Commercial sex work and its effects on the society

By Faith Adeniyi

Commercial sex work, otherwise known as prostitution, is the act of performing sexual acts in return for money and valuable items. It is also seen as an act of offering one’s body skills or talents for unworthy ends. Commercial sex work is one of the fast rising trend among  females in the Nigerian society today and needs urgent attention before it gets out of hands.
In our society today, we see lot of young ladies and women mostly between the ages of 17 and 35 engage in commercial sex work due to lack of education, lack of parental control in the case of teenagers involved in the act, financial difficulties as a result of unemployment, bad company, and so on.

It is also no news that young Ladies in tertiary institutions engage in commercial sex work directly or indirectly. Some are seen hanging around the campus surroundings at nights whereby men from town come into the campuses to pick them up. Some others ladies have “remodified” sex work which is now seen as “runs”, a situation whereby ladies get connected to wealthy and influential men in our society who pay them for sex.

These ladies work with younger men who connect them to these men, they give the young men tips or what could be described as commission.  This is one of out of the numerous ways sex work operates in our society.
Another   method by which sex work operates in the society is through the use of brothels, hotels, bars and club houses.

Ladies are picked up at bars and club houses and are taken to the hotels, some are seen at brothels where they work together and live together which supports the saying that “birds of a feather flock together”. Sex work in our society has to a great extent negatively tarnished the image of the females in the society. Most men have little or no regard for the ladies in the society and this is due to the fact that a large percent of young ladies engage in commercial sex work.

Some ladies engage in sex work because it brings fast and easy money, they believe that they have nice bodies to make money, and so instead of going through hard work , they should “use what they have to get what they want”.
One of the major effects of commercial sex work in our society is the spread of HIV/AIDS and the numerous sexually transmitted diseases in the country and in the world at large and this is as a result of commercial sex workers who are helped by their sponsors to travel abroad to look for “greener pastures”.

This is called human trafficking, human trafficking has wrecked much havoc on the lives of these ladies. In an attempt to get good pay from sex work through clients abroad, they are sexually abused, used as sex slaves and sometimes gang raped. A majority of them contract terrible diseases as earlier mentioned.  Some of them are forced to do dirty and illicit jobs like, drugs trafficking, internet fraud and so on.  They get caught and are deported back to the country.

Other general effects of commercial sex work are kidnaps, ritualist attack rape and murder. Sex work is endangering and destroying the lives of so many young ladies and women in our country and I would therefore advise that in relation to human trafficking, there should be synergy between the Federal Government and the international bodies to curb human trafficking in our country.

The local, state and Federal Government should also join forces against prostitution,  more empowerment programmes and skills acquisition trainings  should be organised in towns and states, even in the remote areas and in our campuses for young girls, ladies and women.

Tangible funds or capital should be made available and given to them after the completion of training to start up businesses and put their skills to work. Law enforcement agencies should also not be left out of this Commercial sex workers seen on the streets should be picked up, guided and counseled. They should be followed up to make a living in a decent and better way and to live a good life. Brothels should also be closed down and anyone caught supporting and sponsoring human trafficking should be arrested and proper judgment should be given to them.

Parents, especially mothers, have major roles to play in eradicating commercial sex work. They should endeavour to train their daughters in the best way; they should curb wayward lifestyles at a very tender age. They should devote their time to grooming their daughters into responsible and virtous women.

They should not neglect their duties as mothers so as not endanger the lives of their daughters.
In conclusion, non-governmental organisations should also collaborate with the government to help develop the sex workers, to make them live a new life. They should help them to become successful and great women in the country. God bless Nigeria.

Adeniyi wrote from Ilorin, Kwara state

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