By Rogers Edor Ochela
Prostitution is as old as the history of mankind. Given its devastating impact on society, serious-minded governments all over the world have been devising multi-pronged strategies towards either totally eliminating it or reducing its ubiquitous menace to the barest minimum.
Therefore, early in the life the Senator Bala Mohammed administration, the Federal Capital Territory Administration (FCTA) in its determination to curb the untrammeled negative effects of “Ashawo” elegantly called commercial sex workers on the city, rolled out several proactive measures to contain it.
In tackling the menace of commercial sex workers, the minister decided to stand on the positive side of history by ordering them to relocate from the FCT. Alternatively, he offered them an olive branch of getting them registered with the Social Welfare Secretariat (SDS). To further give teeth to this policy, the FCTA through its SDS, set up two training and rehabilitation camps in Lugbe and Bwari.
Quite unexpectedly, this laudable policy of the FCTA came under a barrage of criticisms by some few armchair critics. However, this did not diminish its long term significance in the minds of majority of Nigerians who welcomed the development that was meant to rid the nation’s capital city of these scarlet ladies. More importantly, the benefits derivable from this policy for those involved in this ignoble profession, their families (both immediate and extended) and the larger society cannot be over-emphasized.
It is gladdening to note that this policy, which irredeemable malcontents did not give a chance of working, has greatly succeeded to the consternation of its critics. The clamp down officially ordered by Sen. Bala Mohammed in 2010 on the commercial sex workers in Abuja is today yielding the much-desired dividends, with several hitherto notorious red-light districts becoming free of these hawkers of sex. Thousands of them have quit the illegal profession, obtained training and eventually rehabilitated.
This much was attested to by the Secretary of the Social Development Secretariat, Mrs. Blessing Onuh recently when she gave an update on the successes recorded by the Secretariat in its drive to curtail the menacing activities of these commercial sex workers.
According to her, over three thousand (3,000) of these commercial sex workers have graduated from the training and rehabilitation centres since their establishment in 2010. She said: ‘’the FCT Minister, Sen. Bala Mohammed, on assumption of office approved the establishment of the Women Rehabilitation Centre, Sabon Lugbe to provide vocational skills to repentant sex workers. The Centre has so far graduated over 3,000 vulnerable women since its inception.
“ust recently, 194 trainees graduated from the two centres with each of them receiving N100,000 as support from government to enable them start business,’’ Mrs. Onuh concluded.
That the nation is fraying fast and the idea of Nigeria losing its morality is not questionable. It is trite to say that moral uprightness is an important ingredient in building a prosperous nation. That is why nations that are development-conscious take the issue of moral upbringing of their youths with the seriousness it deserves. This is because the younger generation is often seen as the leaders of tomorrow. So their mental and spiritual state of minds is of great importance to any nation that desires development.
It is on this premise that on assumption of office in 2010, Senator Bala Mohammed as a development-conscious person peered through the periscope and saw the debilitating consequences of loose morals of these commercial sex workers on the social fabrics of Abuja and decided to act fast before the thin thread binding Abuja residents and morality could snap. Allowing these ladies to operate unhindered would mean jeopardizing the future of residents of Abuja. Moreover, this social decadence is a bad omen for motherhood and the future of the nation.
In those good old days, the business of prostitution in the FCT was a covert trade, because the value system and moral consciousness of the Nigerian state were on a high alert. So, the sudden rise in the activities of these commercial sex workers is an indication that the core values hitherto cherished by Nigerians are fast losing its relevance.
Psychologists have advanced several reasons as being responsible for the growing incidence of the oldest profession in the world. They posit that 85% of those involved in prostitution do so for economic reasons, while the remaining 15% get entangled in it for psychological purpose—just to belong; to have that satisfaction. Whichever angle one looks at it from, it all boils down to devaluation of morality, poverty and lack of human sanctity.
Some have attributed the rise of prostitution to extreme poverty and hopelessness, occasioned by failure of leadership over the years. This general hopelessness and despair, proponents of this line of argument said, is what is propelling these mothers of tomorrow to debase their womanhood in the name of earning a living. Others are of the opinion that the sudden surge in the vice is purely the product of a new lifestyle, ostentatious and over materialization of the society by members of—what for it— ’Indomie Generation’.
However, it is interesting to agree with these contending arguments over the cause of such moral backwardness. The point must however be stressed that the return of the nation to democracy in 1999 further accentuated this ugly trend. It is no longer news that politicians, businessmen and other public officers are the major patrons of these women of easy virtue, especially undergraduates. A visit to any hostel of higher institution in the country, one would be surprised at the array of exotic cars that come to pick these undergraduates for sexual rendezvous.
Before the crackdown by the FCTA, it became so embarrassing that at every turn, you find yourself running into these women with skimpy skirts barely enough to cover their crotches and blouses with necklines cut low enough to rudely flaunt their bulging boobs. Happily enough, the onslaught against this set of Nigerians has succeeded in reducing crime in the FCT by almost 25%.
In order to sustain this commendable move by the FCTA through SDS, it is necessary that existing laws that prohibit prostitution be strengthened to complement the efforts of the authority, while more funds should be injected to training and rehabilitation of these commercial sex workers.
Above all, the administration of Bala Mohammed should be commended by all and sundry for this sustained onslaught against this pernicious vice that is gradually eating the souls of our youths away and nibbling at the moral fabrics of the society.
Ochela, Abuja based media consultant can be reached via [email protected] (070-35109174)
