Like many of its kind in the city of Kano, a typical sight at Darul Tauheed Event Centre was that of dozens of cars parked outside the premises, with hundreds of guests trooping in.
However, with the outbreak of the coronavirus pandemic and the lockdown that followed, the story changed entirely.
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Speaking to Chronicle, the manager of the centre, Malam Kamal Mas’ud, said at the initial stage of the lockdown, event centre owners faced serious challenges from people who had booked in advance.
“Some of them were dragging some centres’ proprietors to police stations asking for a refund of their money. And, some of us have already given part of it to restaurants to prepare the food that will be served to guests during the events, while some have paid for decoration of the place.
“The leaderships of the centres had to interfere in some of these cases before they were later resolved,” Mas’ud, who is also the Public Relations Officer (PRO) of Kano State Event Centres Proprietors, said.
Mas’ud added that “At my centre alone, I had over 60 staff working under me when things were normal. The very moment Kano was locked down completely, these people automatically were rendered jobless”.
He said some of them, who have families, had to be coming during the lockdown to ask for something from him.
Sharing her experience, the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Hally Event Centre, Hajiya Halima Muhammad, said: “When the lockdown order was enforced in the state, we had to look for money to refund people who had booked in advance, to the extent that I had to sell off a valuable item to get the money.”
This was a similar experience for Hajiya Fatima, the CEO of Fun City Event Centre, who added that they resolved with their clients to refund two-third of the advance payments.
For Mustapha Ahmad, a staff member at Wujdan Event Centre, the lockdown period made life very difficult for him as he said he survived by taking ‘garri and kulikuli’. Another worker with Nisi Event Centre also told Chronicle that the three months of closing down of their business was like the end of life.
Chronicle observed that with the total lifting of Kano lockdown, workers at Darul Tauheed, as well as other centres visited, have started fixing items that have been idle all this while as social gatherings resume.
In Meenah, one of the busiest event centres in the city, workers were seen busy fixing one of its halls destroyed by rainstorms recently.
Post-COVID’s new challenge
When asked about the prospects of the centres now that the state government has lifted the lockdown entirely, the PRO said “During the lockdown, people, out of necessity, resorted to using uncompleted buildings in their areas as alternatives.
“Our major fear now is some may still sustain those alternatives, and that will adversely affect our business.”
‘It won’t be business as usual again’
On the readiness of the centres to enforce the government’s recommendation of COVID-19 precaution in public gatherings, the PRO said members of the association had agreed they would not allow entry without face masks and that they would provide hand sanitisers and other hand washing equipment.
“We will make sure that people observe social distancing as well. We have all agreed that for a centre that has the capacity of accommodating let’s say 500 people before, now only 300 will be allowed to use it,” he said.
He also said dancing in the crowd and spraying of money on couples would be banned but boxes would be provided for people to drop the money.
He appealed to the state government to consider a tax waiver for them considering the huge loss they suffered during the lockdown.
