• Tuesday, March 19, 2024
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My encounter with ‘ladies of the night’ in Lagos

nightlife

As I toured some streets of Lagos, particularly Kofo Abayomi in Apapa, Allen Avenue in Ikeja, and others in Yaba, I encountered women (not below 26 years) in-between clubs, in brothels and in the open streets.

Branded ‘ladies of the night’, these women are driven by poverty and vanity, hence subjected themselves to a means of survival painted with scars and emotional pains.  In their quest for survival, they pass through many ordeals leaving behind sad stories they never wish to tell.

At a hotel with Eniola

I met Eniola in a dark small hotel room and was lucky to listen to the phone conversation with one of her numerous clients. She called the client to send her money to fix the light in her room. After the call, she sat comfortably to narrate her story while enjoying a meal.

In 2013, Eniola, who is popularly known as Eniolowo (wealthy person) by her clients, joined the ‘ladies of the night’ not because of financial lack but emotional reasons. “I am unapologetic of who I am and what I do. It is a path I have chosen”, she said.

She was in a relationship that ended abruptly coupled with the unstable relationship with her mother that drove her further away from sanity.  After meeting a friend at a club and saw how much she makes for satisfying a man sexually, Eniolowo decided to become a ‘lady of the night’. “I will use what I have to get what I want”, she said.

She has been on the job for seven years now and feels no remorse for the business. She feels she can get to where ever she wants and can even become the minister of aviation if she sees fit because she works with the aviation sector in the day time. “I am just a passer-by in life, I will not die here because I am going to move forward”, she assured me and insisted that younger women who are into prostitution can reach their goals if they are determined and focused.

I could not help but wonder how she felt so positive about what she does for a living. I do not have any right to condemn her, but I thought to myself, “She is so intelligent and filled with optimism, how about focusing this zeal on positive initiatives she can be proud of”.

Her shapely figure is the attraction for men, while her educational achievement and vocational enhancement make her the perfect candidate for any client who is ready to spend time and money on her. She has asserted herself in the business, earning N30,000 to N50, 000 daily, and at least N120,000 to N150, 000 monthly, amid the chance to tour exotic destinations, stay in exquisite hotels and meet famous people along the way.

She sleeps with at least one man in a day and makes enough money to fend for her son who is in one of the best schools in Nigeria.

Eniola has no dream of settling down as she regards her son as her source of joy and her tomorrow.

“We all fear death but the only reason I fear death is my son. I will be there for him with God by my side”, she says regarding the health and hazards associated with her work. “We in this business are the easiest to get connected with people in power but we are also the easiest to get killed”.

She regards herself as a tough and strong girl who will decisively break a bottle on the head of any man who tries to be violent. What she hates most is “osho free” offering herself for free, which has happened only once in her lifetime and will not repeat itself again.

At the club with Grace

While in Banilux, a club in Yaba, I came across a girl who looked quite young and dressed in a jumpsuit and golden hair. I tried to talk to her regardless of all the distraction from other ladies.  It was difficult, but she later listened and agreed to narrate her story to me.

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“If I was born rich I would go to school and become a nurse to save lives”, Grace told me. Her parents died when she was six years old, and after completing her primary and secondary education in public schools, her aunt had no money to enable her continue her education. At 22 years, circumstances brought her to Lagos in search of financial footing, and thus she was introduced to a life of risk by a friend who helped her to find suitable partners who sleep with her and pay her.

Grace is aware of the risk of her job, but has nothing to look back to or someone to turn to. She prefers having few friends in the business and picking men who look responsible enough so she does not get entangled with ritual killers.

Grace plies her craft in a street in Yaba and makes from N10,000 per night and would gladly retire immediately she found something better to do. She would like to settle down but believes that love does not exist for people like her.

On the streets of Allen Avenue with Chioma

I came across Chioma under the golden fluorescent light outside the gate of one of the myriads of hotels lined up on the streets of the famous Allen Avenue in Ikeja.

Chioma, who is also known as Bawu, which means ‘thick and strong’ said she has been in the business for three years to sustaining herself.  She dropped out of school and got a job of 15,000 a month, which was not enough for her. “I cannot do any labour work for N15,000”.

In a day, without the use of charms as she claimed some other girls do, she makes up to N5,000 to N15,000, which she uses to pay for her house rent, liquor, medicine, hair and clothing.

Chioma’s father is from Liberia while her mother is Delta Igbo.  But her mother, who makes enough money to take care of herself and her only brother, is unaware of the kind of business she does.

 She started the business in Ghana due to frustration and was brought to Nigeria by Charles Taylor, the ex-president of Liberia, who is also her ‘baby daddy’.

She deems her occupation as risky as she has met a lot of wicked and terrible men but tried not to think of them. “If I think of the bad people in this business, I will not make it. I pray not to meet the bad ones that will take my life” she said.

She frowns at men who sometimes sleep with her without paying. “Some of them will either blow you, fight you if you challenge them and sometimes I end up spoiling their car”, she said. But the police often catch and charge her to court for destroying clients’ properties, hence she has been to Kirikiri Prison five times.

Regarding health and safety, she has had more external injuries than internal ones due to various road accidents and beatings by men. She often goes to the general hospital to treat herself but the injuries have affected her brain and some other parts of her body.

Chioma has two kids (a boy and a girl); one stays with her second ‘baby daddy’ and the other stays with her mother.

Chioma and most of the ladies in the brothels want to quit the infamous job and the ‘streets’, some even want to marry someday, but the harsh economic realities of our time and the abuses young girls are passing every day, are holding them back.

RUTH UDEMBA