seemingly insurmountable problems that we face as a nation (his immediate constituency being one of them) Deputy Senate President,
Ekweremadu kicked up a storm with his proposal that prostitution be legalised.
Hmmm! Trouble dey o! The older I get though,
the more I try not to have a knee jerk reaction to
issues. No matter how hair brained, I try to give
most things at least a cursory glance before
dismissing it outright, so let me attempt to apply
same in this instance.
I think we are all in agreement (regardless of
what you think of his suggestion) that
prostitution is thriving in our midst abi? So, what
would it mean then, really, in practical terms… to legalise prostitution. To begin with, if something is legal, that means it is no longer hidden, Interesting… that means we can acknowledge it, and if we can acknowledge we can begin to transform it into a 'proper business' meaning, we can set up, guidelines and laws to regulate and protect the 'business' and its players. Wait don't give up on me just yet!
Think of the possibilities. We can for instance, put an age restriction on it and decree by law that it is illegal for anyone under the age of 21 to be engaged in this profession thus eliminating child prostitution. You can register them, make
periodical medical exams mandatory and have
them certified thus reducing the spread of
disease. Looking good eh?
Also, because it would now be a legal profession
you can ask them to pay tax on their earnings
thus creating more revenue for the state. Hey,
the government can even decide to subsidize it.
Oh, we would be able to put in place all kinds of
regulations, even decide to make it illegal for
married men to patronize prostitutes thus
strengthening the nuclear family (hehe!).
Heck we could create an entire industry round
this age old business – counsellors to dissuade
would be prostitutes, rehabilitation centres for
retired prostitutes, pension funds, the whole
shebang! Imagine the number of jobs we could
create just to support this business that
purportedly fetches Amsterdam, an estimated
yearly income of 100million US dollars. Perhaps it is this final detail that made the thought so
attractive to the distinguished Senator.
Em… all my wishful thinking aside; there's one
little snag though; this is still Nigeria where the
biggest detriment to our national growth (after a
collective lack of political will and corruption) is
the lack of structures. Heck it's been over a
decade and we still can't determine down to a
man who is a Nigerian talk more of who is a
prostitute.
Our leaders are delightful. You have to love their
penchant for adopting foreign policies that have
very little bearing on the realities of our
existences; and the ones that do are devoid of
any true spirit and are twisted so far out of shape you won't be able to recognise them for what they initially were.
'Home grown' they call it. No doubt Senator
Ekweremadu hit upon his brilliant idea during an
'intense capacity building' trip to the
Netherlands; somewhere deep in the De Wallen
district of Amsterdam to be exact. (My tongue is
in my cheek people; literally!)
I beg make we leave matter, let's sort out the fuel subsidy before they attempt to subsidize or
legislate our sex life. Not to deny that that
prostitution is a scourge that must be dealt with
carefully and thoughtfully; but to do what the
Senator suggests in our current confusing socio-
political environment; to legalize prostitution
without first putting in place the prerequisite
structures would be a recipe for disaster and
sexual anarchy.
Vanguard Nigeria
If you like our posts, kindly share with your friends and also drop your comments here.
