CHAPTER ONE
1.1 BACKGROUND TO THE STUDY
Prostitution is said to have been in existence from time immemorial. It is one of the oldest professions in the world and it is referred to in the bible and ancient times like the Romans, Greek and Egyptian biblical times. Prostitution is the act of involving oneself in illicit sexual intercourse or relationship with an opposite sex, either for money making or for pleasure. It is the business or practice of providing sexual services to another person in return for payment.
According to Misi (2008), prostitution is the use of one’s body for the purpose of remuneration or consideration of any form. The person who receives payment for sexual services is called “a prostitute” or “sex worker” (Wikipedia 2013). This definition agreed that there is indiscriminate sexual relationship involve in prostitution especially for monetary gains. Furthermore, observations made by researchers’ shows that prostitution has now become more lucrative in campuses or basically higher learning institutions. This is because; men no longer patronize brothels and street prostitutes. Rather, they prefer students.
It is mind blogging that the Nigerian society is fast dripping towards social backwardness. The idea of morality in Nigeria is fast losing its essence. It is often said that the ivory tower is the last stage of molding leaders of tomorrow, and if is such towers are now saturated with threats of prostitution and its consortium, and then the nation is in deep crisis. Prostitution has continuously been seen as a social problem for the society, especially in large patriarchal settings. In such societies, the women that practice prostitution are seen as immoral and blamed for the spread of HIV, based on the assumptions of the definition of women as carriers of sexually transmitted diseases, and the moralistic believe that sex is bad. AIDS is seen as a woman’s disease and as a prostitute’s disease and prostitutes however are seen as representatives of what is bad (McFadden 1992:189)
Olugbile (2008) wrote that, peer influence is everywhere on campus, where everyone wants to be like the others and end up prostituting. The bad girls that embrace prostitution gradually corrupt the more conservative ones. There is no tertiary institution that is immune of this crisis. Moreover, some universities are not helping matters. Their fees are so high that it is hard to understand where they expect the students to get the money from. Being in a precarious condition, they resort to prostitution based on the fact that they are looking for money to settle their school bills.
However, it has been argued by some researchers that the rise in campus prostitution is the direct result of the growing rate of poverty and hopelessness in country; occasioned by failure of leadership over the years. While others are of the opinion that the rise in campus prostitution in Nigeria is purely the product of the society by the new corps of leaders in the country. These general hopelessness and fear is what is propelling these mothers of tomorrow to sell their God gifted body for a patterning sum for money to take care of themselves in school amidst parental neglects and inactions.
Similarly, Misi (2008) also pointed out that the politicians and governmental officials are not left out in the cause of female students’ prostitution. According to him, anytime this politicians and government officials visit the university town on official work, the pimps recruit for them young university girls for their relaxation and refreshment, at the end of which they settle then with huge sums of ill- gotten money. Due to the fact that these girls glorify wealth, some of them therefore do what it takes to belong by taking to prostitution.
Nevertheless, it is very pertinent that over the years, Nigerian leaders have failed to come up with a passionate moral blueprint and religiously implementing such policies for the development of this country. What we have had was bonds of thieves who do not care if others are starving, being or going astray in an attempt to satisfy their insatiable greed. The failure of the Nigerian leaders to develop the nation seriously led to a widened gap between the poor and the rich. This gap has however come with its repercussion in the name of social vices such as prostitution, drug trafficking and bankruptcy. A visit to females’ hostels at night will make this point clearer as you would see all kinds of flashy cars that comes to pick this young undergraduate girls for one function or the other (Olugbile, 2009) which is rather pathetic for this nation and its people.
Furthermore, because of the ways these students are used and their connections in high places, they no longer respect their lecturers or constituted authorities in their respective schools. It also serves as a hindrance to the excellence and quality of graduates that turnout every year. The values of hard work, research and intellectual pursuit has been thrown to the dustbin of history; as most of these students have already believe that the only thing they need is to bribe the lecturers involve both in cash and kind to get the required marks. It is incumbent upon parents to seriously monitor and provide their wards with moral upbringing that will be a light that will always guide them even in their absence.
In conclusion, prostitution is a bad omen for motherhood and excellence and unless this is stopped, it will be self perpetuating and will have disastrous consequences for the educational system, the economy and the society as a whole.
1.2 STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM
Prostitution has done much harm to those that are involved in the business as well as the society at large. Owing to the fact that most of these females undergraduates move out with unknown clients, Uzokwe (2008) opined that they are easy tools in the hands of ritual killers and kidnappers. Moreover, when a woman accepts money for sex, she has conferred to the man the authority and power to endure brutality, rape and other crime against her behind closed door which however may result to unwanted pregnancy, miscarriage, emotional health consequences such as severe trauma, stress, depression, anxiety and self medication through alcohol and drug abuse.
Based on the above, the researcher set out to investigate the factors responsible for prostitutions in Ogun State, Nigeria. Specifically, Olabisi Onabanjo University, Ago-Iwoye, and Tai Solarin University of Education, Ijagun, Ijebu-Ode, Ogun State, Nigeria.
1.3 PURPOSE OF THE STUDY
Against this background, this study set out to investigate the prevalence of prostitution among female students in tertiary institutions, and to also find out the factors responsible for prostitution among females students. Thus, it intends to:
1. 1.Explore how socio-economic factor could be responsible for female prostitution in tertiary institutions in Nigeria.
2. 2.Scrutinize how disrupted family background is responsible for female prostitution.
3. 3.Investigate if poverty level influences rate of female prostitution in tertiary institutions.
4. 4.Examine if peer group will play a role in cur burg the rate of prostitution in tertiary institutions.
1.4 RESEARCH QUESTIONS
The research questions guiding the study are:
1. What are the causes of prostitution among female undergraduates?
2. What are the effects of prostitution?
3. Could socio-economic factors be responsible for prostitution in tertiary institutions?
4. Could poverty level and single parenting be a factor responsible for the high rates of female prostitution in tertiary institution?