Evolution Of The Nigerian Cash Spraying Culture And EFCC’s Plan To Curb. But The Tradition Has Reinvented Itself
The Oasis Reporters
September 1, 2025
Nigerians are known to be very happy people, and when it comes to parties, they express their joy by spraying cash and giving gifts. Most politicians and also other well to do individuals equally spray money to the adulation of receivers and onlookers.
This culture has defied admonitions until the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) rolled out a law banning cash spraying in public because it was mutilating the cash in circulation. It wasn’t long before they made a few high profile arrests and soon afterwards, the culture started diminishing. The people were pained.
But only a few weeks ago, there were videos circulating online of a pretty young lady strumming the guitar while walking towards her groom, a knight in shining armor during her traditional marriage rites in Benin City, Edo State. The old highlife piece of music was soothingly familiar.
Watch:
Guitar Boy was the tune, composed and released by music maestro, Sir Victor Uwaifo the Edo cultural icon. Everything came into focus. It was his daughter getting married in the Benin traditional way, and the exhilarating music made it so colourful.
Sir Victor Uwaifo has long since passed on. While In life, he had evolved from being a music maestro to an academic, rising to the professorial cadre and becoming an arts teacher at the University of Benin, Benin City.
Before anyone could scream for the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC operatives to swoop on the venue and make some arrests because adoring fans were spraying cash to welcome the bride, it turns out that the new couple had prepared long in advance for the beautiful day.
Was cash being sprayed?
Yes.
But lo and behold, the fluffing cash in the air was not from the Central Bank of Nigeria. It was from the Central Bank of Marriage, printed by enterprising road side printers. The currency would usually have the photo of any intending couple showing the denomination of the cash.
To receive the bundle that a sprayer would get, he or she would collect the account number of the couple and make a bank transfer first.
In exchange, the sprayer would be given the paper cash equivalent of the transfer already made. Thus the cash showers on the couple would not be from the Central Bank of Nigeria, but rather, the Central Bank of Marriage. The cameras would pick up what they see and no law is broken.
That makes any arrest very wrong since the national currency was not being sprayed nor mutilated and EFCC would have no law breaker to arrest. And everyone is happy.
That is what goes on in parties nowadays.
Print your own paper cash and keep the spraying culture going.
It’s now a full fledged Nigerian thing.
Let the couple dance on as the showers of cash makes them happy on the dance floor, while the EFCC would have no arrests to make anymore.
Greg Abolo
