Do you consider diamond every woman’s best friend? Think again! You will be surprised to find that your wife or girlfriend is cheating on you – not with a man but with a toy!

In this report, Saturday Tribune invades the private world of many Nigerians who have discovered a fulfilling experience in the use of intimacy gadgets.

The beginning

According to a report, sex dolls first came into existence in August 1955, when Max Weissbrodt of the Hauser-Elastolin company introduced them.

Historians later disputed the claims that it was a Max Weissbrodt effort that invented intimacy gadgets, interestingly it is said that the first known Love Machine recovered by paleontologists dates to the Paleolithic era. It was a time when the object was made of siltstone and polished to a high gloss. It was debated whether the primary use of the first Love Machine was for religious or personal pleasure.

Some reports also claimed that in the early years, both male and female Romans and Greeks used dildos for pleasure. In an anti-war comedy, Lysistrata, women discussed using and sharing of dildos while withholding sex from their partners in an effort to stop the war.

No one could really lay claim to bringing intimacy gadgets to Nigeria. The only claim close to it is that of the owner of Intimate Pleasure, Iheoma Obibi as the woman that started Nigeria’s first online adult novelty store.

Where to buy

Buying a intimacy gadget in Lagos is as easy as buying a curative drug for malaria. There are over a thousand intimacy gadget shops all over Lagos with different names and locations, but the Ikeja axis of the city has the highest number of shops that make the sales of intimacy gadgets strictly their business.

It is also now easy to own a intimacy gadget as popular online stores like Jumia and Dealdey have added the sales of intimacy gadgets to their numerous services. What you need is just a click away and with N5,000 you could own a intimacy gadget of any size or shape.

Do you want a rabbit or a mouse?

A novice could be confused with the many names people give to their toys. For instance, how do you figure a lady that walks into a store and demands for a ‘rabbit’?

Yewande Brown, a boutique owner in Maryland, Lagos, explained that the ‘rabbit’ is the new thing when it comes to intimacy gadgets. She hinted that the toy is shaped like the ear of the rabbit and vibrates more with a fulfilling and enjoyable experience than an ordinary vibrator.

Yewande said she bought her ‘rabbit’ at Ann Summers on her last visit to the United Kingdom and after sharing the experience with her friends, she claimed they have all ordered for their ‘rabbits’.

She called another vibrator a ‘mouse’. This, she said is also popular with the ladies. The ‘mouse’ is shaped like a computer mouse and its vibration gives the owner an erotic satisfaction.

What about the male intimacy gadgets?

In a world already polluted by pornography, many men seek more action and the advent of sex dolls appears to be the height of depravity. With this, men can now buy themselves dolls to satisfy their sexual needs. This new trend of sexual perversion is not a cock-and-bull story as facts have emerged that the practice is now popular among wealthy Nigerian individuals and celebrities who have caught the bug and have started buying sex robots online.

It is said that there is the latest Swedish silicone-made doll which has flooded the Lagos markets.

The doll is made of artificial intelligence and flesh-like synthetic that makes it almost look like a real woman where sexual activity is concerned.

The sex doll possesses about a hundred sensors around its body and it can be customised to meet the buyer’s taste of a dream woman in terms of body size, height, skin colour, eyes colour, hair colour and other human attributes.

The doll sells for $6000 (N1.2 million) and it appeals to sex maniacs that compare it to a real woman in the sense that…

It does not speak

It can never get fat or fart

It cannot menstruate

It can’t be pregnant

It does not shop

It does not demand for money after sex

It does not visit eateries and all other demands known with real women.

Religious aspect

Prophet Taiwo Akinwande, a preacher says any form of intercourse without a living partner is masturbation. The cleric described the use of intimacy gadgets among people as a satanic act and a reminder of the reasons God destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah in the Bible. Akinwande reasons that “A man is made for a woman for reproductive reasons, so when a man sleeps with another man, a woman with an animal, a girl with a toy…it’s immoral and considered dirty in the sight of God.”

But a health instructor, Dr Henry, does not agree with Prophet Akinwande’s submission.

Henry states that intimacy gadget is the safest means of a healthy life. He claimed that a lot of psychologists advise their patients to explore the safety sides of intimacy gadgets which, he claims, cannot infect the user with sexually transmitted diseases and it is a means of preventing unwanted pregnancy that could later lead to an abortion.

Henry’s only fear is that “a sex-toy addiction is hard to cure.”

Is this a thriving business in Nigeria?

Many believe that the intimacy gadget trade in Lagos is booming, judging by the number of stores and online orders for various intimacy gadgets but Mrs Bukola Fawole, Managing Director of www.viewden.com, disagrees.

The businesswoman disclosed that when she first started the business, she got a shop at Surulere but she had to close the shop about two years ago due to low patronage.

While operating the shop, she sold both intimacy gadgets and sex enhancers but despite her choice of location, people who visited her shop only came to window shop.

Another seller who preferred to be anonymous disclosed that the business thrives more online. She said that a lot of buyers do not have the boldness to go to stores and buy intimacy gadgets. She claimed she had a minimum of 100 orders in a month. The seller said that there’s a way Africans react to sexual matters; that she knew of many adults that feel embarrassed to go to stores and pick up a pack of condoms.

Do you own a intimacy gadget? Would you use a intimacy gadget?

Tosin Odukale (male): Why would I? What pleasure can I get sleeping with a doll when there are many beautiful women around? Apart from being a sin, it has a psychological effect I cannot deal with. Any man that sleeps with a doll is a pervert. I cannot stand such perversion.

Jane Mary (female): I used to own a vibrator when I was in a distant relationship, but now that I’m married I don’t have any use for it any longer. I must confess to you that it helped a lot to keep my relationship because it was the vibrator I turned to whenever I was in the mood for sex and I didn’t cheat on my lover for the two years he was away.

Biodun Akinola (female): I don’t have a intimacy gadget, I only hear about it from friends. It’s too irritating for me to do.

Tunde Masha (male): Na wa o! All the women here we never sleep with them finish, na ‘baby’ I go come dey sleep with. Never!

Nike Ahmed: I have a intimacy gadget I use whenever my partner is away, but I can never allow my man to have a intimacy gadget. It’s crazy. How can a man sleep with a doll?

Mrs Gabriel: As a responsible woman with dignity, I cannot use them. Though many women use them, I feel it is not a good lifestyle; it is devilish. If at all I feel like having sex and my husband is away, the best thing to do is to try and get over it, turning to toys is not an option.

Mrs Henrietta Akande: I am not against it, but I think it should be recommended for pregnant women whose husbands are away towards the time of delivery.

Other side of using intimacy gadgets

An author and blogger, Sheila Gregoire, gives reasons why she feels intimacy gadgets are unhealthy. In one of her many tips directed to women, Sheila informs that:

1.intimacy gadgets emphasise physical intimacy, not spiritual and emotional intimacy

2.intimacy gadgets concentrate on parallel sexual experiences, not mutual ones.

I still wonder till now how people use butt plugs.

unfortunately rapists won't buy these gadgets...