Africa News Broadcast 
All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy, says the old proverb. So, Pastor Eno, the incoming governor of Akwa Ibom State, is planning to spice things up by declaring happy hour every Friday.
This, he believes, will also boost productivity in the state which currently has an unemployment rate of 51%, the second highest in the country, according to the Bureau of Statistics. The state also ranks fifth on the misery index with 71% of the residents facing economic distress due to the risk of joblessness combined with an increasing cost of living.
“Every Friday, I will have what I call happy hour for the state. And what do I want to do with happy hour? It’s simple. I want to create business for people that have facilities. So, we declare that between 5 PM and 6 PM, these are the bars that will sell drinks at a certain price,†he says.
While delivering his victory speech shortly after he was announced winner, he said, “Happy hour is hereâ€, which elicited cheers from his supporters.
Essentially Eno will be subsidising drinks and snacks in select bars every Friday so that the people of Akwa Ibom can buy them cheaply for at least one hour.
Incidentally, at least 10 states in Nigeria that practise Sharia law have prohibited the consumption of alcoholic beverages. In Kano where enforcement is strict, Sharia policemen known as Hisbah, publicly smash confiscated bottles of beer.
Last year, the Kano Hisbah announced that it had destroyed 3.8 million bottles of assorted beer worth millions of naira confiscated it confiscated a few months prior.
Critics say Eno’s plan could be counterproductive and the concomitant revelry would diminish societal values. They also wonder how feasible such a plan would be given how Nigeria’s petrol subsidy has become a cesspool of corruption.
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