Marketing Or Prostitution

Right from her tender age, a girl child is are caring, dutiful and have sense of responsibility, maybe because of natural instincts which tend them towards being loving and dutiful.

As parent, blessed with both sexes, you will affirm that a girl child is always willing to cooperate and sometimes parents hammer on their submission which often time push them to the extent of losing their self-esteem, only to concur to issues and matters that could even affect their personalities.

Africa, being a patriarchal society banks on this instinct and subjects women to various harsh conditions, as they are to obey and not complain, but made to believe they are fulfilling their roles as the society imposes.

Recently noticed was a group of girls that flock major cities in the state of Osun serving as advert canvassers for a herbal company, hawking powdered pile medicine, quick action powder to enhance men libido, while there are also powdered.

What would quickly draw ones attention to these set of marketers is the  promptness and mannerism, with which they approach their target, “young men” so as to advertise their products cum services. Their market places are banks and drinking spots.

Curiously, a young girl was approached and inquired about the product she was hawking, prospect of the business and how long she had been in the business, she responded, “I am a fresh graduate from a Polytechnic in Oke-Ogun area of Oyo State, I had obtained National Diploma but need money to pursue my Higher National Diploma.

“I was invited to be a young marketer who will earn as much as N35,000 in a month plus free accommodation and I applied. I obliged and found myself in Osogbo, the capital of the state of Osun. I and other young girls, who are about 100 in numbers, are living together and doing the same work, selling the powdered herbal products for men and the targeted places are banks and drinking spots”.

On enquiring of how much would be her salary every month, the response was, “it depends on how much sales I make, and for now I have not spend up to a month, so I don’t know, how much my salary will be”.

According to her, her relief is that she had left home to do something, as the meagre salaries of both parents couldn’t sustain her and her siblings.

As a young lady, she wants to complement her parent effort to raise finance for the family.

Aside the financial remuneration and free accommodation, this work provided young girls “client”, just as it also guarantee unfettered access to young men and old men alike to befriend them and even test the potency and efficacy of the product they advertise, so long it could fetch them extra money to take care of their needs and their employers are not against such deals.

How were they recruited? She said her friend invited her and she had in turn enrolled two of her friends, saying, they only tell their parent that they would be marketing products for a pharmaceutical company, which will give them accommodation. The other aspect of the job: prostitution puts food in their mouth.

This is a mobile prostitution market in large scale and it abounds also in Ondo state capital, Akure, the investigation revealed.

A staff of Guarantee Trust Bank in Osogbo who testified to the nuisance these set of young marketers pose to the security of the bank, said that these young girls throw themselves at our bank customers who are always disturbed on entering or leaving the bank.

Also in a similar manner, a cyclist, Yakubu Hammed affirmed that, he had patronised these set of hawkers, saying, they actually hawk their bodies via selling of the said libido enhancer, just as he revealed that at night in various drinking spots in and around major towns, they are there and ready to spend nights with whosoever need their services.

This is clearly a society where students and youths especially, are deliberately turned to prostitute, hammering on the effect of economic recession that has strongly hit the nation. The sad note of it all is that mainly, young girls are being recruited by these herbal companies, which in turn use the unsuspecting young girls for such unholy acts.

Will the law enforcement agents of NAPTIP, NAFDAC and other government agencies pretend they are not aware of these illegal and indecent businesses that had turned our young girls into prostitution under the garbs of marketing?

Further investigations revealed that some of these girls sometimes fall victim of cultism and those who are ready to use them for peddling hard drugs in the society can readily have them.

It is time that the government agencies saddled with security and safety rise to their responsibilities, as this is prostitution in marketing garb, enrolling our unsuspecting young girls into prostitution and making them prey in the hands of their predators.