The popular Ikeja City Mall in Lagos State wore an unusual look on Sunday, Christmas day, as large crowds of people visited in the spirit of Christmas. The parking lot that usually had enough room for cars was filled to capacity and those who could not make it early had to park their car by the roadside.
At the entrance to the mall, security officials had tough time checking everyone that wanted to gain entrance. When they could no longer manage the crowd, they had to throw open the doors and the people rushed inside the mall unchecked.
The mall was so jam-packed that the place that was usually cool suddenly became hot, and many had to fan themselves. Due to the frequent use of the elevator and before long, the elevator stopped working.
With the huge crowd, one would think that the retailers were recording impressive sales, but one of the attendants in Swatch Mall told BusinessDay that was far from true.
‘‘Most of these people hardly come inside our store, and those that do leave without buying anything. This year is nothing like last year. We made much sales this time last year than now,” the attendant at Swatch, who craved anonymity, said.
Most of those who had succeeded in entering the mall were posing for pictures with their loved ones, roaming around the mall while others were just window-shopping.
In one of the make-up shops, an attendant who was visibly angry that she was getting more visitors and no buyer, slammed the door after a window-shopper took her leave. According to her, ‘‘opening today is a waste of time. People are not buying this year.’’
Upstairs at the Silverbird Galleria, the crowd was overwhelming. Even with the mass of people in the galleria, lots of people were still making their way in to take pictures or look around, while a fraction of the crowd who came in the company of family and friend tried to get tickets to see a movie.
Just in front of Shoprite, a disappointed Clement Ihenacho, an estate developer, stood surrounded by seven children. He had come to give them a treat but met the place locked.
‘‘We went to Alausa Garden but we were not allowed in because of tax clearance. I took them to a recreational centre on CMD Road but their charge is 2,500 per child, so I decided to bring them down here,’’ Ihenacho said with so much frustration on his face.
However, Mr Biggs, KFC, Chicken republic, and other restaurants inside the mall was open and those who could afford to buy a meal did so while those who could not were engrossed taking pictures or touring around the mall.
A man sat under an umbrella beside Debonair Pizza outlet with his two sons. He told BusinessDay that he could not afford to take his family home this Christmas.
‘‘Every Christmas, I travel to my village with my entire family but this year we could not travel because the transport fare is very high,’’ the man said.
BusinessDay survey at different bus parks across Lagos revealed that the fare rates had increased by more than 70 percent in the past one week.
At GIG Motors in Jibowu, on Sunday, the fare from Lagos to Port Harcourt was N10, 600 against N6,000 and the fare from Lagos to Warri increased to N8,900 from N5,950, a week ago.
On the same day at Peace Mass Transit in Ojuelegba, the fare from Lagos to Port Harcourt and Warri, which was N5,500 was now N9,500 and the fare to Onitsha was N8,200 instead of N5,000.
A staff of Peace Mass Transit in Ojuelegba, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, said the company had no other choice than to almost double the transport fares.
According to him, fewer passengers usually travel down to Lagos during festive seasons and the drivers had to bring the vehicles down to Lagos.
‘‘We told our drivers to bring the buses down here with the promise to refund the money they spent on fuel and feeding. We end up giving the drivers double money. So, the passengers that are travelling outside Lagos will bear those extra costs. That’s why the fare is very high. Normally we are supposed to double the fare but we want to maintain our passengers,’’ the staff said.
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