king. Videos on how relationships went sore were viral. Female partners gave up on their relationships since their partners couldn’t get them any gifts for Val celebrations.
A viral video of a secondary school couple celebrating Valentine’s Day trended on February 14th where a very young boy got his partner varieties of gifts to celebrate their love. To crown it up, he sprayed naira notes on her, and this video raised so many reactions on social media.
While some people re-posted it with hashtags such as “no excuse in love,” “even the young know love,” ”God when ohhh?” and “where you get cash,” others went around giving sarcastic comments and moral injunctions to the couple to face their studies.
And while others were not able to meet the expectations of their loved ones, some still did the best they could, saying it is better to celebrate Valentine’s Day on low key than doing nothing at all. Instead of going out to parks, some stayed back at home to watch movies and enjoy homemade food with loved ones.
Difficulty in transportation was another issue caused by the naira shortage. People were not able to easily move around, since they had no money to pay for transportation charges. Those who were mobile either had no money to buy fuel or were stuck in queues trying to buy fuel. With all these challenges, most of the Valentine’s Day outings and dates were cancelled in Nigeria, leaving many shows unattended.
The Washington Post of Sunday, February 5, 2006 published an article written by Michelle Singletary, where she pointed out that money may not buy love, but fighting about it will bankrupt your relationship. This is also similar to what Francesca, 26, a legal practitioner, said about money being important in a love relationship.
Most Nigerians during the Valentine’s Day opined that more money can mean more love, although not concluding that the amount of love you feel for someone should be based on the amount of money that person has. Yet, it is easier to be happy in a relationship when finances aren’t an issue, and more cash flow normally means less financial stress.
While there is never a wrong amount of money to spend on your loved ones, the rising cost of products and services in the nation and the recent shortage of naira notes have left many people with many problems to bear. So, if you, your partner, friends and relatives value Valentine’s Day, then you should start planning for it like you do for Christmas and every other celebration to prevent any disappointments.