Imagine the length of a standard train. Imagine the sea of passengers it discharges at a central train station. These capture the length of brothels and the number of commercial sex workers, their clients and others who love to savour their near naked sights. Welcome to Ijora railway sin plaza, the supposed largest concentration of brothels in the land.
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‘It is sad making love to someone you don’t love’

The houses, if they can be so called, are many. They lined the railway lines at Ijora in Lagos. Behind these is a sea of shanties. They all serve the same purpose. They serve as abodes for practitioners of the supposed oldest profession in the world – prostitution.

Imagine the length of a standard train. Imagine the sea of passengers it discharges at a central train station. These capture the length of brothels and the number of prostitutes, their clients and others who love to savour their near naked sights, at Ijora railway prostitute’s plaza.

These women of easy virtue, whom Saturday Mirror spent several weeks to understudy and interact with, sit in all sizes, heights and complexions. Their target for the day and night is to get as many patrons as possibly for fees ranging from N300 to N1000 per “round”. To achieve this, they device all sorts of marketing strategies.

Some wriggle their strategically exposed waists seductively to music belting out of surround speakers while some strut around with their waists, boobs, hairy groin bare. The Ijora railway prostitutes’ complex is a sweet and sour sight dotted with the usual filths and all forms of pollution that characterize a ghetto. Unconfirmed sources label it the highest concentration of brothels in Lagos nay Nigeria in general.

They all have their unique “stage names” which is usually English names, obviously to conceal their identity, especially their places of extraction. None of those who spoke with Saturday Mirror identified themselves by an indigenous name.

Speaking with Saturday Mirror, one of the commercial workers who identified herself as Joy, described her path to prostitution as fortuitous. Joy, as she calls herself, stands at five feet 11 inches. She is slim, fair in complexion has an oval face and a good command of the English language. She has everything that could win her a modelling contract. But she is a commercial sex worker.

However, there was no joy in Joy as she recounted her days in her chosen profession. “Do you think that this is an easy job?” she asked the reporter rhetorically when he enquired about the stress of the business.

“You can imagine when a woman would market herself to attract men to have sex with her just to make a living. It is not funny at all. The painful aspect of this job, for me, is when I make love to somebody I don’t have affection for just because I want to make a living. Forget the fact that you see me dancing around smiling and interacting with guys. The simple truth is that it is sad making love to someone you don’t love.

Recently, I came back from one of my away hustling (commercial sex outside the brothel) and when I lied down and was reflecting over my life, I wept,” Joy told the reporter as she stooped low and wept profusely. She continued: “I want to quit this job.

But I cannot do it right away because of family issues. I am the bread winner of my family for now. They don’t know what I am really doing here in Lagos but I have no choice for now than to do the job.

Immediately I have alternative, I will definitely quit this job.” Another commercial sex worker, Jane, said that “this job” is not for weak and fickle minded women but those who can identify “customers” in a fleeting moment and convince them to “sleep with them”. Asked how she was able to secure accommodation at the brothels she operates in, she said that she was “fortunate” to meet a man who helped her to pay her “sign-on-fee”.

“I thought I was somehow fortunate although what has happened over time has proved otherwise. When I learnt that there is a place here at Ijora where one can hustle and make a living, I came here to enquire. Fortunately, I met a young man who helped me to secure an accommodation. I had no money with me but he volunteered to pay the N10,500 that was required, for me,” Jane said.

Just like other professions, every day has never been Christmas for these commercial sex workers as the up and down of the business sometimes put them in trouble. There are weeks that business would be “so dull” that they would not be able to pay their weekly rent as at when due.

The rents are paid weekly, every Monday. The “landlords”, the owners of these brothels do not tolerate excuses. And any default in payment attracts fines in addition to the payment of the defaulted rent. The room can accommodate conveniently only a six-spring bed with little space left to contain not more than two people at a time.

“We pay N5,500 every week. It must be paid every Monday unfailingly. If we default, our rooms would be locked up. When this is done, we would have to pay additional N500 to open it, making N6000. That is not all. We also pay N1,800 for light and police. Our apartment has about 32 rooms and you can imagine what the landlord is making from us every week. That is why there is no osho free (no free sex) in this business. For us, time is money.

When it is hustling time, we don’t joke because we have to pay our bills. It is very important. Na wetin de make our eye dey red o (That is why we are always serious)” Jane revealed. Asked what the “police” fee is meant for, she said that “we pay this to the landlord to settle police so that they would not come here to raid us. If we don’t pay, policemen would come here to arrest us and take us to their stations and we would have to bail ourselves from there. “Instead of the disgrace and harassment, the owners of these clubs decided to be charging us the fee weekly so that they could settle them and keep us out of trouble. It is not easy at all.”

No fighting. Any altercation resulting in a brawl, according to Joy, attracts two penalties: the room is locked up and that means there would be no business for the culprit until her room is re-opened. And before that is done, a fine of N10, 000 must be paid as well as another N5,000 for the room to be opened for business.

With all the financial burden breathing down the neck of these Ijora commercial sex workers, it is an all month-round services. Saturday Mirror’s investigation revealed that there is “no dull moment 24 hours, seven days of the week, even during menstrual period”.

Why would they when “if you slack”, the bills would pile up and you would be ejected without “taking any of your properties” from the six-by-six cubicle they call room. So, Jane told Saturday Mirror that, “during menses, we use cotton wool to insert deep into our private part.

So, even if we are having sex, our customer would not notice that we are in our menses. The cotton wool would soak up the blood and when we feel heavy, we would go and put it off. It is very simple and I think there is no risk involved,” she seems so assured of the techniques. Despite the nature of their business, these women who trade their flesh for money still have time for romance.

They have boyfriends. “The guy that helped me secure my accommodation at this brothel later became my boyfriend. Although he knows what I am doing, he is in love with me and we have been carrying on as lovers.

He is the only one that I can kiss and have romantic affairs with. He is such a loving friend. Even when I could not hustle enough to pay for my rent for the week, if I call him, he could do that for me without complaint.

If I just call him now that I am sick, you would see him right here caring for me. He is such a good man” Jane revealed. This reporter summoned courage to ask Jane if she thinks that her boy friend is a lucky man or a good guy with a very bad girl.

Surprisingly, she stole a smile and later laughed out loud. “It is very unfortunate. Sometimes, good guys are not lucky to be with good girls. I would not say that I am a good girl, considering the kind of job I am doing. It is not what a girl would be proud of. Not at all.

But when it comes to loving him back, I think that I have tried my best. I cannot say I am faithful in the general terms of it.

But I am. I don’t have any other boyfriend. All other guys that come here do so strictly for business. I am not the only one that has a boyfriend here. Almost all my friends have their special man whom they have romantic relationship with.

All other men are just business associates. Even then, I would not say he is fortunate to have me as his girlfriend. He is too good. He is such a good man,” Jane said. While their boyfriends are aware of their profession, it remains a top secret to their families.

Daddy and mummy, brothers and sisters, must not know that they are prostitutes. “My parents don’t know that this is what I am doing. I don’t think that any parent would be happy to know such a thing. Not even my brothers and sisters whom I have been toiling to help. I am the first born of my parents. I have been married and divorced. It has not been well with my family and I see it as a responsibility on my part to take care of them.

That is why, as I said before, I decided to go into this. I am not proud of it,” Joy said. Most of them who interacted with this reporter speak fairly good English while two in particular, speak impeccable English.

But why they could not continue their education, they blame it on the economy and their poor background. “You said that you are surprised that I speak good English,” Jane asked this reporter when he complimented her command of English.

“I finished secondary school before I ventured into this thing I am doing. If I had somebody to sponsor me to the university, I would have. My parents do not have the wherewithal to do so and I tried my best to get something else doing but I could not. When I had accommodation problem, I was pushed to do this because I could easily hang out with one of my friends who was already into it. I was doing it on part time.

I gathered some money and paid my rent here and started it on full time basis. It is from here that I am able to help my parents,” Jane said. Speaking in the same vein, Joy said that “I managed to graduate from the secondary school before I got married.

I could not further my studies because of economic factors. In terms of speaking well, when you interact with people who speak good English, you will learn from them. I learn from people every day in the course of hustling”. All animals are equal but some are more equal than others, so said George Orwell in his famous book, the “Animal Farm”.

The maxim applies at the railway prostitute plaza. There are “special ones”. They are relatively young, cute and averagely pretty. And their charges are not negotiable. It is N1,000. No kobo less but there could be kobo more.

While cigarette popping guys discussed a certain “special gal” in one of the brothels as they savour some bottles of liquor, one boasted that, “I can take her for five ‘hundy’ (N500). Another said that he had tried to no avail.

Another who was hailed by his friends as “Wande”, revealed that he evaluated the personality, his worth and mien before such ‘outrageous’ charges wondering “why would I pay a girl here that kind of money when she would not allow me to romance her.

Sex is not all about intercourse. It goes beyond that and I would rather go to a club and take a girl to my house rather than pay this kind of money for a girl that would not even let me last for 15 minutes. ‘Bone that kind thing joo’ (forget her) lets finish and get out of here. Is it not the same thing she has that other girls have?”

Wande wondered. And Saturday Mirror decided to probe into the girl’s “special status”. Physically, she has the features that could make a priest break his oath of celibacy. She is articulate and soft spoken, diplomatic and friendly.

“Special Baby” is boldly written at the lintel of her decently dressed room. Asked why she considered herself special, she said that “it is all about what you think of yourself and how you carry yourself before people that make you special.” On her sex fee, she said that, “I cannot collect anything less than 1kay (N1,000).” And when this reporter offered her N500, she quipped: “Five hundred?

How many men would I ‘do’ to make it a day with such money. No. I don’t do it for such money. The stress would be too much for me. This job is very stressful and I am not ready to sleep with so many men before I can pay my house rents and other bills.

Excuse me, I want to go and buy fuel for my generator” she diplomatically discharged this reporter for offering her less than her fee. Saturday Mirror’s investigation revealed that the prostitutes generate their lights when the public power is off.

There were several “I better pass my neighbour” (small generators) at the back of the wooden brothels with its noise competing favourably with the deafening music belting out of the brothel’s hall. The veteran prostitutes have their stand and peculiar clientele. With sagged physical fixtures, they are no longer the delight of many young men.

The few drunks who stagger towards them obviously under the influence of alcohol are glad to relieve their stress on them. These prostitutes have come a long way. But it seems they did not make retirement plans for themselves as, despite their age, their depreciated physique, the only job they can do is to give sex for a fee.

“This is the job we have done all our lives and we cannot find something different to do at this age,” one of them confided on this reporter. “Who told you we have not done anything for ourselves. Some of us trained our junior brothers and sisters from the proceeds of this job.

Some of us have houses at our village still from this job. Just forget that thing oo, we are just catching fun at this level now,” one of the old prostitutes who identified herself as Gift boasted while the reporter queried her physical state wondering if she has benefited from the profession.

They all believe that time and tide wait for nobody and would not engage in frivolities that would not pay their bills for the week. Hence, any prospective customer that is not discussing “real business” is discharged with disdain.

However, some do so with finesse and in the process attract goodwill from the prospective clients. “I am not here to play around. If I want somebody to discuss with, I know where to go. If you no wan do, just get out of my room (If you are not ready for sex, go out of my room),” an obviously enraged prostitute who was not interested to entertain any form of friendliness with this reporter fumed.

http://nationalmirroronline.net/new/railway-sin-plaza-a-city-of-brothels/