 Though, the vice is as old as creation, the new dimension female prostitution now assumes especially in foreign lands amongst Nigerians has become a source of worry to government and Nigerians in Diaspora.
This must have informed the decision of the president of African Community residence in Spain, Prince Kennedy Iyoha, to initiate moves towards curbing this menace.
The Edo-born prince in his encounter with THE NIGERIAN OBSERVER speaks on the recent trend and upsurge in female trafficking and prostitution especially amongst Nigerian girls in Europe and how government could tackle it.
He speaks to James Takpe, Monday Oise, Rabi Usman and Usino Anita on other sundry issues.
Excerpts
Who is Prince Kennedy Iyoha?
Prince Kennedy Iyoha is the President of African Community residence in Spain. I am here to inform the young people that they are taking unnecessary risk to travelling to Europe, because when they get there, they become redundant because as illegal immigrants they cannot be effective and we think that it is necessary for them to know what the situation really is over there, so that whenever they want to take a decision, they will be able to know what to do.
How long have you been residing in Spain?
I have been there for about 12 years now. I have two businesses, I am married with a son and also a member of a private clinic over there .
For how long have you been the President of African Community in Spain?
I have been the president since 2004.
How has the Association been fairing?
We have been doing everything we can to help members and non members, people who are Africans in general to integrate into the Spanish Community with the help of the Spanish government. We organise workshop, and also, we have a school, a social house where most of these boys or girls that just come in, instead of sleeping on the streets we take them in for maximum of 9 months, while within that period, they learn something that will be useful to them and they can be useful to the community. We try as much as possible to find jobs for them, something that can take care of them.
The issue of prostitution by Nigerian girls in Europe has been a sort of stigma to this country. What is your organisation doing to stem this trend?
What we have been doing in our own capacity in Europe is to inform those that have been there because majority of them come through a certain contract they have with some dominated ‘mafias’ or ‘madams’, that normally bring them on contract both written, oral or even spiritual and when they get there, they are engaged to these sets of Mafias or Madam. What we do is to try and educate them that in Europe, it is not necessary for them to honour that contract but most of them are still afraid because they have their families involved here in Nigeria, so there is little we can do over there. Why I came to Africa particularly Benin-City, Edo State right now is to let the girls know that it is not what they see on television that is on the ground, that most of these girls come out every night almost naked on the street even when it is very cold, some of them do not have anything to feed themselves but the little they have, they send to their parents over here in Nigeria, so parents should know what their children are doing or what they are sending their children to do and they should be able to understand that they are using somebody (a human being) for their own selfish end.
What effort is your organization making to let people here understand the effect of undue pressure on their children particularly the female ones?
This is why we came to your organisation because you know that the mass media is the only means to reach everybody, right now. It seems that most of the people that are now coming into Europe are the people from the hintherland (rural areas). Initially it was only people from the urban centres but now, people from the rural areas of Edo State have followed the bandwagon. So for us to be able to get to them, we do not have the resources to go around so what we need to do is come to THE OBSERVER NIGERIAN that has a good distribution network in serving the people of the state and the country and we go to EBS and to the Oba palace to discuss the issue, while coming, I was given a letter by The NIGERIAN Ambassador so that I will b e able to get the information across to a lot of people in the country.
We understand that the issue of female prostitution and trafficking does not really end in Europe, that even in some African countries Nigerians are even maltreated while plying their trade?
It is difficult for us to act from where we are because every country has it own jurisdiction and we know that so many people in morocco particularly Nigerian girls are being adopted as sex slaves by the police or military men over there and even our boys go through horrible situations. Sometimes, their legs are cut, because they have tried once, twice and thrice to cross the sea and for them not to cross any longer, they cut most of their legs, we have images and pictures of these horrible things they do to these boys. And the girls, rights now, the Edo’s and the Igbo people in Morocco now formed a gang, because the Edo man says he has the right to the girls from Edo and the Igbo man says he has the right because they have to rotate the leadership over there, so they now fight for the control of the girls because they use the girls in order to carter for themselves.
The girls have to prostitute and bring the money for them to live. In Algeria, Mali Senegal, Gambia it is a situation that the federal government need to re-assess its policies and see how it can be able to help the youths so that they do not go out of despiration.
What do you think govt should do to stop this trend or what do you think is responsible for these movements.
I think it has to do with the economic problem in the country because most of the youths do not see a future here and they think that the only possibility for them to have a good livelihood is to travel out of the country but wherever they are going, they are still going to have the same problem particularly when they are not prepared. Most of these girls abandon their studies midway and even if you go to Europe with a degree you need to be converted into European system and to be able to work and the only industry people are working in Europe is the construction industry and the girls go into prostitution industry where they make a lot of money. I think the government can overhaul some of its policies as regard some of its sectors, including economic sector, and transport sector. The transport sector can employ more than 5 million people a year. There are so many aspect of the transport sector that have not been considered by the government, first of all alot of these drivers do not have licences and most of them are not educated. Now, government could make it compulsory that everybody that has licence must go to a driving school, then that will be an industry that will spring up and people will get into it and there will be job creation. Government will only have to regulate how many companies have the right to operate as a transporter in the city or even outside the city because now everybody can just have a car and begin to run the street as a transporter and such people though they pay some kind of tax to the local council most of these tax to do not get to government. It is necessary that people who are in that sector are definitely contributing their parts so that government could now have money to invest in other sectors so that these young men and women leaving the country enmasse can be recruited.
Unconfirmed reports say some foreigners especially the Italians encourage our girls to go into prostitution.
Prostitution is a big industry in Europe and definitely so many people are benefiting from it but the people who are not really benefiting are the girls because they risk a lot of things, and most of them have been killed by people who are drug addicts particularly those that are working on the street. Those that work in club houses have security though sometimes police come there to harass them and make them pay some fine that are not normally paid. Being encouraged, yes Europe is encouraging such a thing but it is at the individual level but not at the governmental level, people who want to make money by all means normally encourage people to bring these girls so that they can make their industry work.
We have heard of Europeans recruiting these girls (Nigerians) to have babies for them.
I think it is a phenomenon in Europe, people probably for one reason or the other can not be able to have babies, they now look for surrogate mothers who will help them and they are paid for the help to do that but it is not very common.
How are you partnering with other NGOS who are geared towards the eradication of female trafficking and prostitution in the society?
Right now, we are yet to meet any of them but we look forward to meeting them because I even have the mandate to get one or two NGOS that are really committed to fighting this trend so that we can work with them so that they on their own would take it up from there. I do not have to come down from Europe to make this kind of information when the entire infrastructure necessary is provided and we could support them financially to carry on with this campaign and try to educate particularly parents who send their children out for prostitution. Some of them probably cannot imagine some of the things these girls even go through. They are things difficult to mention.
Which other challenges does your organisation have?
Our organisation’s major purpose was not related to what we are fighting now. This is just something we thought is necessary for us to eradicate once and for all. Our major objective is to try to create an institution that will be a reference point for every African in the area of education, cultural awareness, possibly political because African community is getting bigger and very soon, we will have the right to vote. Then, we would have been organised enough to have the power to ask for something from government only to our community in Spain but to Africa because we know that if Europe and America changed their police, particularly their economic polices towards African, it will be better off than what it is today.
What advice do you have for the parents who allow their daughters to go into such act?
We know that one of the problems that most of these girls face over there is the pressure from their parents even if they are living a very bad life most of them whenever their phones ring, they are nervous because they know they will be subjected to demands from homes. Most parents and siblings lie and make unnecessary demands which make these girls to run helter-skelter in order to meet these demands. Some are forced to do what they had rejected not to do but because of the pressure from their parents, they will now go back to such things in order to get money to send to their parents. Families should look at their souls particularly mothers. They should try to see what they are encouraging their daughters to do and at the end of the day, they will decide what is right or wrong. One thing is clear most parents are killing their daughters for them to live a comfortable lives over here.
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