Requiring no definition here, the central idea behind the term ‘prostitute’ may be traced to an ancient sacred rite which Wikipedia, the free online encyclopaedia, describes as being “supposedly practiced among Sumerians.” The same website also offers that, “In ancient sources (Herodotus, Thucydides) there are many traces of sacred prostitution, starting perhaps with Babylon, where each woman had to reach, once in their lives, the sanctuary of Militta (Aphrodites or Nana/Anahita) and there” consort “with a foreigner as a sign of hospitality for a symbolic price.”

From various other accounts, some of them biblical, there appears to have been a somewhat related practice in the ancient Greek city of Corinth. The city’s major goddess, Venus, had a temple in which a thousand women were housed at public expense for purposes of pleasure adoration. City residents and visitors patronised these women as a form of worship to Venus who represented fertility. For instance, farmers believed by consorting with these women at the temple, their lands would yield more produce.

Today, a prostitute, still typically female, is a far cry from her predecessors as she is often a most publicly despised member of society. While men still patronise her--which explains why she is still in business after all the sacredness has been stripped from her--she is widely seen as a purveyor of immorality, disease, even violent crimes and deserving nothing but the scorn of all. And yet compared to a certain class of Nigeria’s ruling elite, a prostitute is a human being worthy of respect for whatever her failings, a prostitute is known to be a prostitute, often a consort to a more malevolent criminal such as an armed robber, and all her deeds or misdeeds, while not being excused or condoned, are covered by the simple fact of her being a prostitute.

This is more than can be said for some dishonourable honourables and undistinguished distinguished persons. Typically male, the disparity between their words and their deeds makes saints out of prostitutes for there is no betrayal too devious for this class. The first rule they seem to abide by appears to be, “Everything for us and nothing for the people.” For conclusive proof, look at some of the actions they have taken in the almost seven years since the so-called restoration of democracy. At many points along the way, the overriding principle in their actions has been what they stand to gain as individuals other than what Nigeria stands to gain as a nation.

With the charade dubbed ‘public hearings’ and the bound-to-be-infamous retreat at Port Harcourt chaired by the Deputy Senate President, Senator Ibrahim Mantu, now safely in the bag, those Nigerians who were saying there is no evidence of a plot to finagle a third term in office for President Olusegun Obasanjo should now eat their words and wallow in shame. There can be no doubt at this time in any rational being’s mind that the powers that be are out to do any and everything it takes to perpetuate themselves in office beyond what should be the end of their tenure.

At this point there is even a haughty air of inevitability about the whole scheme. Those who urge that this travesty should not be allowed are cynically told to stop ‘blowing grammar’ as there is nothing they can do about the situation. Indeed, government itself is now openly mouthing provocative threats presumably aimed at silencing dissenters. Minister of Information and National Orientation, Mr Frank Nweke Jnr, threw decency to the winds the other day with a broadcast that sounded like the tirade of a conceited soldier. A veritable foot soldier of the third term movement, Chief Femi Fani-Kayode, a special assistant to the president, upped the sabre-rattling ante soon after that on an NTA interview programme. Those who are waiting for a flag to be waved from heaven before they see what is unfolding before us ought to give up by now for no bigger flags than these can be waved in this matter.

Let the point be made here that this writer does not hold the view, as some do, that President Obasanjo’s time in office from 1999 to date has been nothing but ruin for Nigeria and her peoples. The matter is far too complex for such a simplistic glossing-over of reality. Even if it is the silly, inefficient and still too expensive GSM telephony that this regime engendered alone that can be counted, it is still change of a positive nature--albeit marginally so in one’s view--which shouldn’t be obliterated by spite. The counter argument, however, is that President Obasanjo has squandered the goodwill he enjoyed at the beginning of his first term in 1999 without changing in any significant way the energy situation, or curbing the widespread cancer of corruption that he harped so much on.

What is more, even the most rabid supporter of the president like Chief Fani-Kayode, must know in his heart of hearts that the security situation in this country has worsened since 1999, and that the failure of the Obasanjo government to meaningfully boost the generation and supply of power in the country has meant the stagnation of industrial growth, the basis on which true economic development rests, not consumer-services like the GSM ploy. It has been demonstrated by virtually every developed nation in the world today that a country without a meaningful industrial capacity labours in vain in search of developmental growth. One does not need to wield a PhD in Economics to know this.

It is important to raise these points here because all the recent talk about what Dr Mahatir bin Mohammed did in Malaysia during his long reign there (July 16, 1981 - October 31, 2003); and what Singapore’s Lee Kwan Yew did in his even longer reign (June 3, 1959 - November 28, 1990), misses essential elements of the matter. President Obasanjo cannot replicate in Nigeria what these men did in their smaller nations primarily because the variables simply cannot be transferred ab initio to this country. Moreover, seven years on, it should be clear to even the old warhorse himself that he’s just not cut out for these times anymore. Succinctly, President Obasanjo is out of his depth. He has neither the grounding nor the gravitas to cope with the issues of today. Look no further than his behaviour at the now common and highly redundant stakeholders’ meetings that are now a dime a dozen. The president typically turns the event into an occasion to play the village clown of old and inevitably nothing changes!

Capturing the president’s disconnection with present reality in the current edition of The Atlantic Monthly, Jeffrey Tayler writes, “Obasanjo still talks of improving the lot of his people, but his rhetoric hardly sounds over the din of mayhem and rage. Nigeria appears to be de-developing, its hastily erected facade of modernity disintegrating and leaving city dwellers in particular struggling to survive in near-apocalyptic desolation.” It is when this not untrue state of affairs is contrasted with the president’s recent declaration of his readiness to die for Nigeria, presumably while in office, that it becomes glaring that the old man has lost touch with contemporariness and needs to be saved from a needless suicide. And those who can do this, if they so wish, are in the National Assembly.

Meanwhile, let it be stated here that Nigeria does not need a president to die in office for her. What the country needs is a leader with a clear understanding of her problems and the strategic vision to address these problems honestly within a specified term limit. Your correspondent has said in the past that greed and apathy will continue to leave this country in ruins until her peoples decide firmly to take her destiny into their hands. Now is the time to act.

Indeed, now is the time when every Nigerian that can vote has a duty to his conscience and his country to write, call, visit, send emissaries, communicate in any way available to him with those in the National Assembly who are supposed to represent us. If indeed they represent us, let them spare us the quagmire that this third term madness would certainly bring by stopping the plot there in the National Assembly. If they allow this evil scheme to sail through, courtesy of the dishonourable honourables and undistinguished distinguished persons in their midst, then let it be known that the prostitute whom we all abuse in our putrid sanctimonious haughtiness is more deserving of honour than them because the prostitute, even with all her wiles, is after all, a prostitute. Any ill ensuing from an encounter with her should be expected for a prostitute is a prostitute is a prostitute.

Robot  # 1 | 10.03.2006 15:48

://www.irinnews.org/images/20051142.JPG style=width: 93px; height: 121px; /> Aprostitute, typically female, is a far cry from her predecessors as she is often a most publicly despised member of society. While men still patronise her--which explains why she is still in business after all the sacredness has been stripped from her--she is widely seen as a purveyor of immorality, disease, even violent crimes and deserving nothing but the scorn of all. And yet compared to a certain class of Nigeria’s ruling elite, a pros...Read the full article.

MrOneNaija  # 2 | 11.03.2006 10:16

Your analysis is good and the metaphor is smart. But the metaphor, I think, is the problem with your article. I don't think it fits well into the context of Nigeria today. You could've qualified it with using something like "Political Prosititutes". Well done anyway. igwe

orisatony  # 3 | 14.03.2006 05:35

Joe Irukwu, the President of Ohaneze Ndigbo has joined the league of greedy old men who are not able to speak the truth because of parochial gains. A man like Irukwu, who is well educated and over 70 years old instead of advising younger people on the dangers of supressing the truth went all out to betray not only himself but the entire Ndigbo. Ndigbo are still wondering why old man Irukwu could so degenerate to the level of a spittle sucking champion of the third term agenda. What does he stand to loose at his age if he tells Obasanjo the truth? He has really diminished his stature by standing with men like Aneni and obasanjo who are out to drown Nigeria in pursuit of narrow personal agenda. His is the worse because he claimed to be representing a race.