Sex and the City
A city finds peace in its night clubs despite years of political turbulence
By Chinweoke Obi
Girls dance the rumba smoothly under blazing music from stereo
systems powered by diesel generators. In the more daring night
clubs, the girls are naked; they peel off their clothes and coyly
tease the men to unfathomed arousal. Then amidst the large number of
empty bottles of alcohols and the gluttonous bite at spicy fried
pieces of meat or any of Nigeria’s famous pepper soup, sex triumphs
as in all nights. This is not Las Vegas or the red lights of Europe.
This is Awka.
There are no neon lights here like in Las Vegas or Dubai. The
streets are not all paved. In Awka, capital of Anambra State, south
east Nigeria, potholes and dusty lanes are common sights though the
politicians claimed to be building roads everyday. They have been
making the claims since 1999 when Nigeria returned to the polls to
put a civilian back to power. The testimonies of failures are in
Awka as they are in Lagos, the country’s commercial capital, and in
Ibadan, south west Nigeria, touted as Africa’s largest indigenous
city and several other Nigerian cities where craters and unlit
streets define eight years of democratic rule.
But Awka is also the warring field where political iconoclasts have
gone on misadventure to put an illegitimate government in power for
nearly three years through gerrymandering; unseat a reigning
governor for two days through bloody antics, until they finally got
cowed through the power of the law courts which installed the
legitimate government of Mr. Peter Obi, astute banker and former
chief executive officer of Fidelity Bank.
Peter Obi has been in power for nearly three years through the
ruling of the courts. But he has had to contend with endless
conflicts which make the rustic but urban setting of Awka one of the
most politically charged cities in Nigeria. The godfathers are
restless in Awka. They seek for power and the control of economic
resource in this state where one of Literature greatest icons was
born: Chinua Achebe, the master storyteller. He penned the immortal
works Things Fall Apart and the other two novels Arrow of God, and A
Man of the People that make up the trilogy depicting Africa through
colonial history to its immediate past after the departure of its
colonial masters.
Peter Obi put the judicial system to test after the 2003
governorship election in the state which rigged him out of power and
installed the favourite of the godfathers. The court gave Obi his
mandate two years after and well after the turbulence in the house
of the godfathers had split the political family of the ruling
party. Obi is from the opposition party.
In the night clubs in Awka, they talk about the political crises,
the court battles, the violence by political gangs, the obstinacy of
Peter Obi, the recalcitrance of the state legislative house
dominated by the party of the godfathers, and the snail speed at
which development is taking place. Politics and social entertainment
mixed very well at nights in Awka. In a state that has gained
notoriety for its violence and stagnant growth, sex and nightly
drinking binge seem natural pastime to ease stress and tell the
godfathers Hark!
Small town Awka has very few developed commercials centres, nearby
Onitsha owns that glory as one of Nigeria’s most thriving commercial
cities. Awka is largely populated by civil servants, students of the
Nnamdi Azikiwe University, and traders from the thriving markets in
Onitsha who make up patrons of the more than ten hotels, about four
night clubs and numerous highlife joints that feed on the generosity
and violence of the politicians many of whom have their base in far
away Abuja where Nigeria’s political wheel is oiled.
The night clubs and hotels offer some economic strength to Awka;
daily the city invites crawlers from neighboring towns wanting some
gist, dance, drink, music and girls. Inside the highlife joints, Rex
Lawson with other godfathers of Nigerian highlife music is
resurrected by budding and old artists still figuring out how to
produce the much elusive hits. If dancing won’t come easily, you
could mesmerize your taste buds with the local cuisine; the famous
goat meat pepper soup or the much popular ‘Nkwobi.’
Almost all major hotels have their own clubs including old schools,
where you listen and dance to oldies. The big attractions are the
strip clubs; girls strips to nudity, mimics sexual scenes on the
floor while pornographic films unreel from the big screen. Patrons
move in and out of nearby dim-lit rooms to burn off the orgy.
The clubs open from Wednesdays through Sundays. They are patronized
mostly by politicians, traders and students. The entry fee to watch
girls strip is not so high. For less than $60 you have all the night
to feed your eyes on naked bodies and also have raw sex on the
bargain. Not so high a price. But for the majority of the civil
servants in town, it amounts to a 15-day wage. The politicians and
traders are not completely part of the depressed economy here. The
economy is bad but not so bad to get cheap sex from retinue of
students, fun-loving girls and prostitutes mostly from far off
locations such as Benin, Asaba, Enugu and Port Harcourt. For them,
Awka may be all rust and craters and a place where politicians pull
the trigger at will. But it is also one place where you could have
fun with some peace of mind.
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