Prostitution. It is one of the oldest professions and the practitioners can hardly own up or tell the real reasons they are into it. However, OJO MADUEKWE tries to find out why some ladies who go into prostitution sometimes remain prostitutes
Ask them why they do what they do, and the answer is the same; and just as they, readily available, "there is no job and man must eat. Or what do you think" Both prostitutes and their sympathisers, hurriedly and constantly cite unemployment and poverty as reasons why the female child gets into prostitution.
Making it sound like all prostitutes are poor and all poor are prostitutes waiting to happen. Counting both years and a bank account huge enough to show for 'back-work' and start a petty trade, it seems like poverty is not just the only reason a lady takes to prostitution as a profession.
Going through various definitions of prostitution, like the one found in Wikipedia's site that describes it as "the act or practice of providing sexual services to another person in return for payment" the two main and constant features you will come to observe are money and sex. Money either because people are poor (which like was stated above is the most common excuse) or just love for free money to lust after and sex for the love of it, as testified by some prostitutes.
"I love sex and have been in the business for four years. I make hundreds of naira in one night and enjoy rounds of sex. I can't seem to break away; it's like a bad drug habit. I want to stop and live a normal life but the sex and money always draw me back." Linda has passed from the stage where money is no more a concern for her because right now she can boast of a good account, because she's been able to save, but then like she said, the sex and greed for more money always makes her want to continue.
This is not to rule out the fact that the twin of poverty and unemployment are major causes. With the majority of the world's country living from foreign aid, countries from mostly the African continent and Southern America are known to have high rate of prostitutes. Based on moral, health or religious grounds like in most Islamic nations, the legal status of prostitution varies from country to country, from being a punishable crime to a regulated profession. But with the annual revenue generation from the global prostitution industry estimated to be over $100 billion, it is not surprising when some countries make it a legal trade.
Marian's own reason for going into prostitution was more on the 'sex side'; she loved sex a lot and couldn't seem to get enough of it from her boyfriend who had a regular job as a factory worker. "Apart from the money, I enjoy sex so much. I have a boyfriend, John, but he comes back from work and most times is not able to satisfy me...
"I became a prostitute at age 11. It was my choice, it was my ambition and it is my career. I enjoy what I do I will not lie. I do not feel exploited at all. I do not hide who I am or what I do, my friends all accept this is who I am and are cool with it. Anyone who isn't can move on down the road," she said.
Because of the assumptions of the society as to the true reasons some ladies engage in prostitution, narrowing it down to money, necessitated by poverty, it is now constant to have people come up to offer one succour or the other. The promises have now taken the form of a cliché, with everybody touting one solution to another, claiming that if only there can be jobs for the prostitutes (this is minus the teeming number of other class of jobless people like armed robbers, unemployed graduates); if only the people can stop living under the one dollar a day situation, the oldest career in the world will be pronounced dead and buried for the good of all forever.
Good thought though, but like it is a thought, could only be imagined. Why do you think it's called the oldest profession in the world? Because solutions like the ones we are having today have been the same ones since the time of Solomon, Sodom and Gomorrah yet there have been no serious record to scrap the job. Even in places where the law seem to be strict; where you have both spiritual and political rules guiding their conduct, prostitution still strive there a lot.
Like in Kaduna, where a group of prostitutes operating in a region called Obalande in the state, last year November 1 to December 31, 2009 had a two months sex freebie for their customers. Obalande, which has been addressed as Sodom and Gomorra in Kaduna State originated in 1980s, the region operates from 7pm to 4am featuring high-class prostitutes along with different kinds of assorted bars in every nook and cranny.
The group head, nicknamed 'Presido' as reported by Victor Ulasi, writing for Article Base, an online magazine, said "Nigerian economy is getting worse on a daily basis and the government does not give a shit about the situation. This is what we do to survive; this is where we make our daily bread. Also am proud of my job, and to keep the business going on there is the need to step up the price with a bonanza to please the customers," the Presido was quoted as saying. Like sellers of products, prostitutes want to start giving out bonanza and then to protect themselves, form an association that can table their case before relevant authorities.
She categorically stated to love what she does to the point of thinking of giving bonanza to clients, in a way to boost clients craving for more. Such a person would obviously mock peoples pledge to assist her. People like Navy Captain Caleb Olubolade, who said "I will just urge them to do something else and assist them as much as possible so that they can lead a happier life" when she and her co-prostitutes, in a way of protecting themselves from security agencies harassments and exploitation, have decided to register an association.
That's with a capital IF, because before he might think of popping the champagne, he needs to hear this. "The sex bonanza should have started before now but the police constant patrol in the region could not allow us to hold the rarely, but that will soon come to an end. We want to form a union which will be known as Nigerian Association of Prostitutes because the same people who arrest us are the same people who patronise us."
It is this kind of statement by Minister of State for the Federal Capital Territory (FCT); Navy Captain Caleb Olubolade (Rtd) that makes them appear like people who are in dire need of assistance. He goes on to say that he will just urge them to do something else and also assist them as much as possible so that they can lead a better and happier life. Its like telling the touts who for just chasing after bus drivers make an average of five thousand naira a day to quit their very lucrative job, bagged a degree after years of waiting for JAMB and strikes in school to go and work for a bank at fifty thousand as a front desk officer. How is this possible, of "urging them to do something else" after they have had a feel of what good money taste like.
Statements like this, made from assumptions are the ones that assume ladies take onto prostitution solely because they are poor and in need to eke out a living. Fine, we can choose to help the prostitutes collaborate their excuses of poverty as to why they went into it in the first place. But then you'd think that after a while, when they must have made a substantial amount of start-up capital that they will resign and live a normal life.
How many of them get to resign is the question to ask. As we can see above, the story of Linda and Marian means that the love of money and not the lack thereof is the strong reason behind their entering into the trade in the first instance.
Who says prostitutes are not busy people; who say they do not have an option of other means of living? A look at 'Presido' can tell you that although she may be a prostitute, she is not a dunce. As you can read, she likes her job. A shift of perspective to discover the exact reasons that people enter into the act of prostitution instead of assuming for them is the basic step the authorities must take if they are really serious about limiting prostitution to its barest minimal.
Surely you have felt the need for a new start in life. Perhaps you have come to realise that there is no real purpose, direction or meaning in your life? Perhaps you have tried some sort of religion but only found it to be a burdensome set of rules and regulations? Maybe you are still weighed down with fear and insecurity about your future destiny? Possibly you can remember many of those New Year resolutions that you have made and failed to keep. 
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