Two of the commonest words in the vocabularies of most Nigerians are “forming” and “packaging.” They are usually used in local parlance in relation to people’s behaviour.
This is why you hear Nigerians asking one another: “Why are you forming?” or making the comment: “It’s about packaging.”
Despite the common use of these words, forming and packaging, not many Nigerians know the right time or the right place to use them. While some use them interchangeably, which shouldn’t be, some use “forming” where they should use “packaging,” and “packaging” where they should use “forming.”
There’s indeed a difference between the two words – forming and packaging – though a slim one. I am here to show you that slim difference that exists between them.
What Forming Is And What It Is Not!
Forming is when a person behaves or pretends to be what or who he or she’s not. In other words, forming is another word for ‘pretence.’ Permit me to expatiate on this.
A young man travelled from Lagos, in Nigeria, to his village also in Nigeria in December 2017, after more than five years of not being there. While there, he went about telling anybody who cared to listen to him that he had just returned from a brief trip to the United States of America, where he went for a training in marketing.
Interestingly, that guy had not even travelled out of Nigeria to a West African country, let alone to United States.
Fortunately for him, many people at his village, especially those who had not seen him for years, believed him. Many girls even fell in love with him. One of the reasons that made them to believe him was his ability to speak in an America accent, which caused them to nickname him “Americana.”
Four months later, after the young man had enjoyed those girls at his village and returned to his base Lagos, many parents of the girls started searching for him everywhere. Do you know why? Because he had succeeded in putting their daughters in a family way.
When those aggrieved parents couldn’t find him at his village home, one of them, whose undergraduate daughter was one of his victims, decided to trace him to Lagos, where he was reportedly based.
Luckily for that parent, the randy young man was traced to his residence at Shibiri, a suburb of Okokomaiko/Ajangbadi. He was arrested there and taken to Okokomaiko Police Station, along Lagos-Badaggry Expressway.
During his interrogation, the guy confessed to the investigating police officer, IPO, handling the case that he that he deckhand at the Tin Can Island Port in Apapa.
He also told the police, in his statement, that he had never travelled out of Nigeria since he was born, and that he learnt to speak in an American accent by mimicking some American characters he watched in movies.
What the guy did at his village was not packaging himself. He simply formed in order to get what he wanted; for them to believe his bundle of lies. He was never what he told them that he was.
The best word to describe him and other people like him, therefore, is ‘impostor.’ In other words, forming is associated with willful impostors.
What “Packaging” Is And What It Is Not!
Packaging is when somebody prepares or makes him/herself look commensurate with his or her intrinsic value. Permit me to throw more light on this, too.
One of my co-tenants and his wife used to have misunderstandings. This happened almost every blessed day, yet I never interfered because it was their own ‘family business.’
One day, the wife of the man came to my apartment to ‘consult’ me on the matter. While speaking with her, she said to me: “Please, bros, I have a complaint to make to you and I’d like you to grant me some minutes of your time.”
“I hope it is well?” I interrupted.
“It is well, sir,” she continued. “It’s about my husband. I want to report him to you because I know you to be a very responsible man in this neighbourhood.
“You see, my husband is a banker, both by profession and by occupation, but he doesn’t dress as one. He usually dresses like a road-construction worker or like a deckhand, meanwhile his wardrobe is replete with beautiful and trendy clothes, including designers’ suits
“Because of this I do not like going out with him, especially to parties. How can I dress well and sweet like this and go out with a man who dresses like my house boy? Please, sir, find a way to talk to him about it because I am fed up about this matter.”
After listening to her genuine complaint, I asked her to go home in peace and hope for the best.
About a week later, I got the opportunity to speak with her husband. To cut the story short, her husband is now a ‘born-again dresser.’ He now dresses like a banker, that he is. And now his wife is always happy going out with him to anywhere he wants her to go with him.
The man’s drastic change from dressing like a road-construction worker to dressing like a banker is not forming. It has something to do with packaging.
While the guy in my first story above did what is called forming because he wanted to deceive other people, the man in my second story started packaging himself to look like a real banker that he was. Did you get the difference now?
The people who understand the principle of packaging more than any other person in Nigeria are the people who sell plantain chips in printed cellophane sachets.
Plantain chips can be sold in used newspaper or in an ordinary transparent cellophane, but those who sell theirs in beautifully designed and printed cellophane understand that doing so would add to its value.
They know that adding to the value of the plantain chips sold in beautifully designed and printed sachets would also help to justify the difference in the prices between them and their ordinary cellophane sachet counterparts.
In other words, this is exactly why plantain chips sold in ordinary transparent cellophane called ‘kpekere’ or ‘pekere,’ depending on your tribe in Nigeria, sells less than those sold in beautifully designed and printed cellophane sachets.
Plantain chips sold in used newspapers may even taste better than the ones sold in beautifully designed and printed cellophane sachet. But because of the good packaging, the ones in printed cellophane cost more and even sell more more than their counterparts in ordinary cellophane as seen in the above picture.
The difference between forming and packaging, therefore, is this: While forming is done with the intention to deceive, packaging is done to add or to improve the value of somebody or something.
Let me know what you have to say about this article. Please, make your comments in the space provided below this article.
