 |
| Photo: Campus aristos negotiating with some pimps - their middlemen |
Many undergraduates are
smiling to the bank, courtesy of a booming business called “pimping” on
campus. GILBERT ALASA (400-Level Foreign Languages, University of Benin)
examines the new trend in campus prostitution.
They cruise about in posh cars while
their colleagues cramp into rickety campus shuttles. They live large on
campus even though the source of their wealth cannot be openly
discussed. From the comfort of their off-campus hostels, they negotiate
high-profile deals with powerful personalities while their mates sweat
it out in stuffy libraries in school.
Welcome to the world of campus pimps and
whores. From time immemorial, prostitution has been a thriving
business. Even on campuses, it is big time business. Now, the trade has
taken a new dimension. As the money-spinning business grows, so are the
players increasing by the day. Among them is a network of middlemen
known as pimps.
Campus pimps are socially-inclined
students who explore their gregarious appeal as a tool for gathering
female students to warm the beds of the well-heeled in the society.
Continue after the cut....
CAMPUSLIFE investigations revealed that
the pimps could be “party-riders” who keep tab of social events on
campus or student-politicians who exploit their relationship with those
in power. The big men could also be affluent private sector operators or
cult heroes who entice their admirers with financial rewards.
Campuses are blessed with a sizeable
number of young women, ready and willing to be night companions of these
wealthy people, who may be politicians, top civil servants and business
magnates. Campus pimps come in handy as intermediaries between the big
men and their aristos – a parlance for student-prostitutes.
Among students of a federal university
in the Southsouth, the story of four female students is still fresh.
CAMPUSLIFE gathered that a member of a popular political party was in
town for last-minute campaign during last year’s elections. In the
evening, the weather was cold because of a downpour earlier in the day.
To keep the guests warm, four female undergraduates were drafted to the
politician and his three-man entourage. But one of the girls played a
fast one on the men as she made away with the politician’s money. The
story is being told till today on that campus.
In Edo State, campus pimps are regular
faces at popular hang-outs in high-brow areas of Benin City. Such spots
include Ritz Carlton, Hexagon, Debis Kitchen, Swallow, Time-out, Royal
Marble, West View, Yak Hotel near the Federal Polytechnic, Auchi (AUCHI
POLY) and Best Western.
When patronage is low, some of the girls
take to stripteasing for a fee to cover operating costs incurred by the
pimps. “You don’t expect me to fuel my car or burn up cash on taxi and
phone calls organising babes without getting returns at the end. In
fact, some of these yeye (stupid) girls want to be paid per night,”
fumed a pimp who is a drop-out from a popular private university in Edo
State.
Investigation revealed that many aristos
now bypass pimps because of their haughtiness. In a chat on a social
networking site, a pimp who uses Juiceman as username, found nothing
offensive in his profession. Rather, he describes himself as a smart
fellow who uses his social skills to make money.
“Clearly, I am not a robber, terrorist
or Yahoo-yahoo boy (Internet fraudsters). I am not even close to most of
the guys involved in bunkering or kidnapping. I am just a young man
trying to key into the philosophy of using what I have to get what I
want,” Juiceman wrote.
He is not alone in this attempt to
rationalise has position. According to his counterpart, who is in the
organising team of a popular annual show at the University of Lagos
(UNILAG), the pimp business is no vice as it only complements an
existing social problem.
“For me, there is no justification for
criticising what I do to see myself through school. I am neither the man
who sleeps with the girls nor am I the girls who chose to sleep around.
After all, these men are proud to steal from our collective treasury.
So, we just have to squeeze them to reclaim our stolen fortunes,” he
said.
For a beauty queen and 300-Level
Insurance student of UNILAG, Violet Olisah, the pimps and the aristos
are culpable. “The pimping mess should be utterly condemned. The pimp is
as guilty as the promiscuous girls. Many destinies have been cut in
their primes through the activities of these pimps. The act must be
stopped.”
On profitability, the door swings both
ways for the pimp and the sex-hawker. Most times, the pimp gets his
compensation from the “client” and agrees to reimburse the girls after
the sex romp. Other times, the “client” demands to personally remunerate
the aristo while paying off the pimp straight-away.
But Oyewole Ajibade (not his real name),
200-Level Philosophy, Ekiti State University (EKSU), said the
later-payment method often put the pimp at a disadvantage. “When a
client pays you and the aristo separately, the pimp stands to lose. But
when you are paid both your charges and that of the girl in question,
you hold the edge of the knife as to how the spoil is shared. So, it is
better that way,” Oyewole quipped.
A magazine exclusively reported the
activities of a pimp, who organised two female students of a university
in the Southwest for a former Minister. After an orgy sex romp in a
five-star hotel in Abuja, the girls and the pimp were handsomely
rewarded “for a job well-done.” This shows that politicians are culpable
in the decadence.
In a chat with our correspondent, a
Lagos-based legal practitioner, Mr David Umoru, lamented the
non-implementation of the extant law barring such trade. “Prostitution,
as a social malady, has its effect on the society. Despite the fact that
there are legal frameworks that bar the illicit trade, government and
its agencies are paying lip service to stopping the trade.”
- GILBERT ALASA
Share your thoughts...thanks!
No comments:
Post a Comment