One city, two worlds: The contrasting lives of Lagos’ prostitutes
Eric Dumo
Agatha Chukwuma almost flew out of her
skin when she made the discovery recently. Twenty-one and in search of a
better future, she was ferried to Lagos, Nigeria’s commercial capital,
six months ago by an uncle from her native Orlu in Imo State. Apart
from pursuing admission into one of the nation’s higher institutions
since arriving the fast-paced city, the young woman has also been
learning the art of making hair at a place close to her uncle’s house at
Fadeyi, a suburb of Lagos. It has been a busy period for her.
However, last week, after months of
failed promises, she finally decided to pay one of her female cousins,
Nneka, a visit on Victoria Island, a posh part of the city. According to
tales she had heard, only wealthy people – especially those working in
banks and ‘big’ companies live on VI as the area is popularly called.
Going by the different cars Nneka sometimes brought while visiting them
at Fadeyi, Chukwuma had equated her into one of these categories. But
the trip to her cousin’s house recently opened her ‘eyes’ to things she
never previously knew or imagined.
“The compound and the flat where she and
two of her friends lived was very beautiful, you would have no reason
to doubt that she worked in one of those big companies on VI,” the
22-year-old apprentice hair dresser told our correspondent during a
friendly chat earlier in the week. “But Nneka was a big-time ‘runs’ girl
with top connections,” Chukwuma added.
The word ‘runs girl’, is a term used to
describe prostitutes, who rather than standing by roadsides or operating
from brothels, prefer to connect and service clients either through
pimps or one-on-one meetings – physical or via the social media. They
are easily noticed from the crowd through their dressing, expensive hair
styles and the type of smartphones they carry. For them, “if you’ve got
it, flaunt it”.
While narrating how shocked she was upon
finding out that the cousin she looked up to and aspired to be like in
the near future was a prostitute, Chukwuma told Saturday PUNCH that the two days she spent on VI, changed her perception about many things.
“Nneka and all her friends, who are also
‘runs babes’ have their own cars,” she said. “They take good care of
themselves especially their skin and hair that you would never imagine
that they were into such a job. Throughout the weekend I stayed there
with them, they hardly had any visitor but then, I realised that by
evening, they would all dress well, drive their cars out and return at
different periods.
“On one of those night outings, Nneka
and another of her friends did not return home until about 9:00am the
next day. She called to tell me to feel relaxed and that she would see
me in the morning because she had to trash a deal with someone. It was
later that she eventually opened up to me what she was really into and
how it was through it that she was living well and able to establish two
businesses in Lagos.
“I was really shocked when she told me
everything because I never could imagine that a prostitute could live
such quality life or command such money and resources. In fact, I was
almost tempted to let her know I was willing to do the job going by the
amount of money she controls in her account,” she revealed.
Like Nneka, Liz as friends call her, is
another young woman, who appears to have found gold on the streets of
Lagos Island selling her body to different men, who can afford the cost.
One of the section’s biggest and well known call girls, the Ondo
State-born lady, according to findings by Saturday PUNCH, lives a life
many people with white-collar jobs can only dream of. Apart from
boasting of two cars – a Toyota Corrolla (Sport) and a Lexus RX330
sports utility vehicle, both valued at over N4m, Elizabeth as she is
originally named, lives in a three-bedroomed apartment in the Lekki
Phase One area of the city where the annual rent is not less than N2m.
She shares the apartment with three other friends, who are also in the
business of using their ‘natural endowments’ to make way for themselves.
“The
type of company I keep is not common and that is why I am not cheap,”
Liz told our correspondent, who reached out to her through the help of a
pimp at popular Lagos night club –Quilox. The reporter pretended to
have been commissioned to arrange beautiful ladies that could provide
quality company for a big Nigerian artiste based in the United Kingdom,
who was coming to Lagos alongside his team to promote his new album and
music videos.
“The artiste is coming with eight other
guys and they are all from the UK,” our correspondent told Liz, who
responded that, “Bayo had told me everything already and I had let him
know what’s up. So it all depends on you, I am ready once you are set.”
For each of the four nights the ‘crew’
were to stay in Lagos, Liz demanded N150, 000 for each of her
colleagues. This was after she had approved the quality of hotel the
entourage was going to lodge in on Victoria Island during the period.
She asked the exact date the guys would be coming into the country so
that they could book them down for that period. She told the reporter
that all amounts must be fully paid upfront before any action could take
place. Bayo, the pimp, had assured the reporter that Liz and her gang
were equal to the task and were going to give the ‘clients’ good value
for money. He rolled out a list of top ‘clients’ the lady and her ‘team’
had ‘serviced’ in the past and how they keep getting referrals for a
job well done.
But two days before the agreed date, our
correspondent, when contacted by the young man for the deal to be
finalised, pulled the plug.
“The album launch has been postponed
indefinitely due to some issues with the artiste’s record label and
delay in visas, I am sorry I didn’t notify you before you called,” our
correspondent told a visibly enraged Bayo.“Please explain to Liz and
tell her that as soon as I get words from the guys, I would get across
to you,” the reporter said before the caller suddenly ended the
conversation.
It was a deeper insight into the
workings of most prostitutes operating on the island section of one of
Africa’s most populated and busiest cities.
As well as operating through
highly-connected pimps, who link them up with potential clients,
prostitutes in places like VI, Lekki, Ajah and to some extent, Ikoyi,
also display their ‘wares’ at popular night clubs and event centres
known for hosting ‘big shots’ at different periods of the week. Living
within the axis in shared flats with friends in the same line of
‘business’, many of these young women have mastered the art of drawing
‘big customers’ to themselves over the years, visiting gatherings like
weddings, birthdays and other similar events to scavenge for patrons
with the right type of pocket to satisfy their desires.
Findings by Saturday PUNCH
reveal that the average cost of having one of these women for an entire
night goes for between N30, 000 and N50, 000 depending on where or
through whom the meeting occurred. The venue for the ‘match’ proper is
also decided by many of these ladies due to security concerns. Even
after that has been agreed, the ladies would prefer to go to such
meeting place in their vehicles, for those who have cars, or through
popular taxi services by calling for one via the applications on their
smartphones.
“If you drive in your own car or go to
an agreed hotel with a ‘client’, it gives you more worth before such
person,” Bella, as one middle-aged ‘runs girl’ at Caliente, another
popular night club on Victoria Island, said. “That way, they know that
you are not cheap and in terms of safety, you are not at the mercy of
anyone in case there is any form of distress.
“Also, if you don’t maintain your skin
properly, take good care of your hair and wear classy clothes, you’ll
hardly get any good client to patronise you. That is why you see ‘chics’
on the island charging reasonable amounts because there are bills to be
paid, without which you could be out of the game,” she added.
Apart from meeting potential ‘clients’
through middle-men and or one-on-one efforts at night clubs, malls and
other places of interests around the axis, most ‘runs girls’ operating
on the island section of Lagos have also perfected the art of
advertising themselves on the social media especially Instagram,
Snapchat, Facebook, Tinder and Instachat. Through these platforms, they
take and upload several provoking photographs and videos to tantalise
and attract men with unstable libidos, developing ‘friendships’ that
eventually lead to patronage.
“I don’t go to clubs to look for guys.
If you ever see me a club, it would mean that somebody that met me on
Instagram invited me over after reaching a deal with the person,” one
lady at Excape, another popular night club on Victoria Island, told our
correspondent after being approached for a night of fun. “I am with
someone already tonight; maybe we can do this some other time. Send me a
DM on my Instagram page and let’s fix things. But mind you, I am not
cheap because I know how to give value for money,” she said before
walking towards a blue Mercedes car – her ‘machine’.
Findings by Saturday PUNCH
revealed that most prostitutes on Lagos Island, who hustle through
various social media platforms, charge between N50, 000 and N100, 000
per night depending on where their service is needed. Many of these
ladies through the money they make off men, fund expensive trips to
places like Dubai and other parts of the world where they sometimes also
‘service’ rich men lusting after their bodies. With exquisite bosoms,
most of these ladies leave no stone unturned in their search for the
next big client. For them, living and hustling on Lagos Island with
their bodies has afforded them the opportunity of counting good naira
mints every week.
However, on the mainland part of Lagos,
it’s an entirely different story for women of easy virtue. Apart from
coming nowhere near their counterparts on VI, Ikoyi, Lekki and Ajah in
terms of clientele, charges and lifestyles, they are also miles behind
in the choice of location picked for the action proper. While those on
the island mostly prefer to attend to their ‘customers’ in posh hotels,
those on the mainland don’t mind to do the same at guest houses or even
apartments of ‘clients’.
For example, in places like Ikeja,
Maryland, Yaba, Surulere, Ojodu and Ogudu, among the most popular places
on the mainland where quality of life is still at appreciable levels,
the mode of operation and fees charged by prostitutes is in stark
contrast to the huge figures commanded by those on the island.
To have the complete company of any of
the ladies here for an entire night falls between N5, 000 and N10, 000,
depending on the mode of meeting and the bargaining power of the
‘client’. Also, while most of the ladies in this category are not picky
and would readily follow a ‘customer’ home for the night, they do not
also go in their cars or in private taxis but rely strictly on such
persons to ferry them to the ‘agreed location’. For those willing to go
for ‘quick action,’ the price ranges from between N1,500 and N2,500.
“Most
of us are breadwinners of our families and so you are under pressure to
take something home at the end of the day, that is why you give it to
the person as their pockets can afford,” Joy, one call girl at Empire, a
popular red light zone tucked between Yaba and Mushin, told our
correspondent. “There are times when there won’t be customers and you
have to hustle with the others for anyone who eventually comes in to the
hotel. However, there are times when we are taken for the night for
even N7, 000. That is how it is here,” she said before demanding that
the reporter buy her a bottle of beer.
Joy, like most of the ladies at this
section, has been working as a prostitute for over five years with
little or nothing to show for her ‘labour’. Unlike their counterparts on
the island part of Lagos, who run executive services and are free from
harassment of law enforcement officers, those in Empire are easy targets
for policemen and even hoodlums, who extort them at will.
“If you are unfortunate at times, the
little money you make would be taken from you by the police or these bad
guys who roam the area at night. Most of us have been here for over
five years but nothing much for us yet. If not for the fact that we are
at least getting money to feed and send some to our relatives back home,
somebody like me would have stopped this job. The suffering is more
than the gains here,” the young lady added.
But apart from living in brothels, the
dichotomy and difference in class between prostitutes operating on Lagos
Island and the mainland respectively extends further. For example,
while most of the ones on VI, Lekki, Ikoyi and Ajah hook up with
‘clients’ through highly-connected pimps and or social media, the ones
on the mainland mostly flaunt their ‘wares’ at popular drinking joints,
street corners and sometimes club houses where most of the guys are
looking for very cheap sex. Also, while many on the other side demand
and collect full payments directly into their accounts via bank
transfers and on few occasions cash, those on the mainland have been
victims of smart and dubious ‘customers’ many times, losing their
‘office’ and material possessions like mobile phones, handbags and
others to such persons. For ritualists and evil doers, prostitutes
outside Lagos Island are easy targets. Dozens, over the years, have lost
their lives through this means.
Originally created by God to be enjoyed
by couples in marriage, sex has today crept out of matrimonial circles,
perching at nearly every corner where lust meets desire. In Nigeria, it
has seen to the emergence of a booming industry where millions of naira
change hands every day between strangers driven by hedonism. As a result
of this development, hotels and guest houses of all types are springing
up all across the country with places like Lagos, a thriving commercial
city, taking the lead. Even though illegal, prostitution has grown at
lightning speed in recent times in Nigeria with the prospect looking
even brighter especially with rising unemployment and the continued
popularity of the social media among many citizens. However, for ‘runs
girls’ in Lagos, especially those on the island and mainland, the job
operates on two different pedestals – one that defines them in every
way.
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