IT’S RAINING MONEY! - When Free Money Rains Down From Heaven. BY CHINYERE OBINNA. O

It’s a spectacle that never fails to befuddle the uninitiated when they witness it for the first time. Picture a gathering of beautiful people dressed in their smashing best. The music is pumping out beat after pulsating beat of mixed music ranging from reggae, pop, rap, afro pop, funk et al. Then the music segues to a sweet African beat of Fuji, high life, afro beat or any of the range of percussion heavy music of the motherland, and money starts to rain down in cascading waves.

This is a scene from a typical Nigerian party, a practice that is termed spraying. Spraying money is a ubiquitous part of the Nigerian party scene and usually reaches a crashing crescendo, as the party guests, all eager to show their respect to the host and or hostess, try to outdo each other with their sporadic show of generosity. The money is usually aimed at the host and the hostess who for that moment are the center of attention. There is a flurry of activity around the celebrants as their friends, relatives, acquaintances and sundry party guests crowd around them, waiting for their turn to “spray” money, while dancing around the dancing celebrants. it invariably turns into a money spraying competion with each guest trying to outdo the other.

There are varying opinions about how the practice began, and probably originated from the tendency of Nigerian musicians to give shout out to certain people of wealth and influence in their songs. At parties, they perform their songs, heaping praises on selected recipients with deep pockets and are richly rewarded so to speak, with a cascade of Naira bills raining down on them by the recipients of their praise. Other accounts pinpoint the practice to an earlier era, when celebrants were honored with cowry shells at celebratory events. Yet others pinpoint kings of the early days, who used to throw cowrie shells at their subjects as a symbol of their status. Whatever the origin, the practice has caught fire and has become ingrained into the Nigerian culture. At one point, spraying was more prevalent and more showy at Yoruba parties, but then it quickly caught on amongst even the Ibo’s who at one time used to turn up their nose at the practice. Now the Ibo’s have run away with it.

Nigeria is a nation of very proud people and to be perceived as wealthy is a matter of pride to them. To be seen doling out handfuls of bills is a form of validation that seem to reinforce their value in the eye of the beholder, and what better place to show off their great wealth and generosity than at a lavish party where their show of wealth is displayed for all to see?

There are many variations of this spraying practice, and if you attend a Nigerian function, especially, the so called “Owambe” parties, you will be likely to see this practice in all its form. There is the throw all the bills in the air and let it fall down on the recipients in a cascading shower that carpets the floor with bills, and there is the paste each bill on various parts of the recipient’s body. The giver usually pastes the bills on the face, the neck, the shoulders and even, the bosoms of the celebrant. Then there is the furtive, pull out each dollar bill from the wallet and let it land on the recipient, while the giver makes a show of giving out each bill. Then there is the hold a fat wad of bills and let it fall down like a stack of cards over the recipient’s head. Some people have learned to capitalize on this practice and when they throw a party, they do it with the intent of recouping at least some of their costs. The more lavish the party, the higher their spraying index rises. They even have people on the sidelines, with singles at the ready, making change for the givers since it makes more sense from the giver's point-of-view to have a large chunk of singles fall on the hosts than to dole one single bill of a higher denomination, which will probably go unnoticed. The intent of the whole practice is to have the receiver and all the party guests notice their generousity, which will probably raise their profile.
By the end of the day, when the bills are gathered and counted, the tally has been known to reach the stratosphere, even in the ten of thousands. This practice might be justified since Nigerians never do anything small. When they throw parties, they pull out all the stops, and the more lavish, the better - to make sure their guests have a good time, and since it costs money to throw a good party, the money realized from the spraying helps to assuage the assault on their wallet.

More recently, the Nigerian government took measures to pull the plug on the practice. A bill called the "Central Bank of Nigeria Act 2006" makes it illegal to abuse the Nigerian Naira in any form. That includes “stumping, engraving, mutilating, piercing, stapling, writing, tearing, soiling, and squeezing, placing it in a dirty receptacle etc. The penalty for flouting this law is a fine of not less than N50,000 or a prison term of not less than six months or both. This controversial Act has drawn the ire of various Nigerians from various walks of life since they believe that this Act is trampling on their civil rights. After all, the money is theirs to spend as they please and spraying is part of our culture that should not be obliterated by meddling politicians. Even more offended are musicians since this Act appear to be aimed especially at them as most of them make even more money from spraying at parties than they might from record sales. The king of Juju music, King Sunny Ade especially, has spoken out against the Act. At a recent press conference, he expressed his disappointment with the Central Bank of Nigeria for scape-goating Nigerian musicians and citing musician's abuse of money as their reason for enforcing the law. I am not quite sure how this law translates into the spraying of dollar bills and the Euro in Nigeria, since those bills are valid currency in Nigeria, but are not covered by the Act. I am quite sure that this bill will not stop the practice of spraying money in Nigeria, and some people will risk that jail term and the N50,000 fine, which will probably end up in the pockets of some police officer, who will invariably look the other way, and not report it. Besides, there’s always the USA, or Europe, or Asia, or Australia, or South and Central America, or any of the far-flung places across the globe, where Nigerians populate. There, they can spray money like there is no tomorrow.