Charity Nwakaudu
Do not let the name fool you! Gidan Wasar may mean an entertainment centre in Hausa Language but in Mabushi and Jabi areas of Abuja, it is actually an illicit drug trafficking and prostitution hub flaunted as cultural display spots.
Unfortunately, Gidan Wasar and its likes are expanding daily, despite efforts by successive Federal Capital Territory (FCT) administrations to flush out commercial sex workers from different parts of Abuja.
While the National Agency for the Prohibition of Trafficking in Persons (NAPTIP), and other health-based organisations have repeatedly raised the alarm as regards the negative effects of wild sex and drugs to human health, the major culprits, aged between 15 and 40 have shut their ears to the sermon that now sounds like a broken record to them.
NAPTIP has at different forums used rescued victims and pictorial illustrations to drive the campaign against prostitution and drug abuse. But poverty, poor home training, peer influence and sheer ignorance seem to have driven the culprits into the dark world of sex and drugs.
Gidan Wasar, to an ordinary man, is just a usual fun spot. However, beneath the drama, music and dance lies a den of social vices. The allure of Gidan Wasar are the young female dancers whose sensual dance steps leave men lost in lust.
Mohammed Rahman ecstatically confessed to Daily Sun: “The way they wiggle their waists kills me. It momentarily sends me to cloud nine. No matter where I am and what I’m doing, I must be here in Mabushi every evening to see these babes.”
Does Rahman know he is frequenting a prostitution hub? He responded: “I know these girls are whores. Some were driven away from home and they come here selling their bodies to survive. Some smoke marijuana and other hard drugs. Once in a while, I carry any beautiful Fulani girl for the night. It is N5,000.”
It was gathered that the young girls (aged between 15 and 25), who mill around Gidan Wasar were lured from different parts of the northern states by their friends in the guise of launching them into the film industry. It is only when they arrive Abuja that the reality dawns on them that they have been initiated into prostitution.
Majority of these young girls are decked in hijabs to deceive unsuspecting members of the public. But when a prospective client speaks the language of the business, the veils are opened and a deal is struck; either for a night layover or a quickie in agreed locations.
By nightfall, virtually everyone in Gidan Wasar smells of cheap wine and hard drugs as they dance wildly to various traditional songs. In the morning, empty bottles of alcoholic drinks, butts of cigarettes, remains of marijuana and other illicit substances litter the place.
Another interesting discovery about Gidan Wasar is that it attracts men of diverse social strata. At weekends, exotic cars and SUVs totally tinted flood the place. Occupants of these vehicles prefer to discreetly pick up a whore and zoom off without being noticed.
A drink dealer in one of the event centres, Abdullah Usman, insisted that Gidan Wasar should be listed as a nightclub and not just a casual entertainment centre since “the only difference is the dress code.” He added that most of the girls though innocent looking are worse than the commercial sex workers in brothels:
“I cry for the future. I don’t know if the government is not aware of what is happening here because this is going to be a big problem in future. The government is busy fighting clubs at the city centre but overlooking the worst, thinking this is just an entertainment centre for fun seekers.
“This thing called Gidan Wasar is more than a nightclub, forget about the innocent looks and ages of the girls. They don’t like what they are doing but once they finish taking their drugs, you see them dancing energetically on the stage with the mind of getting a man that can take them out after the performance.
“Every member of the group must perform on the stage and are taxed N500. Anyone who does not have the money to pay, her phone or any other belongings are seized until she pays. To get their things back, the girls go as far as selling their bodies so cheaply.
“Their patrons who are mostly men who come around to feed their eyes and seek for women to satisfy their sexual desire. One of their patrons, popularly known as Shiner confessed that he has visited most of the Gidan Wasar in the town to watch the dancers and search for a new catch.”
He said he was married with three wives but when introduced to these entertainment centres, he saw it as another way of refreshing and having a taste of different types of women at a very cheap cost: “Most of the girls were being exploited by the owners of Gidan Wasar to make money and are paid a paltry N500 that was paid by the girls at the point of registration to access the show.
“I am a fan of Gidan Wasar. I spend most of my nights there. What continuously baffles me is that these dancers are not enjoying the game. I have interacted with most of them but they can’t leave. I have even promised to assist some of them to start a better life but after agreeing the next day they come up with different stories. They don’t just have their own mind, I think they are under a spell.”
Another patron who prefers to be addressed as Musa agreed that the dancers were being preyed on by the operators and are left with no option than selling their bodies to make ends meet:
“These girls make a lot of money for the operators of Gidan Wasar. When they are dancing on the stage, all the money sprayed on them are gathered and collected by the operators who in return pay them only N500 which is not enough for their up keep and they are left with no option than prostitution to take care of themselves.”
One of the dancers, Amina, a teenager from Niger State said she was lured into the group by a friend who painted Abuja as a goldmine for any girl that joins the Gidan Wasar dance troupe:
“I was on my own in the village in my father’s house when one of my friends returned from Abuja and told me good stories about Abuja’s Gidan Wasar. She said once I joined the group, I would become a celebrity; people would be watching me perform on the screen and money will no longer be a problem to me.
“That was how I disappeared from home without my parents’ knowledge. I have been here for the past three months. I live in the house they rented for us. It has been really difficult because we must pay N500 to be given same amount after the energetic performance on the stage. The only way where we make money is if you are lucky and a man asks for your company after the show.
“It is not easy at all. I have really seen and done a lot since I joined this group. I don’t take alcohol nor smoke before but now, I can’t do without them.”
Another dancer who did not want her name in print also said the operators are using them as money-making machines: “They make a lot of money especially when we have guest artists. After all the sufferings they give us only N500, which is not enough to even buy a bar of soap. The person who brought me here told me that it would change my life and I would become a big girl. But from what I am seeing, it is the opposite of everything I was told. It is the survival of the fittest. If you are not lucky to get a man that will ask you out after the show, hunger will kill you.
“I am tired and confused because this is not what I bargained for. I want to go back home but the problem is what will I tell my parents because I left without their knowledge.”
While the owners of Gidan Wasar smile to the bank on a regular basis, those living within the vicinity are smarting from the perennial noise pollution. Some are considering instituting legal action against Gidan Wasar proprietors to end the unbearable noise and restore sanity to their homes.
Babatunde Lawal from Jabi lamented that his residential area has morphed into a market square, especially from about
“We can no longer sleep in peace because their music blares loudly