My encounter with a prostitute: In response to a notice inviting academic papers for publication in a foreign journal with the title “Vice or Virtue: Humanity and professions”, I decided to submit an abstract. I was fascinated by the title of the notice owing to the juxtaposition of the two words vice and virtue and their diametric but complementary alignments.

I decided to use Barnard Shaw’s play Mrs. Warren’s Profession to interrogate the tensions of vice and virtue as opposites inextricably intertwined with each other. For those who may not know, Mrs. Warren’s Profession is a play that recounts the story of Mrs. Kitty Warren, a onetime prostitute who, through the proceeds of her trade is able to send her daughter Vivie to university. My interrogation of the issues raised in the play heightened my interest in prostitution and posed a number of questions to me. Do the proceeds from prostitution contribute to our economy or aid the enablement of what we see as virtue in the society, can a prostitute ever change seeing that even when Mrs. Warren retired, she established a brothel to provide employment for young girls fanning the embers of sexual immorality, do prostitutes pay tithes and offerings to churches for prosperity in their trade, are there married women who exchange their bodies for money and positions thereby defiling the sanctity of conjugal union and finally what group of people constitute the clientele of prostitutes?

For answers to these questions, I decided to have an interview with a prostitute, Opebi in Ikeja the venue, time 12 midnight, date 14th October 2017. Entering Opebi, I saw her. Standing on a six inches heels, her clothes clung tightly to her body accentuating the seductive outlines of her provocative endowments, her legs stood out like a well polished piece of furniture, her skin glittered under the semi darkness of the night like the smoothness of the sea and the beauty of her physiognomy could disarm the devil. I pulled over to her and stopped.

“Hi”, I blurted. “Good evening sir”, she replied, her sonorous voice making an instant impression on me.

“Hi”, I blurted. “Good evening sir”, she replied, her sonorous voice making an instant impression on me.
She: Where are we going to and what can you offer?

Me: Well, my mission is different. I want to have a discussion with you for 30 minutes. I will pay you.
She: This is new. Are you a secret police agent?

Me: No, I am not. I am a lecturer, researching prostitution. I want to hear from the horse’s mouth, I have a recorder. I will ask you some questions.
She: I hope your recorder does not have a camera.

Me: No, it doesn’t, you can examine it.

Five minutes later, we found a table and two empty chairs beside a posh hotel. Instantly, I set out to work.

Me: What is your name?
She: My name is Cynthia. (The cynical smile that graced her face betrayed her efforts at honesty. After all did Mrs. Warren not disguise her true identity by adding a Mrs. to her name even though she wasn’t married? Disguise is an inexorable mark of prostitution).

Me: Let me admit that you are a beautiful young lady. I am wondering whether you are not thinking of getting married and having a family. I think any man will fall in love with you under normal circumstances.
She: I will marry when I want. First, I want to make money before starting a family.

Me: Do you think you will find a husband here?
She: No, not here. If I dress up properly and meet a man in a shopping mall, church or banking hall, will he know this side of me? The answer is no. Many of my colleagues here on the streets got married to highly placed people in the society. Some of you celebrate them. So I will marry when I want. (smiles).

Me: So tell me, why and how did you become a prostitute?
She: (Smiles.) Well, after my NCE, I proceeded to University to study Mass Communication. Then my father died. After my youth service, I got a job as a reporter with a national newspaper. For seven months, I was not paid any salary. With a widowed mother and three younger ones to take care of, life became difficult. One day, I was sent to the city to interview a politician. He liked me and for the first time, I slept in a five star hotel. He gave me good money and promised me lots of things. Well, he didn’t fulfil any of the promises and never picked my calls again. That taught me a lesson, politicians are established in deceit and failed promises. Then I hit the streets.

Me: (Nonplussed.) Don’t you think it is sheer moral depravity for you to pull your clothes for a stranger just because of money?
She: (Draws a long breath and sighs.) Well, everyone is guilty of moral depravity in this country.

Me: No, you can’t generalize in that way…
She: (Cuts in) Sir, what it takes me to pull my clothes for a stranger is what it takes any government or employer of labour to owe workers for several months without salaries. Moral depravity has no gradation. Moral depravity is when our leaders oversee the daily strangulation of the masses through economic hardship, watching our economy shrink, watching our people die like mosquitoes in the hands of terrorists and bandits with propaganda machinery to defend the ugly trend. Moral depravity is a selective fight against corruption when those who have despoiled this country to stupor walk the streets as free men while petty thieves languish in jail.

Me: Please, kindly answer my questions…
She: (Cuts in) Sir, it is the same moral depravities that will cause the deployment of soldiers to unleash mayhem on innocent protesters and consign youths to their early graves. Moral depravity is the tacit support for herdsmen who are killing people all over the country without a voice raised by the government, yet these murderers are not terrorists. Moral depravity is when we take loans from China, abandon our refineries but go to the Niger Republic to refine petroleum products which are in turn imported back to us. Suddenly the landlocked Niger Republic has become an oil-producing country. It is more than moral depravity, it is a shame. Mr Lecturer, please research the relationship between Nigeria and Niger Republic. I am aware some politicians from Niger Republic came here to campaign for Mr Buhari during the last election. There must be something about Mr Buhari and Nigeria Republic. Moral depravity is when a country finances terrorism by stage-managing a kidnap incident and paying the terrorists a whopping $4 million. Sir, how come none of the schoolboys could speak simple English, not even the head boy? Moral depravity is when a president addresses the so-called kidnapped schoolboys in Hausa instead of English, our lingua franca. It is either because the president cannot speak English or he knows the boys don’t understand English. Moral depravity is when the university system is shut down for a whole year while government officials have their children abroad in the best universities. Moral depravity is….

Me: Look, you must not….
She: (Cuts in) Wait sir let me finish. You asked about moral depravity and I am explaining it to you. Moral depravity is when lawmakers earn colossal amounts of money and are crippled by surplus while many people wallow in deprivations and are devastated by need.

Me: Look…you see…are you sure…
She: (Cuts in) You think because I stand on the road at night I don’t know what is happening in this country? Don’t forget I was once a journalist and I had a good education. Moral depravity is when some government officials Lai morbidly even in the face of glaring truth just to defend a bad government and keep their jobs. I am not more morally depraved than the politicians, lawyers, engineers, pastors, and businessmen who troop here every night to patronize prostitutes.

Me: It’s enough please, it’s…
She: (Cuts in) no, it’s not enough. Our people must rise to engage the politicians, the elected officeholders, public and private service providers, to hold them accountable, to rise against the daily criminality that goes on in government circles, courts, banks, police, military, and other public agencies.

Me: Our time is up. I shall visit you again and we will conclude this interview.
She: Hold on Mr. Lecturer, let me remind you that moral depravity includes all those who are quick to condemn prostitutes but are very slow to condemn an incompetent government. Anyone who looks away while our country is gradually being submerged by an unconscionable leadership is morally depraved. Anyone who fails to speak out against bad governance is morally depraved.

Oga, our people must soro soke. The sophistry and hypocrisy in our country must stop. Nobody has any moral justification to condemn prostitution or armed robbery while supporting a more heinous and morally depraved government.

Me: (Completely dazed) I must leave now, thanks for your time. (With trembling fingers, I fidgeted into my pocket and paid her the agreed sum) I whispered to myself – into what dangers will research lead me?

Dr Adiele teaches in the Department of English, Mountain Top University [email protected]