A job to die for
2003-12-08 09:12
Abuja - Vivian Nyoko wears a low cut white top and tight denims as she perches on a dirty plastic chair outside a bar on a potholed rubbish-strewn dirt road in central Abuja, trying to lure clients.
The 22-year-old is one of more than a million women sex workers in Nigeria, the impoverished west African giant where as many as seven million people are infected with HIV or Aids, according to non-governmental organisations.
"Of course I am scared of Aids. But what am I to do?" Nyoko says, sipping from a beer bottle as loud distorted pop music blares out from the bar and occasionally a smell of sewage wafts into the hot night air.
"Of course I must make sure that men wear condoms when we have sex. Some men don't want to wear a condom, but then I fight them - I am not stupid, I am not going to kill myself."
Nyoko came to Abuja four years ago from a poor village outside the town of Makurdi, a three-hour drive from the Nigerian capital, to fulfil her dream of becoming an actress.
"My father owns a very large orange farm and earns a lot of money. He loves me very much but when he dies my brothers will take everything he owns and divide it among themselves.
"That is how our culture works. I can't have eyes for my father's money. It is better for me to be a free woman and to make my own way.
Dreams of being an actress
"Now I am walking the streets, but I will only do it until I am an actress. I don't care what kind of actress I am. It can be on the stage or in movies - I don't care."
Nyoko says she has never commanded less than 3 000 niara (about R125) for sex, but she is one of the better paid.
Near to where Nyoko sits, a vendor sells cigarettes and condoms by candle light. His clients appear to be mainly sex workers.
There are about 15 000 prostitutes in Abuja alone and although no formal research has been done on the prevalence of HIV and Aids in the city, non-governmental organisations say the infection rate is "incredibly high" as men in Nigeria tend not to use condoms.
Irene Patrick, who runs a non-governmental organisation called Women's Health Education Development in Nigeria, says high class prostitutes who work at Abuja's upmarket hotels score big from wealthy clients during events like the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM).
"There are different levels of prostitution in Nigeria. The high class call girls give business cards to the hotels and earn about $100 for sex," she says.
"The middle of the range prostitutes work in brothels in the city and earn about 500 naira a time.
"The bottom girls live in the villages around Abuja and charge a few cents for sex. Some of them have sex with up to 14 men a night."
Poverty-stricken
"We have estimated that about 2% of Nigeria's female population are poverty-stricken prostitutes. Women are attracted to the money in the cities, but have to have sex to earn it - this is probably a large reason why the HIV infection rate is so high."
Nigeria's government has taken steps to create public awareness about the disease. Large billboards on the side of Abuja's main road urge the public to "stop the spread of Aids," while newspapers are full of informative articles.
But despite these efforts, Patrick says her organisation found that many men still preferred not to wear condoms.
"It is unbelievable at this stage of the disease, but many sex workers in Abuja say that their clients are ignorant about Aids and refuse to use condoms. We do find that educating prostitutes is quite effective, because they tend to pass on their knowledge to their clients."