Have you ever attended a Nigerian event or had to attend an event with a Nigerian?
If yes, then congratulations…. you most probably have experienced the African Time Drama. You probably were upset, had a whole reaction planned out in your head for when they finally showed up after you waited for a while.
Also, you must have gotten even madder when you got to the event with that friend, waited for others to come and still ended up having to wait a couple of minutes or maybe even hours for the actual event to begin.
You perhaps had already planned a speech or a dismissive attitude for when you met the organizers of the event or you had probably already tagged them unserious and cancelled them out in your mind. But I’m pretty sure you changed your mind after the event finally started because the event must have blown your mind away in the end.
Over time Nigerians have been known to throw the best parties/events whether formal or informal. However, one major flaw that crowns their events is the use of African time.
African time is basically, for lack of better words a delay in schedule that Nigerians often carry out. If you are to attend a Nigerian event with a Nigerian and you end up going at the exact time that was written on the invite then you’ve gotten it all wrong and would definitely end up in an empty venue wondering if you got the venue wrong. Trust me you didn’t, your only crime was coming on time for that event -they would even dare to say “you are early o”. It wouldn’t be the Nigerians’ fault for being late, it would be your fault for being early because you should know to not come early to a Nigerian event. Nigerians almost never stick to time and always end up going for events late because somehow the best Owambe are often the ones that wasted time and started at the brink of people changing their minds.
When a Nigerian tells you they would be somewhere at 10:00am, best believe they mean they would be there by 1pm. Okay, maybe I am exaggerating a little. But this is what Nigerians refer to as “African time”. If you go to an event that was scheduled to begin at 10am at exactly 10am or perhaps even 11am best believe you would only find crickets and dust there to welcome you. Be ready to clean and help set up the place for the real guests coming, you volunteered to be of help to the organizers by coming early -and come to think of it, that’s actually not a bad thing o.
Nigerians are popularly known-for their excessive use of “African time”. This especially happens with ladies who often keep their husbands waiting while they get busy rushing to tie their gele last minute. Or retouch and un-touch their lip combo. Their husbands would be left waiting in the living room screaming; “honey, where are you?” you wouldn’t be wrong to expect a sarcastic response in turn from the wife who would probably say something like: “I’m in your mother’s house sleeping”. Don’t be angry, it’s very normal in this part of the world.
African time situations have turned out to be some of the peak childhood memories of many Nigerians who grew up in Nigeria. We see this in some cases of rushing to attend events as a family. Although extremely messy it may seem in the moment, adults often grow to appreciate and miss those moments which may not have seemed pleasant in the moment.
A typical example of such a situation is found every Sunday-mornings in Christian homes where the father is ready with the car engine turned on and is threatening to leave everyone behind and drive off. There’s always the wife begging him to calm down saying she would soon be done, the daughter rushing out into the car with her wig and high heels in hand and the son strolling casually towards the gate to get the gate opened. I know how many times my dad threatened to drive off and leave us at home if we don’t come out the next minute when preparing for church or going out.
After the whole rush, the family would sit in the car bonding and laughing while the father concentrates on driving and sometimes urges them to reduce the noise they make so that he doesn’t get distracted and drives them into an accident. These simple yet messy moments hold core memories for lots of Nigerian families.
Unwritten Rules About Nigerian Time
Rule 1: If a Nigerian invites you for an event where the invite says 10am, be sure to arrive 2- 3 hours later than the time you were told. Your entrance should be made by 12pm or 1pm.
Rule 2; When it’s a Nigerian wedding reception, you can show up up to 4 hours later than the time written in the invite, you will still find everyone jollying with plenty to eat and drink because that’s when the party is actually just getting started!!
Rule 3; A Nigerian saying that they are close to the destination actually means that they just left their house or are about to leave their house.
Rule 4; When a Nigerian tells you they just left their house and are on their way -relax, they just entered the bathroom to shower, take your time before stepping out. Do not panic, you would not be late.
Rule 5; Finally, wake your wives & daughters at least 4 hours early to start getting prepared for wherever you’re going to -otherwise it would be your fault.
To foreigners, the use of African time may look like Nigerians never take anything seriously or Nigerians cannot be taken serious. But to Nigerians, that’s our unspoken way of knowing the actual time. The use of African time has given Nigeria a bad global look from the outside. It may seem to those watching from the outside that Nigerians are incapable of being organized and arriving on time. However, I would advice you do not try to set a job opportunity and interview or give an awoofopportunity to Nigerians an expect them to follow the African time as usual. You would be extremely surprised to see Nigerians come an hour or even two hours early for an activity.
You would then realize that Nigerians are actually, in fact very capable of being punctual, extremely punctual even incases where the stakes of the job opportunity or awoof opportunity are high. In cases where they have a corporate matter to attend to or just even showing up to prove you wrong.
The first time African time happened to you, you must have wondered how to avoid such situations going forward. There is only one solution to that; “when you’re in Rome, act like the Romans”. The only way to beat a Nigerian in the game of African timing is to play the same game they play -because how else do you think people in Lagos get to work early, with all the Go-Slow.
Once you learn to understand the mindset of Nigerians, you become a part of the big family and join in the fun of African timing because where is the fun in punctuality when you can join the great crowd in being all laid back and chill. Learn from us how to show up in style, we started the trend of being fashionably late, we take the cup for it yet somehow we still get the job done and have fun while at it. African time isn’t just a lifestyle in Nigeria, it is the sweetest time zone of all time zones.
Written by: Lydia Timothy Ahu & Goodness Felix-Adebayo
Editor: Goodness Felix-Adebayo