Prostitution: from Nigeria to Europe with Love

Not until I visited Italy sometime ago did I realize that the stories which we hear in Nigeria, of Nigerian women going to Europe and becoming prostitutes was true.

The first dose to confirm such information was at the Italian Embassy In Lagos. The time was around 12noon and I and several others had been waiting on the queue since 9am after the office-hours began. A car came and three skimpily dressed ladies popped out, walked straight into the small-gate, as if it was wide -open. The italian officer at the gate threw it wide open. Thats when the talk started, several men and women on the queue saying that they were sure the 3-ladies that entered were high-class prostitutes.

My second dose of such information was inside the embassy, on several of the days I was booked for appointments. I observed several of such ladies ushered in through some door by the right hand side of the counter. Their appointments were quick and snappy. They went in and came out within 5-10minutes; in fact, it appeared someone inside knew they were coming. Some jokers on our seat called them the real VIPs, the big madam’s.

My third dose of information was at the airport. A couple of ladies who were obviously going abroad for the first time were accompanied by a fat elderly woman who held their passports/other documents for them. “Village girl” (read more:click here) was what came to my mind as I saw the three ladies who couldn’t be up to 23-years of age. Their clothes: do you know how a village girl who comes to Lagos for the first time and tries to look super-sexy looks like? They went to the counter together with the fat woman explaining something to the man at the counter. I saw them inside the plane.

Lastly: In Milan, I took a taxi and got chatting with the driver. He had asked where I was from, and I told him I was from Nigeria.He asked if I wanted some company, I replied “No”; only for him to persist, and say I should not worry, “these girls are good girls, they are from Nigeria”. I was like, “these girls? who?, Nigeria” only for him to pull out something like a pamphlet and hand it over to me. In it were pictures of black girls, who were in one pose or the other. “Nneka, Josephine, Josy, Carla….”.

I was stunned. Some of them were relatively young, occularly speaking!, and some of them looked as if they arrived abroad just a month ago; as in, the cheek bones still out, some looking as if they were stunned / didn’t know they were supposed to smile before a camera!. I returned the pamphlet to him and declined his offer.

Suddenly, my thoughts got running over the realization that the many stories I read in Nigerian papers, the many hear-says were indeed true. I raised my taxi-experience with my host a couple of times, and several other Nigerians I met; and yes, one thing common to all the information I gathered was “Edo State“.

I wondered why everybody kept saying Edo-state, Edo-state.

• From stories of parents in Edo who thought whoever they were giving their daughter to was going to take her abroad and give her an education on their(parents) behalf; only for the child to become a prostitute/slave in Europe in order to re-pay flight and accomodation expenses;
• to stories of former Nigerian lady-prostitutes who had “made it big in Europe”, in the employ of Nigerian Madams who are permanently resident in “Europe”, and who had gone back to Nigeria to “settle down”, buy property, cars, etc; thus become a source of envy for the young women in the city;
• To stories of teenagers / 20-something year old Nigerian girls who came to a conclusion in Nigeria that going abroad and selling their bodies was The onLy WAY to support their families back in Nigeria;
• stories of those who made it abroad but went back to Nigeria with various diseases;
• I was told that Italy was one of several European countries where Nigerian women from Edo-state ply their trade.

It was an information overload for me. I kept asking those I talked to what the Nigerian government / the governments of the host countries were doing about such a reputation? In fact, I became more and more angry at the Italian Embassy in Lagos for doing bad buisness with Nigeria’s reputation.

Unfortuately, I found out that what was for me “new information” in Italy was common knowledge back in Nigeria among so many people. I visited different parts of Italy, I was informed of some of their(prostitute) hot spots, so much informatin, my ears were sore.

Since then, till now, anytime I visit any part of Europe, anytime I come across information about Prostitution around the world where Europe and Nigeria are in the same sentence, I remember Edo state.

Unfortunately,

• I refuse to believe that the greater part of Nigerian women plying their fleshly trades in Europe were forced into it and misguided.I am of the opinion that if they were forced/mis-guided at first, there should come a time that they would make a choice to stop / seek something more decent.
• I also refuse to accept that these women don’t really have a better choice. There are women hustling in Nigeria, doing all kinds of menial jobs in Nigeria, but who live decently.

The following pictures are from La Boqueria, a large public market in the Ciutat Vella district of Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain and one of the city’s foremost tourist landmarks, with an entrance from La Rambla, not far from the Liceu, Barcelona’s opera house. The market has a very diverse selection of goods. (source: Wikipedia)

And I would not be surprised if these ladies are Nigerians from Edo-State.

pictures souced from elpais.com

 

your comments and opinions are welcome!!!

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