Alibaba: The economics of it all

Last night the king assembled his people and we all answered. From captains of industry, to celebrities down to normal people we all filled up the giant bowl of the Eko Convention Centre dressed in our fineries to pay homage to the longest-reigning king of anything in the entertainment industry.

He had a full schedule and as usual, started late. While we were waiting for the show to start, I started walking the room as I am wont to do.

Everybody was there, from my brother retired Air Marshall Makinde who came with all of his family to my other egbon President of NACCIMA Dele Oye and his brother and my brother Olumide Aju SAN dressed like an NBA basketballer out on the night.

The celebrities were too much, I lost count. Okey Bakassi, RMD, Shola Shobowale, Hilda Dokubo, Dayo D One, AY to name a few.

As I walked through the room, I saw Jim Ovia the founder of giant Zenith Bank, my brother Yemi Odusanya, executive director at Keystone, Emma Onokpasa, executive director at Nova, who just got a new managing director, the brilliant Wale Oyedeji, who was my primary and secondary school colleague and a host of big bankers.

I chatted with the celestially brilliant Tope Fasoranti executive director at Zenith who was in front and laughed and bantered with Ade Adefeko, director at Olam, and his beautiful wife on the table.

This concert was huge, one could only imagine its budget. The big Jeep giveaway stood in the full glare of the public and a vast array of wannabe comedians battling for the full prize.

The show started with a very beautiful and jazzy rendition of the national anthem which made us all very proud to be Nigerians and we all stood up with mouths open unlike how the Americans would do with their own; you know they stand with hands on their chest and be doing like they will beat you if you interfere.

We stood with our mouths open, some people with hands on their heads all in awe of the way these four youths were belting out the anthem in a manner that even Awo would wake up from his grave if he had assurances that he would not be kidnapped if he came.

The economics of Alibaba’s January 1 show should be studied. The job opportunities to the many direct and indirect workforce, the galvanisation of resources, and its impact on hospitality, media, logistics, the beverage industry, fashion, and equipment hiring amongst others can only be imagined.

I have made it a point of note to sit down with him to look at the figures. I only hope that the authorities will also perfect a way of measuring the economic impact of huge shows like this on the economy so that they can better align with it and use it to project economic growth.

This December, it was as if the whole world assembled in Lagos. Huge concerts, carnivals and even churches joined in the jamboree.

The Lagos state government and the National Bureau of Statistics should come up with a way of quantitively measuring its impact on strategic sectors of the economy for easy alignment with its economic goals.

The massive movement of people, leading to the full utilisation of the about 2,000 hotel rooms in Lagos throwing up a gross inadequacy in that sector

Back to Alibaba’s show, looking around me and hazarding a guess, I would say that show would have generated at least N100 million in spend and collections.

This is not for the tax man to chase him and even if they did, that would be wonderful but it’s to show the impact of the show and indeed all other shows would have made to the economy.

The drinks sold, hotel rooms taken, the quantity of fuel bought to power the cars that came, the amount spent on Uber and other taxis, spent on diesel to power the hall, spent on fashion for those who attended and performed, spent on logistics to ferry the artists to and from their destination?

One can only imagine. The hall took all 6,000 of us and more and you can imagine the impact on the visibility of the sponsors which were plenty and which made me green with envy.

Sponsors must also be able to quantify their benefits at the end of the day. Hopefully, many bottles of beverages were moved, many bank accounts were opened and airline tickets were sold so that conversations around sponsorships would move from ‘man know man‘ to very serious transactional levels.

Alibaba’s show of yesterday if carefully curated would have delivered at least 5% of that day’s sales on each of the sponsors’ figures judging by the quantum moved.

The show itself was better than last year although it still had its flat moments. One still felt that Ali in some instances designed a show he would personally love and not what the audience wanted

The cowboy singer, although was magic, was Ali forcing his personal choices on us but then again he is the king.

The spontaneity part of it is also a problem. Much as I understand its vision which is to groom replacements and give them a platform, wrapping such a huge show around it may spell doom for it.

One of the bank directors lamented very seriously about the ‘dryness’ of that part of the show and I want to agree. Eko Convention Centre is the premiership, that venue cannot be for amateurs.

I think Ali should have done them at the Muson like he normally does and brought only the very best to perform well-rehearsed routines and not the spontaneous thing that saw them belting out very flat jokes to a premium audience.

80% of the renditions were flat and more experienced comedians like Koffi da Guru, Tee A and the rest were left to just compere. I slept off and must have missed the black comedian who I heard was the highlight.

Apart from this glitch, I give the organisers a 4-star rating. It was well organised, although started a bit late, everything afterwards went smoothly.

Acts were fluidly interchanged on stage, ticketing was perfect outside, tables were well arranged making it very easy to identify your spot, light food and drinks were efficiently distributed without disruptions to the show and the sound did it for me.

The sound was world-class. The mics amplified the performances to the point that when the man was doing the R. Kelly medley, I wept.

Alibaba, with this show, has extended his reign as king of comedy but he must begin not to take the market for granted less the market reacts negatively.

He must begin to redesign his show to reflect the current tastes and appetites of his audience. He must also begin to redesign this show to stay true to its calling – a mecca for comedy and not a training school for budding comedians

The Muson Centre can be their JAMB classes but the January 1st show is the world cup final. It’s the show that sets up the year and it must be respected and treated as such– the Mecca for comedy.

I give this one 4 stars.

Thank you.