Menace To Society...
Adebayo, Ayodele (CDC/NIOSH/DSHEFS)
I realize the news article below is not about occupational or environmental health but I decided to post it because of its public health significance. I am particularly saddened by a comment which I am culling and pasting below (I have also highlighted it in the original piece). I surmise that there is a lot of work cut out for public health professionals in Nigeria. Let's all get our sleeves rolled up and prepare to get dirty...
”But if a man says he is not using condom, he must be ready to pay more than the usual charge. Besides, we can determine a ‘clean‘ guy by looking at him. It is instinctive, but we know that HIV does not show on the face, so we pray and leave the rest to divine providence,” she added
Moderator
http://www.punchng.com/Articl.aspx?theartic=Art2008050613193659
Prostitution
takes on new garb on campuses
By Segun Olugbile, Festus Abu and Abimbola
Adelakun
Published: Tuesday, 6 May 2008
More students in Nigerian
universities now resort to trading with their bodies to earn huge income ranging
from N10, 000 to N50, 000 per day. Also, the students have devised more
innovative ways of sustaining patronage from men. From the University of Benin
in Edo State to the Obafemi Awolowo University in Osun State and the University
of Ibadan, Oyo State, the story is similar - campus hookers are on the rise. The
only difference is the modus operandi of these students in the various
institutions. Popularly known as ‘runs’ in many institutions, lascivisious
students are becoming bolder despite the increased campaign against multiple
partners and surge in ritual killings in the country.
Interestingly, the
student prostitutes abhor the use of the word prostitute in describing them.
Instead, they prefer such words as Aristo, Paroles, or Hustling depending on
which institution the female prostitute attends. At the University of Lagos, for
instance, it is called Aristo, at the University of Ibadan, it is Parole, while
female students of the Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife, Osun State, call it
Hustling, or ”Gbese.”
The trade is not limited to these universities
alone. Information from the federal and state universities in Port-Harcourt,
Ilorin, Calabar, Nsukka, Zaria, Lagos, Ago-Iwoye and Ekpoma reveals that the
students are finding increasing succour and fun in prostitution.
One of
them told one of our correspondents at UI that one way or the other, every girl
was a hustler. She said, ”If a girl has a boyfriend and they have sex regularly
and he gives her money, do you call that prostitution? So, what makes ours
different? Is it because it is with different men or because we have more guts?
Every woman is an ‘ashewo‘ (prostitute) at one level or the other as long as she
is not married.”
The student, a 300 level student in the Faculty of
Education of the university, preferred to be called Blessing instead of her real
name. She said, ”I prefer older men to the younger ones because of the older
men‘s weak staying power and their generousity. I don‘t sleep with young boys
because they are too agile. The older men just want fun, they get tired easily
and they still pay more than the younger and virile men.‘‘
Although,
prostitution is not a new practice in tertiary institutions, what is new is the
innovative approach to the trade. Now, some of the student prostitutes advertise
themselves through photo albums kept by middlemen in popular hotels contiguous
to the campus. This is the practice at the OAU, for
instance.
Investigations conducted by one of our correspondents revealed
that as soon as men drove into these hotels, the middlemen would walk up to them
with an album that contains pictures of different girls. They promised to fix
the men up with campus girls if they so desired.
One of the men who got a
fix through this process at Ile- Ife penultimate Friday, said, ”The young man
just walked up to me in the hotel and asked if I was interested in spending the
night with a campus babe. I said yes, and he brought out an album containing
pictures of some beautiful girls. After making my choice, the boy just called
and before I could say jack, the lady came in a chartered taxi.”
The man,
who simply identified himself as Alex, said he paid N10, 000 for a night. Upon
enquiries, our correspondent confirmed that the female prostitute [names
withheld], was a 300 Level student in the Faculty of Social and Management
Science at OAU.
The institution‘s Vice Chancellor, Prof. Michael
Faborode, confirmed the involvement of some of the students in campus
prostitution. ”I‘m aware that some of them engage in prostitution. They even use
some of the male students as ‘bouncers‘ who serve as go between among them and
men. But unfortunately we can‘t stop them.‘‘
The mode of operation of
female prostitutes at UI is different. According to investigations, the
prostitutes go out of the campus to look for customers. While some visit popular
hotels, others are patronised by older men often referred to as sugar daddies
who visit the female hostels. Sometime, the girls are recruited to big parties
on contract. Some of them confirmed this to one of our correspondents. She said
that a girl‘s carriage; performance in bed; and the generousity of the male
customer, determine the financial reward.
She said that an older man
might give up to N10,000 on a parole if nothing serious happened and double of
that amount or even more if he was impressed. Sometime, she said the girls might
be lucky and get very generous customers who could give up to N50, 000 for a
single night. ”This is rare but it does happen. It is a luck that we all pray
for.”
The trade does not only take place at night alone. There are times
when there is a ‘big man‘ in town with friends and they want ‘sharp sharp‘ sex.
The campus prostitutes prefer this, because it is usually brief and leaves room
for other customers later in the day.
The middleman, otherwise known as
pimp, is usually a male undergraduate who connects the prostitute with the male
customer. He hangs around female hostels at night, meets the men and relying on
verbal power, describes his client‘s features to the prospective customer. He
emphasises her strengths and if it matches what the man wants, he picks his
phone to call her.
Investigations also revealed that those who used pimps
also make use of album at UI. One of them said, ”But we make sure that the album
does not fall into wrong hands. The pimp sometimes negotiates the price on our
behalf and whatever is agreed on, he collects 40 per cent of it.”
This
mode of operation is also similar to how campus prostitutes operate at the
Olabisi Onabanjo University, Ago-Iwoye, Ogun State, the University of Benin,
UNILAG and the Lagos State University, Ojo. At OOU and UNIBEN, the pimps use
various methods including writing the girls‘ phone numbers on conspicuous places
on campus with an instruction to potential customers to call the number if they
want sex. At UNIBEN, the pimps have links with the protocol department of the
government house. Our correspondents discovered that the student prostitutes
charge between N5, 000 and N10, 000 at UNIBEN and OOU while those in Lagos and
Port Harcourt charge much more. Also, some of them send their nude pictures via
bluetooth to the mobile phones of prospective men.
”We prefer men from
Lagos; they have more money to spend than those in Ibadan. In Ibadan, the
highest you can get is N20, 000 but when people come from Lagos or Port
Harcourt, you can realise N50, 000 per night,” one of the girls at UI
said.
According to her, the N10.000 allowance that her parents give her
monthly is barely enough for ordinary snacks. “I will spend that within an hour.
It is just knock about money.”
For their safety, the campus prostitutes
said they preferred to move together. But some still prefer to go on ‘parole‘
alone to avoid misunderstanding that could lead into scandal. ”It will be
terrible if you allow someone to know so much of your secrets,” one of them who
pleaded anonymity said.
She added that they could also go on ‘parole‘
through networking. ”If one of us has a ‘big boy‘ or a boyfriend or a
show-cutter, and he is coming to town with his friends, he calls his girlfriend
and tells her to arrange her friends for them. The girl in question rallies her
friends, as many as possible, and they meet the guys at the appointed place,
either a club or a party.”
The girls also have what they call supporting
boyfriends. These boys take them out for lunch and buy recharge cards and other
gifts for them. To make the relationship last long, they don‘t sleep with the
boys.
”You trump up every excuse to avoid sex with them so that they have
a reason to keep on coming with gifts. Sometime you allow them to do whatever
they like with your body but you draw a line at sex. That way, they keep
hoping.”
Going on ‘parole‘ does have other advantages apart from
financial benefits. The girls claim they get to meet highly placed people in the
society, something they claim is of utmost importance to their
future.
”You go with an open mind,” one of the girls, Blessing (not real
name) from the University of Ibadan said. ”You never can tell who you will meet.
I met the man I am going to marry now on a ‘parole‘ and he is very fond of
me.‘‘
Asked what feminine dignity means to them and they shrug off their
shoulders to say it does not matter.
To them, sleeping with a guy one has
never met before is no big deal as long as he has money. Some of the ladies said
the men must be attractive and must be able to stimulate some erotic feelings in
them.
Blessing said a lady must have dignity even if she slept with men
for money.
She said, ”If you carry yourself like a gbaza (cheap) girl and
behave that it is only the sex and money that matter, that is how they will
treat you. They will sleep with you, pay you and by 5 a.m. the next day, they
will wake you up and ask you to find your way back to school. If you carry
yourself with dignity, they will treat you well. They will give you good money
and even offer you breakfast. They will drop you in school or ask their drivers
to drop you. It depends on the way you offer yourself.”
With all the talk
about HIV/AIDS, don‘t they worry about infections? Of course, the guys use
condoms, she said.
”But if a man says he is not using
condom, he must be ready to pay more than the usual charge. Besides, we can
determine a ‘clean‘ guy by looking at him. It is instinctive, but we know that
HIV does not show on the face, so we pray and leave the rest to divine
providence,” she added
Like his counterparts at Ife, the Vice
Chancellor, UI, Prof. Olufemi Bamiro, expressed worries at the high rate of
female prostitution on the campuses of higher institutions. According to him,
poverty could never be a reason for this untoward trend. ”Rather I think the
girls just cave in to peer pressure and some of them may have been into it
before realising that what they are doing is bad.”
He called on parents
and religious groups to emphasise sound morality in the upbringing of their
children. ”The university can only advise and counsel students, we cannot follow
them everywhere they go,” he said.
Kunle Oyekanmi
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