TUKE TUKE SERIES 01
UGBAGUE STREET
“Life is like riding a bicycle. To keep your balance, you must keep moving” Albert Einstein.
One of the things I achieved during my one-year stay in the core rural area of Akwa Ibom State in Nigeria was cycling. I had never gotten on a bicycle before and didn’t push to learn because I thought it would be a waste of my time considering my weight and age, or was I just afraid of falling?
Well, my newfound love for bicycles heightened as the bus stop for buses coming from Sapele road to Ring road was relocated to Forestry, just opposite Ugbague Street, the number one depot for refurbished second-hand bicycles and other activities. If you know, you know!
I crossed the road to join another bus that would take me to New Benin. I fed my eyes with colourful sights of bicycles as they were either getting pumped or cleaned so they could shine and look less like they have been through in the hands of their former owners.
“ luibini! luibini! luibini!”
A bus conductor shouted that getting lost is possible for those who don’t know Benin City well, especially when you are heading to New Benin, but Luibini is what you hear instead.
I entered the bus and sat at the back seat while waiting for the rest of the passengers to join in. I looked through the window, from the potholes of muddy water to almajiri kids and their strange makeup running up and down the street to several doorways covered with worn-out materials that were once fancy curtains.
I remembered how my mum recycled me and my sibling’s well-worn dresses into kitchen rags. I was so caught up in the thought of my childhood dresses that I didn’t notice what was going on around me, but the voices brought reality back to me.
A young fine skinny woman had walked out of one doorway that had those curtains, she was wearing a red see-through top, and because of her very light complexion, one could make out the details of her breast. Her shorts resembled panties, revealing the black spots that garnished her light-skinned inner thigh.
I quickly nicknamed her Miss cutie pants in my head. The men in the bus were cracking necks to catch a glimpse of her, and it didn’t occur to me that this was the famous brothel area in Ugbague street until she started speaking in pidgin to the guy that sat at the extreme seat of the front row, close to the window.
“Bros, you like wetin you dey see abi, come my room, I no give you stress, any style wen you need I go give you, shey na touch your toes or hang it up.”
You guys know the rest.
As she spoke, she kept grabbing different parts of her body in a bid to entice him, and more women started trooping out. They looked different but dressed scantily too.
For those that do not know Ugbague street, It is a street in Benin City, Edo state, about 151 meters long. It is a busy business area for men selling refurbished bicycles, a small bus park, and other legitimate businesses during the daytime. Still, at night, a transformation takes place as the beer parlours take over, blaring loud music and the queens of the night come to hustle.
Back in the 1940s and 50s, Ugbague Street was known to be one of the busiest streets in Benin City, Edo State. The beer parlours, hotels, and suya stands made it a meeting point for financially buoyant men that some women love to tag along with. With time, women who practiced prostitution from all parts of Nigeria and deportees came to Ugbague because business was promising and booming.
Things have changed now, business for the queens of the night is not as lucrative as before, the once attractive structures are now dilapidated and in deplorable conditions, yet more than 300 women live there and hustle, sex could be gotten for as low as 500 Naira and as high as 5000 Naira and in rounds too.
Apparently, in Benin City, hustling could mean an entirely different thing!
My eyes were glued to the lady and what she was doing. I have never seen a woman selling this kind of market live in broad daylight before. I am sure if I had stretched my hand through the window, I would have touched her shoulders.
She noticed I was staring at her and she faced me!
“Aunty why you dey look me like that, you never see asewo before?”
Immediately I regained motor control of my body and closed my mouth that had slightly opened and looked away. Miss cutie pants, the business was cut short as the driver entered his vehicle and started his engine.
Immediately we left the area, the woman in the middle seat started the conversation
”The girl no get Shame.”
“And she is pretty oh, if she could get a good job, she won’t be selling herself,” I added.
The Mama beside us just broke the table!
“Naso dem dey do oh, no shame, no be their mate dey waka go Italy dey send money come for their family, dey build house, make e dey here dey hustle e own, useless girl. My pikin wen gather go which day here don still dey send small small money come.”
The woman that started the conversation chirped, “Thank God oh.”
My stomach churned. We joke about how every Benin family has someone involved in human trafficking or irregular migration. Following the statistics from IOM { The International Organization for Migration}, as of July 2018, over 60,000 Nigerians remain trapped in Libya, with 50% of them hailing from Edo State.
I pondered silently and started asking myself questions and answering them too. Comparing the lifestyles of the two girls was not the point; none of them was living their best life. Miss cutie pants engage in prostitution locally while Mama’s daughter does the same act on an international level. What difference does it make?
Does the end justify the means in this case?
Mama’s daughter provides her with money for upkeep, but it does not justify getting the money from the wrong kind of hustle.
Should Miss cutie pants take the initiative from Mama’s daughter and migrate illegally to Europe?
NO, there is a considerable risk to it; according to Italian authorities, between 10,000 to 30,000 Nigerian women are working in prostitution on the streets of Italy. 90% of migrant women arriving in Italy from Libya come with bruises and other signs of violence.
In August 2017, the current Edo State Governor Godwin Obaseki launched the Edo State Task Force Against Human Trafficking to fight the scourge of human trafficking and irregular migration. On May 23, 2018, Governor Obaseki signed the Edo State Trafficking in Persons Prohibition Bill (2018) in Abuja. The Oba of Benin made a pronouncement on March 9, renouncing all curses placed on victims of human trafficking in Edo State by juju priests). Also, Rehabilitation, Reorientation and Reintegration programs, Job creation, and awareness campaigns, I AM NOT FOR SALE campaign are currently ongoing in Edo state. All this shows that all hands are on deck to reduce the rate of irregular migration, human trafficking, and other related offenses as perpetrators cannot go scot-free. Other Non-profit organizations like Pathfinder justice initiative, Genius Hub Global, et al. are also partnering with the government by creating awareness on the dangers of irregular migration and incorporating the Libya returnees in skills acquisition and capacity building programs.
As concerned Nigerian citizens, we can do our part by discouraging anyone with such motive and spread the truth that there is nothing like money picking on the streets of Europe.
Credits: www.pathfindersji.org Onome Oneyibo(contributor)