Recession: We now sell singlets, perfumes to make ends meet —Sex workers

Selling one’s body for money requires little investment and it is supposed to be profitable and sustaining for those in it. But all stakeholders are complaining. CHUKWUMA OKPARAOCHA, CHIMA NWOKOJI, NAZA OKOLI, NEWTON-RAY UKWUOMA and KEHINDE AKINSEHINDE-JAYEOBA listened to their cries.

THE Ikeja axis is a popular fun spot in Lagos. Nightclubs are scattered all over the place. The streets are also full of sex sellers, day and night. To connect them in daytime, you may have to learn the language of the street, which was employed by Saturday Tribune correspondents in probing into how players in the sex trade are coping with the harsh economy and it was complaint galore, from sex sellers to buyers and those who provide the fun arena for their use. For them, their “sector” of the hospitality business is feeling the impact of the recession more than others.

For example, for sex workers like Nancy (pseudonym), whose duty post is at the popular Allen-Opebi Road, Ikeja, business has not been steady since the financial crunch.

At the time Nancy spoke to one of our correspondents, she had barely made N1,000. “I charge N1,000 for quickie and N10, 000 for full service,” she quickly said when asked about the conditions of her service.

The time was 10.45 p.m. A slightly cloudy Monday night it was. Nancy, who said she was 23 years old and a student of one of the second tier tertiary institutions in Lagos, stole several glances at the sky while bending over the unwound window of her prospective customer’s car as if to ask to be let in immediately. “It might rain. Oga, wetin you talk?”

Once in the car, it was easy to engage her. “E (recession) dey affect everybody. Sometimes we stand here all night. Most of our customers dey complain but we have to hustle. Who government don help? Sometimes I reduce the price for the customers I like. And I curse the ones who don’t pay me because it is not easy to do this job”.

She had assumed the question about the recession’s impact as an ugly preamble to a bad day and thus proceeded to provide all available options to forge a good bargain. Her dark rubber mini skirt could not hide all the strings of beads on her dark waist, while her green singlet wasn’t quite doing a good job preventing the apparent nudity. But in general, Nancy was far more ‘decent’ than most of her colleagues hanging around the zone. She had a shawl somewhere in her bag.

A deal was reached for Nancy to accept a token slightly more than the fee for a quickie for information. And she began to speak. “We do not make much money as before. For me, on lucky nights I get a customer for full time. Sometimes some customers can only afford a quickie. The days I don’t see any customer, I call some of my old ones. That is how I survive. Before, fair girls did not stay here till 10.30 p.m. but some of them are still here. They have also reduced their prices. Everybody has reduced their price. I only said N10,000 at first. I can do N5,000.”

The manager of one of the hotels in FESTAC told one of our correspondents tales of woe as regards the effect of recession on the hospitality business.

The manager, who gave his name as Grey, said he was employed a few months ago after the former manager resigned. “Since I came, we have never had more than four customers in a week. We spend so much money buying diesel and on other running expenses, yet there is nothing to show for it. I have not been paid since I assumed this position and I doubt I will be paid. I am planning to leave.”

According to him, the hotel has reduced price of lodging from N10,000 to N7,000, yet it did not help its dwindling fortune. “What we do sometimes is to let out some of the halls to churches for midweek services or even Sunday service. The truth is, most hotels do that too.”

At a nightclub housed by a relaxation centre called Macvilla in Iyana Ejigbo, a strip tease artist who identified herself as Blessing told Saturday Tribune that the manager who used to pay her N10,000 per performance had reduced it to N7,000, citing low patronage and recession. Even if she danced from 7.00 p.m. to 2.00 a.m., she got paid the same amount, she said.

According to Blessing, “I now beg men in the club to allow me dance on their laps. So, after a lap dancing, whatever we agreed on, the man will give me.

“Sometimes we allow men to touch our private parts for any amount they have. We equally do more exposure to attract men who might like to take us for the night for a price ranging from N5,000 to N15,000, depending on his pocket. So, going the extra mile like that is the only way we make extra money to survive this recession.”

On his part, the manager, who initially was reluctant to speak on his strip tease artists finally disclosed that he recorded more patronage any day he invited more girls and paid each of them less money.

“Due to hard times, one has to change. More people come in to watch if there are more strippers on the dance floor than just one. More people buy drinks and pay more money when I pay three girls N21,000 than when I pay a single girl N10,000,” the manager who refused to mention his name said.

Similarly, a sex worker identified simply as Jennifer in the Oshodi area said men are rather reluctant these days to spend money on sex.

“They would tell us, ‘na person wey chop na him fuck dey hungry,’” Jenifer disclosed in pidgin English.

She also said that most sex workers were now combining other trades. “We buy and hawk wares like singlets, perfumes and at the same time solicit for customers. We usually create atmosphere for such customers to talk to us and once they do, we easily agree. Some of them take us to a nearby hotel for short rest and in the process they pay us some extra money as transport,” Jennifer said.

She disclosed further that most prostitutes no longer stayed long in one area. They move from one part of the city to another looking for where they can make more money. So, even those that normally do not follow men home for fear of unfair treatment now take the risk.

Our correspondent visited a motel in the Akute-Ajuwon area of Ogun State and observed low patronage at the place, unlike several months back when the place was a beehive of nightlife activities. The manager lamented to Saturday Tribune that year 2017 had been hard for them.

“This year has not been okay for us. Customers rarely visit again unlike last year when we had a lot of them. Even drinks we sell spend days in our fridge. The recession has really affected our business. People who actually patronise us here are low-income earners and they are the worst hit by economic downturn,” he said.

A middle-aged man, a known patroniser of the motel (name withheld), explained that he now hardly goes to the motel due to lack of money. “We all know what is happening in the country and that is the reason why my visits to the place have reduced. Last year, I had money but this year hasn’t been so good,” he said.

However, despite the economic downturn in the country, some clubs still enjoy huge patronage. At a popular club located at Fagba junction in the Ifako-Ijaye Local Government Development Area (LCDA), the bar has been on the buzzling side, irrespective of the day of the week, although weekend clubbing starts earlier than the other days. The number of cars at the parking lot of the bar is an indicator of the level of patronage, and there are usually many of them there.

A bar tender at the club explained to Saturday Tribune that the regular callers never spare any cost on drinks as sales is always good. “We make it easier for our customers here. There is no excuse for not having money; we have got POS machines – if they run out of cash, they can use their debit cards. We have a strict rule not to sell on credit here. In fact, our bouncers see to it that they pay as they drink,” he said.

However, a sex worker at the club explained that the customers might not buy drink on credit but they were stingy when it came to buying sex. She noted that some of the club’s customers now negotiated the price of a round of sex, contrary to the practice before now whereby they wouldn’t even bat an eyelash at your charges. Now it is like buying pepper in the market and asking for three for the price of two. “At the end of the day, the money we make is less than what we used to make before recession. But we are still grateful, considering the challenges so many people are facing in this time of recession,” she said.

‘No law against prostitution in Lagos’

There is currently no known law banning prostitution in Lagos. And there is nothing on the table to suggest that lawmakers in the state will be coming out with a bill to outlaw the work as they did for smoking in public places a few years ago.

However, the state government has over time clamped down on prostitutes in brothels and illegal structures while searching primarily for criminals.

It will be recalled that the government, a few months ago, read the Riot Act to all owners of illegal structures and shanties in the state, especially in Ikoyi, Victoria Island and the Lagoon Front of Lekki, declaring that such structures had become the abode of criminals and prostitutes. The move, according to the government, would go a long way in ridding the state of prostitution and crime.

Making the government’s stance on the issue known, the Secretary to the State Government (SSG), Mr Tunji Bello, had in a recent statement warned that if such illegal structures were not removed within a specified time, the state’s special task force on the “cleanup” of the areas would enforce the laws.

“Cases of abandoned properties have become very rampant with miscreants and criminal elements taking over these properties as their base to cause havoc. The neat roadsides of the past now parade pockets  of kiosks, illegal parking lots, unapproved mechanic workshops, roadside beer parlours and commercial centres. In addition, originally residential areas now have industrial and commercial concerns located there, distorting the balance of the environment,” said Bello.

“These bad environmental practices, thriving in these prime areas, can no longer be tolerated and will be brought to an end immediately. These areas must regain their lost glory as this administration demands a return of environmental normalcy,” he added.