- Activities lead into shady deals, sex abuse, ‘happy ending’
Romanus Ugwu, Abuja
Body massage could mean many things to many people. For some, it is a combination of commercial and health benefits while to others, it is an emotional satisfaction, a sexual appeal centre and even many more.
However, regardless of your perception about it, body massage has really assumed the momentum of a booming lucrative venture, money-spinner and it has come to stay.
To experts, body massage has a proven health benefits of improving blood circulation leading to increased supply of oxygen and other nutrients to the muscles. It also reduces anxiety by lowering the levels of stress-hormone, cortisol and increasing the levels of serotonin, the happiness hormone in the body.
According to American College of Rheumatology, body massage also fights fibromyalgia symptoms, a chronic condition characterized by muscle pain, fatigue and tenderness.
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Beyond health benefits
For some residents of Abuja, there are, however, more to body massage than these health and other benefits. It is a centre for perpetration of gigolo and prostitution. It cuts across all strata of adults. Single ladies, young men, married men and women are becoming neck deep in patronising body massage. In fact, at some hotels and massage centres in Abuja, ladies desirous of patronising the activities, are now conversant with such terms as massage alone, which required paying certain sums of money, ranging from N10,000 to N50,000 for a stipulated period for rendered service.
There is even a more popular one with an enticing name, “happy ending”, where ladies and men, interested in engaging in sexual activities after the massage, pay extra amount of money, sometimes double, to enjoy such benefits. Call it another way of prostitution, cases also abound at some massage centres, where men desirous of enjoying “happy ending,” equally pay extra amount of money to satisfy their emotional yearnings.
Investigations revealed that some men have not only become habitual with an insatiable curiosity for “happy ending” but are also confronted with its threat to their marriages. While some hotels and
or massage outfits, disturbed by the ugly tales of scandals involving the handlers of their outfits, have either shutdown the centre and gym department, others have mandatorily made them a same-
sex-affair.
For example, miffed by the scandal confronting its business, a foreign-owned massage outfit located in Wuse and Gwarimpa, in its desperation to remain in business, resolved recently that
massage must be strictly based on same sex.
Sexual harassment
For a middle-aged lady, Victoria, body massage and its related activities are disgusting to her.
The activities are nothing but a mild form of sexual harassment and emotional abuse.
Her narration: “I had given body massage a trial due to pressures and persuasions from friends. I registered with one of the big hotels in the heart of Abuja for a month’s duration of massage activities at weekends because of my office schedule. But after the first encounter with the massager, I never bothered to return there.
“Dressed in a very big towel, I laid face down on the massage table. I initially enjoyed the massage, but few minutes into the activity, he started fondling my breasts, making sexual overtures, thinking that I was carried away. He told me how attractive my breasts are, noting that unlike others, mine is very tempting.
“He did not stop there, as he started dipping his fingers inside me, I cautioned and asked him if that was also part of the massage, but he told me that most ladies would even prefer that.
“When his dick started rising almost uncontrollably, even after apologising to me, I intentionally played along with him until I saw he was fully ready for action. I had to jump out of the table, wrapping myself with the towel. He regained his sanity, knelt down and started pleading with me to save his job by not making formal complaint to his employers.”
This experience was certainly not peculiar with Victoria. She said months after her encounter, a lady friend insisted on a lady massager at a gym centre of another hotel in Abuja, only to discover that the lady massager attempted to abuse her sexually because she is a lesbian.
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No matter how weird the narratives might sound, what is incontrovertible is that Abuja residents interested in massage have one memories or the other to share.
For both sexes, their stories are replete with one form of sex or emotional abuse or the other. Males and females alike are not left out. The harassments come in equal proportions.
Francis, a massager, lamented to Daily Sun that he has been caught in the web of either quitting his job or continuing with an intimidating emotional abuses in the hands of ladies who are currently threatening his life:
“I had reported, I had protested to no end. It has now become obvious that it is either I continue with abuse to keep my job or quit to escape it. For instance, a particular nurse has formed a habit of demanding for sex after massage. Initially, it was fun, but when she now made it an almost everyday affair, I became uncomfortable.
“Since she is paying for it, the managers of the outfit didn’t want to take my emotions into consideration. Not even my threat to quit has changed the situation. The best I could get was the appeal to her to reduce the daily demand for ‘happy ending’.”
For Kelvin, a young man providing home massage services, the price of N10,000 remains non-negotiable whether the service is massage alone or “happy ending.”
He claimed to be reputed for a brand of massage activity that will satisfy his clients without necessarily demanding for “happy ending:”
“By the time I finish with the massage, you will be satisfied and won’t necessarily demand for sex again. However, if you are crazy about ‘happy ending,’ I can give you without charging additional
amount.
“The amount I charge is that much because I will apply massage oil and share-butter to your delight. The ointment will make you enjoy the massage and essentially climax without involving yourself in ‘happy ending’.”
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Another operator confessed that the abuse got to a crescendo that the management stopped accepting male customers. What broke the camel’s back according him, was when the case of a particular man abusing female massager on daily basis almost resulted into litigation: “The abuse became so bad that some men would insist on a certain lady massaging them unknown to the owners that they had struck a deal for the massage to climax into sexual activity.”