The popular maxim by Albert Einstein, a German-born theoretical physicist, that states “the world will not be destroyed by those who do evil, but by those who watch them without doing anything”, prompted me to write this piece. It’s my expectation that, perchance, it will curb “sex for money” business or prostitution, which is common in this country. It will be wrong to keep mum on this matter.
Morally and religiously debased ladies exchange their bodies for money; they trade their dignity for a token. You will see them at hotels, beer joints, among other social gatherings, dressed half-nude to entice asinine guys; they will be parading and looking like a bush fowl in search of whom to call them for business – sex for money. It is not new, prostitution has been in existence for donkey years.
Some days ago, I was reflecting on the rampancy of unscrupulous, ludicrous and unreligious job of “prostitution” engaged in by young ladies in this epoch, it threw me off-balance mentally. What is viewed as “immorality” has spuriously become what is ‘moral’; the parts of the body that ought to be considered private have become for public display and consumption. They have the attitude of a dog that has no sexual timidity, so to say.
Parents have the onerous responsibility to contribute to curb the odoriferous business called “Sex for Money” undertaken by young ladies. Charity, they say, begins at home. A child that lacks proper home-training will, indubitably, end up committing immoral acts in the community. A responsible mother should give her children, especially ladies, moral and religious lessons; it is better they are tutored morally and religiously at infant stage. This is in line with an apothegm that states that, Iroko tree can only be cut at the ‘childhood stage’, when it fully develops or reaches its adulthood, cutting it will require a laborious effort which may even be rendered effortless. To say parents who fail to educate their children (ladies) are contributors to the aggravation of the foul-smelling business is to state the obvious.
On the other side, those whores should be draconianly castigated as well. It is believed that larger percentage of them venture in the immoral act in discourse because of their poor condition of living which shouldn’t be so, because decapitation, they say, is not the panacea for headache. Engaging in prostitution may provide for urgent needs but it is capable of destroying their lives.
One of the perils of prostitution is that it can lead to infection of Sexually Transmitted Diseases (STDs) like gonorrhea, Human Immune-Deficiency Virus (HIV), to mention but a few. Sadly, many prostitutes have been used for money ritual.
Parents should monitor the kind friends their children keep. Government also has a role to play in curbing the immoral business. They should take legal action against them. They can be penalised as stipulated in sections 223, 224, 225 of the 1999 Constitution as amended. This will make young ladies to desist from the bad act.
Also, it is now pertinent for the religious leaders like pastors, evangelists, alfas, imams to start or continue to preach against prostitution. It is high time those prostitutes desisted from the immorality and be contented with their possessions. Health-wisely, morally, religiously prostitution is unsavoury and doggish, ladies should distance themselves from it.
Olayode Inaolaji,
Ogbomoso, Oyo state
