In 1973, sex workers in Lagos, Ibadan, Kaduna and Enugu came together to establish the Nigerian Union of Prostitutes (NUP), with the aim of securing official recognition from the government.
According to DRUM magazine, the union introduced a series of rules and regulations for its members.
▶️ Members were required to present health certificates to welfare officers every week, while new recruits underwent three days of supervised training before being fully inducted.
▶️ Membership was not free. DRUM reported that new members were required to pay a fee of ₦10.50, alongside an annual fee of ₦4.20.
▶️ The union also prohibited housewives from joining, accusing them of violating the ethics of the profession because interruptions from their husbands prevented them from giving customers their full attention.
However, the union’s rules did not sit well with everyone.
Three months after helping to establish the organisation, one of its founding members, a 27-year-old woman named Doris, resigned. She accused the leadership of discrimination, alleging that it favoured “high-caste” sex workers over those considered to be of a lower caste.
According to Doris, the lower-ranked members were prohibited from soliciting customers on highways and in open spaces.
The NUP defended its regulations, arguing that they were necessary to protect its members and preserve the reputation of the profession.
The union also introduced minimum prices for its members.
▶️ For junior members, the cost of a sexual encounter reportedly increased from between 20 and 50 kobo to 75 kobo.
▶️ An all-night engagement was priced at ₦5, while part-time sex workers known as “office girls” charged considerably more, earning at least ₦20 for an all-night engagement.
DRUM also reported that some women occupying the union’s higher ranks had travelled abroad before returning to Nigeria.
The magazine described them as women who had established themselves as businesswomen, using their earnings from sex work to acquire properties, open boutiques, establish transportation businesses and secure various contracts.
These women, according to the publication, were among the driving forces behind the formation of the NUP.
Despite the union’s efforts to secure official recognition, DRUM concluded that government approval appeared unlikely.
Doris, who had resigned from the union, blamed the situation on what she described as the hypocrisy of Nigerian men.
She was quoted as saying:
“Hypocritical Nigerian men who come to us at night times but see us as a menace to society in the day time.”
Source: DRUM magazine, 1973.
