Strip Clubs and Friday Night Prostitution in Lagos - By Bello AbdulAzeez

This tends to address the high rate of prostitution in club houses in Lagos by young ladies cutting corners to make ends meet.

 

  

It appears some female folks misconstrued the message when the government emphasized on entrepreneurship to ease the burden of over 60% level of unemployment in Nigeria thereby necessitating a re-orientation. Several people have regarded the awareness exercise for entrepreneurship as a scam since loans are hardly provided for small scale businesses, the lack of enabling ground like constant power supply, favourable government policies, good roads, limitation to expansion due to the lack of the technological standard of vocational programmes in Nigeria etc. Some young ladies have buried their shame, thrown caution to the wind and have decided to ignore taking the bull by the horn but grabbing it by its balls.

The concept of using what you have to get what you need has become the order of the day as the ladies 'hustle' with their entire bodies for scarce resources. The metropolitan city of Lagos boasts of 142 clubs going by the data available on Vconnect website  with the high possibility of more (less than 1,000 unofficially) that must have sprang up due to the desperation of the people to ease frustration and stress after the challenges of the week. Friday nights are revered like religious days as we have Sundays as Sabbath days for Christians and Fridays for the Muslims. The highlight of clubbing is not the exotic alcoholic drinks or the music. If that's the case, these men could sit back at close-by joints to cool off since the number of some beer parlours in Lagos state could outrun the number of churches which are forever on the increase. Every corner has a drinking spot with some pot-bellied men unwinding mostly with ladies/women with different shapes and height in anticipation for the bed dance in most occasions.

The major attraction in club houses is the ladies who pour out in large numbers in readiness to sell their bodies for diverse prices. These ladies are like aliens at night but mind you, they are the normal ladies you meet in religious gatherings with some taking up leadership positions, they are the cute and mostly light-skinned ladies with attractive shapes you meet at the banks as they come for financial transactions, they are the stunning ladies could even refuse to give out their contacts in commercial vehicles, the ones you come across at social gatherings taking selfies with expensive Smart phones to entertain their teaming followers who are potential customers on social media platforms, but at nights, they unveil their demonic outlooks for business. Life is like a stage drama indeed; we take up different characters to suit the moment. They have mastered the trade of mind-controlling outfits, heavy make-ups are worn to drive home quick messages, heels are introduced to give the sexual messages sent down the brains of men a rhythm and one must confess their dance skills are perfected in such a way that the pillar of a building could be lured to the dance floor if care isn't taken.

This is one of the ills of globalization as prostitution is very much 'unAfrican' going down history lane as it originated from the ancient Israel if one is to follow the provisions of the Holy Bible. It was practiced within the religion of Canaan where we had temple prostitutes that were mostly male.

The Biblical story of Judah and Tamar (Genesis 38) provides a depiction of prostitution as practiced in the society of the time. The prostitute plies her trade at the side of a highway, waiting for travellers. She covers her face; which marks her as a prostitute. She gets paid in kind, asking for a kid as her fee; a rather high price in a herding society, in which only the wealthy owner of numerous herds could afford to pay for a single sexual encounter. If the traveller does not have his cattle with him, he must give some valuables as a deposit, until the kid is delivered to the woman.
Though in this story the woman was not a real prostitute but Judah's widowed daughter-in-law, who had good reasons of seeking to trick Judah and become pregnant by him, she succeeds in impersonating a prostitute and her conduct can be assumed to be the real conduct expected of a prostitute in the society of the time.
A later biblical story, in the Book of Joshua, a prostitute in Jericho named Rahab assisted Israelite spies with her knowledge of the current socio-cultural and military situation due to her popularity with the high-ranking nobles she serviced, among others.

Today, several Nigerian women are slaves to the money and sex is their means of service delivery but I insist African women were never sex slaves. African women were epitomes of decency and high self esteem. Before the advent of westernization, they stayed in the kitchens and learned the act of home building and management from their mothers under the strict supervisions of their fathers. In the history of the Yorubas, there was a period virginity was valued and feed-backs were given to families of ladies who married as virgins as a sign of honour to the family I.e. the ''Ibale culture'' The young ladies walked around covering their natural endowments for their future husbands alone with limited cases of promiscuity.

 

Decency was so valued those days that young lovers secretly fix short meetings at dark hours in secluded areas to foster their romantic relationships during which respect and dignity was accorded to the body till the bride price and conditions of marriage were met by the suitor and his family. In most cases, lovers communicated through a match-maker known as 'Alarina' who mediates between the families of both parties. Nowadays, everything has changed. Its either the man is reckless driving the 'vehicle' he doesn't plan to purchase or the lady indirectly collects her bride price through outrageous demands for articles of ostentation. Romance in Lagos is now widely seen as a job rather than a freewill and selfless engagement. Regular jobs can't even cater for the endless demands of some ladies. You have to be into drugs, internet scam, money laundering, money rituals, bank robbery, affiliations to people in the class of Sambo Dasuki and other alleged 'Yam-eaters' to sustain the symbiotic union. Even when your source of finance raises a red flag, they deliberately turn a blind eye so far the oil keeps flowing.

Fast-forward to the 21st century, every young lady sees what she has in between her legs as an oil well. The sex industry is a sector President Muhammadu Buhari may be considering to raise tax from in order to fix the current economic downturn that has rocked Nigeria rather than focusing on bank charges like we have with the N50 bank stamp charge on current accounts. A number of beautiful ladies in Lagos have achieved their Nirvana with the power of their waists.

This article will not make sense if I don't relate it to my point of inspiration.

Recently, I visited a friend for the weekend. To an extent, he could be called a socialite. For years, he has been telling me about club activities but I never really paid attention to it due to the possibility of sacrificing my cherished sleep after working for long hours; it’s safe to say I cherish my sleep more than a witch as a friend will always say. He finally convinced me to accompany him alongside another friend who happens to be an old schoolmate on a Saturday night. We took a cab around 12am to the Surulere area of Lagos (street name withheld) and entered a club house. Lo and behold, it was a strip club. I have watched their activities in some American movies without any full consideration about the reality of the outplay of events. I saw mostly light-skinned ladies with considerable heights walking around naked while others were wearing only their underwear. They manned some poles and danced under the loud music and fancy lights.

 

I couldn't raise up my head for the first 30 minutes. I swiftly brought out my phone to create a distraction. It was as if someone was going to smack me for looking. My heart started beating fast as the idea of 'Sodom and Gomorrah' kept striking in my head. Truthfully, I wouldn't say I am a saint but I have never pushed my luck that far in my entire life. I gradually started raising my head up as I gathered confidence over time. I saw several men pleasuring themselves from lap dances as low as N1,000 to N3,000 from the ladies. It was like a master and slave affair. The girls were grinding their buttocks against the manhood of the man as he directs in different positions smacking her backside from behind in a fashion that I almost thought a fight was breaking out while the ladies laughed intermittently. The young man who sat close to me almost made a stripper walk on her head for his satisfaction. I am sure the man must have worked too hard for his money, hence the need for maximum utility. The strip club had private rooms for quick and expensive sex services for men that can't handle the heat of the pleasure. The act is called 'Sharp Sharp' involving the act of discharging the 'water' before it destroys one part of the body as perverts jokingly say.

Some young men came with their girlfriends who rocked their fellow girls with utmost happiness and excitement. It was a sight to forget.  I felt so uncomfortable throughout with my eyes focused on the future. These young strippers with an age range of 23 to 30 will end up as wives in the houses of unlucky men one day. I am sorry for referring to the men as unlucky but they are women of easy virtues who are potential death traps due to the sexually transmitted diseases they might have contacted from several men considering the fact that condoms are not 100% safe, high rate of immorality they have been exposed to, poor mental state as well as the spiritual implications of sleeping with several men if one is to think African.

Sincerely, these are ladies I might be scared to approach in broad daylight due their sophisticated appearances but tonight, they are like slaves controlled with peanuts and dancing tirelessly for hours as they fight the quest of their bodies for a rest.
I ended up not getting a lap dance due to personal reasons. We stormed out and later engaged in what was almost a club tour around Surulere which has diverse clubs that were almost as common as living rooms in houses. As we moved around, I became so inquisitive. I tried interrogating my friends who express no signs of astonishment. So I said:

''Mehn things are happening in Lagos oh''
 My friend laughed and said, ''you are just a local boy from Ibadan. Don't tell people you are amazed by these small clubs in Surulere''
The other guy joined him in the laughter, he said ''my guy! If I take you to the Island they will finish you over there, that's where the real bad girls that want the money desperately ply their trades''
Then my friend interrupted ''Guy if you enter Ikeja clubs nko? You go die I swear.
I learned there is a place where you can publicly sleep with the strippers outside the club. In fact, let's go fish that club out''
Out of shock, I was like ''blood of Buhari!, don't worry, I have seen enough. I think I need to go and sleep now. Let's go home. Its 3am''
The other guy moved closer and parted me on my back.
He said "See when next you come, we will visit where you will see male strippers with women paying for their services as well as some gay men. The fun nor get part 2''

Unconsciously, I found my hands on my head like I just witnessed a fatal accident from a distance. I wanted to utter a word but I suddenly lost my ability to make pronunciations.

As we moved around the streets, I saw several ladies of different shapes. African women are really endowed if I will not be economical with the truth. All they wanted was the money. With as low as 7k to 10k, they would make your bed rock. They all lined up according to their age range. A section was dedicated to mature women who appeared old enough to be my mother. It was shocking as they paraded themselves with heavy assets that could make a man of God derail if he doesn't caution his eyes.
My friend said Friday nights were accompanied with issues of crowd control due to the high number of females who are like ghosts pouring out of nowhere. Men came in numbers and picked them one by one. These are daughters of men, sisters of people, future wives of men, possibly present wives of unfortunate men, mothers of some lovely kids, people's course mates, protégés of some religious leaders gallantly trading their bodies for money with the high risk of one of them being eventually used for diabolic wealth by ritualists. The zeal at which girls hopped into the exotic cars of strangers after negotiating bumper pays broke my heart. They followed without any display of cowardice not caring about the location headed; what an act of blind bravery all for economic reasons.

There is no justification for a woman to engage in prostitution. Every religion frowns at it. Morally, it is completely wrong. Health-wise, it is highly detrimental to the wellbeing of the human body. Most ladies cite economic hardship as the major reason for selling their bodies. We all accept life could be so unfair and uncertain at times but it doesn't justify taking the wrong path in life. One shouldn't create a past you can't erase which could haunt you for the rest of your life.
The kind of choices you make today will determine the results you will get in future. We all have problems we can't logically solve but we live with them, explore other means of staying alive as we hope on God for the best.

Cost of living in Lagos is quite high, transport cost is killing, and cost of accommodation could afford you a sound car that would attract the envy of others rating your life outwardly. At times I feel like packing my bags and returning to my village due to the current inflation but that's a retrogressive step rather than a progressive one. No lady/woman was conditioned to be a prostitute; she only made a choice among several better choices.  At least we now have women that are painters, bricklayers, mechanics, cab drivers etc, living with dignity and self-respect.

On an ending note, I will like to make a reference to a particular experience I had. My office shares the same building with a water company. One day, I got to the office premises as early as 7am and I saw many of the company workers on night shift sleeping on cartons in the open at the mercy of mosquitoes and harsh weather after working tirelessly all through the night. Among them were very beautiful young ladies some rich men would kill for. I was so touched by what I saw.
They could have taken the greedy path of making quick money by laying their backs on the beds of randy men but they probably refused not because they are virgins or decent but because that route is simply not considerable.

I hope my piece takes some confused and blinded people out of darkness no matter how long and deep they have been in it.