As jokingly as this may sound, not many Nigerians know the implication of RSVP. I am not really concerned about the meaning of this at this time. I believe that some of you may have googled it already; having heard or watched many comedians do some skits on what RSVP means. It is common for many of us to become so used to acronyms to the point that we don’t even bother to know the full meaning of the letters.
So, when we see invitation cards to birthdays, weddings or house warming, we see some phone numbers written under the boldly written, RSVP. We just go, ‘okay, those are the numbers we should call when we are missing our way to the venue or we have forgotten the date and time.’’ But how many of us take the time to call any of those numbers before the date of the event? Or, no need?
And that’s my point exactly! I don’t want to sound disrespectful. But I think Nigerians are very careless and disrespectful to people who invite them for parties. Someone values you, that is why they send you an invitation card. And when you receive that invitation card, what do you do with it? Oh, you keep it on the TV stand in your house, or on your bookshelf or on the dashboard of your car so that you won’t forget the date, and you will make sure to honor their special day. But one very important thing you don’t do is, you don’t observe the RSVP.
For the purpose of effective planning on the part of the person putting up that party, the RSVP is very important. For instance, if they sent out these invitation cards to 200 of you, they need to plan for 200 of you. They need you to confirm that you would be attending the party or not. And so, when you collect the invitation card and you love it very much, and it becomes a decorative in your house or car, and you send no RSVP to the Party host or planner, and then you just appear on that day, know that you have made it difficult for the party host to treat you well at their party. You have put the person in a precarious situation of cracking their brain in search of how to feed you, how to make you comfortable. So, suppose 100 other people sent in the RSV, and a 100 of you didn’t send but appeared on the party day, what do you think you have done to the party host?
So, please, has someone invited you for a wedding or a Birthday party next weekend? Don’t just look at the phone numbers written under the RSVP, and then keep the card in your bag, on your TV stand, Bookshelf or Car dashboard. Please, Respond! That will help them to prepare better for you. Don’t just appear on that day and complain about the wine and rice not being very plenty and not enough for you.
By the way, RSVP is ‘’répondez s’il vous plait.’’ It is French, and it means, Respond, Please.
