Prostitution in Nigeria

[Richard Akindele]

Prostitution is incompatible with the dignity and worth of the human person. It dehumanizes womanhood and endangers the health and welfare of the individual, the family and the community. Research has shown that prostitutes account for the highest number of persons living with HIV/AIDS, PLWHAs, as 90% of all HIV infections is through heterosexual sex. Prostitution is a violation of a woman's bodily integrity and therefore, it constitutes violence against women. Article 1(1-2) of the Convention for the Suppression of the traffic in persons and of the Exploitation of the Prostitution of others states that the Convention shall punish any person who;

1. To gratify the passions of another: procures, entices, or leads away, for the purpose of prostitution another person, even with the consent of that person;

2. Exploits the prostitution of another person, even with the consent of that person.

This means that prostitution is a crime against self and against the society. In Nigeria, prostitution is an organized crime involving people from the highest echelons of the society who use young innocent girls to achieve their selfish ends. These girls sometimes end up dead as victims of ritual murders while the ‘king pins’ are never brought to justice. What then can be done to end this scourge?

[Richard Akindele]

Pimps presumed to be the brains behind prostitution network were also nabbed in a swoop in France. They reportedly recruited girls in Nigeria and Sierra Leone, providing them with plane tickets to France.

Upon arrival in France, ring members helped the recruits obtain regular papers before despatching them to various prostitution joints in Paris and other major French cities.

"It is a profitable business in which some of the prostitutes are forced to make 1,000 Euros per day. It is outright slavery," an official of the association 'Les amis du Bus des femmes' bemoaned.

Every evening, members of the NGO cruise around the French capital distributing drinks, cakes and condoms to the prostitutes, while urging them to leave the profession.

In Saint-Denis in Paris 10th district, some girls from Nigeria, Sierra Leone and Ghana turn tricks by proposing their charm to whoremongers for 30 Euros.

"Half of the 30 Euros that we earn for a trick go to the lady that rents us the room. We must also reimburse the plane ticket and pay for the services in the processing of our residence papers," said one of the prostitutes, requesting anonymity.

A fierce debate has broken out in France in the past two weeks between the people advocating criminal charges against whoremongers and those opposed to such action.

In Paris, the left-wing majority and some representatives from the Right are also at odds about the reopening of brothels which, according to the defenders of the idea, might facilitate the bursting of prostitution rings and arrest of pimps.