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Nigerian Senate trying to legalize prostitution

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Summary of story from Business Day, October 18, 2011

Prostitution may become legal in Nigeria in order to control the sex trade in the West African nation.

The Nigerian Senate is proposing that commercial sex work, as they call it, be legalized and are currently debating issues of how to define prostitution and how to economically regulate it.

The debate also focuses on how to balance legalized sex work with a climate that views prostitutes as evidence of social decrepitude and the moral bankruptcy of women.

However, the Senate’s move may damage Nigeria’s efforts to curb the HIV epidemic and the widespread poverty in the country.

In fact, the move might also encourage sex workers to migrate to Nigeria where their work is legal.

As writer Oka Obono argues, “As a major exporter of prostitutes and other raw materials to Western Markets, Nigeria will be awash with sisters sashaying its streets at noontime, a pimp’s El Dorado”

A twenty-year old national study of cross-border prostitution focused on ways to empower sex workers through recommendations such as forming a national association, codes of conduct and guidelines for the practice of their work.

The Society of Women Against AIDS in Africa also suggested that training in condom use was essential in protecting the health of prostitutes and increases in vocational training for women who wanted to come out of the life.

Obono contends that since prostitution is a result of poverty, the Nigerian government should focus on helping women find less risky employment rather than facilitating commercial sex work.

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