A
strip or nude club is an adult entertainment venue or a night club
where stripteases or other erotic or exotic dances are regularly
performed. A strip club is run like a night club or bar, but it
can also adopt a theater or cabaret form.
This club, no doubt is gradually making its way into many towns and
cities in Nigeria and with increasing patronage by different sets of
people.
Efforts by various governments, especially the Lagos State
government to rid towns and cities of these strip clubs have met a
brick wall as the operators of such businesses are back with little or
no moderation to the usual practice.
The government, while attempting to bring a little sanity to the
city’s night life once raided the strip clubs in the Ikeja axis of
Lagos State and arrested the strippers. But the operators reacted by
charging the government to court.
This incident generated a lot of issues and divided the public who held different opinions on the business.
Investigations carried out recently revealed that the operators of
strip clubs are back in business and are carrying out activities
there in a manner which obviously gives them an edge over ordinary
night clubs in terms of patronage.
Scattered all over Lagos mainland are strip/nude clubs like Cazz
bar, Club Unique, Wall Street bar, Cave Exclusive and Ocean Blue.
A visit to the Cazz bar on Opebi road, Ikeja on a Friday night was an experience always fresh in the mind of these reporters.
After paying an entrance fee of N3,000.00 one is entitled to enjoy
the ambience where most of the strippers are beautiful white girls
‘imported’ into the country to entertain and meet the audience’s
different needs.
The girls who have their bodies scantily covered with g-string
pants and bras took a pole-dancing position and when charged, they
discarded of the scanty clothings on them and danced naked performing
also the lap-dance for any patron who was willing to give them a tip.
Further investigations revealed that there is a VIP section where you
pay an entrance fee of N10,000.00 which entitles you to have
anything on demand free.
The Cazz bar regulation states that a patron who is willing to go
home with one of its strippers will wait till 5:000 a.m (which is the
closing time) and pay the management while leaving his phone number and
address for security reasons.
At the Cazz Bar it is stated that each of the strippers collects N75,000.00 per week excluding accommodation and feeding.
The practice at the Cave Exclusive in GRA, Ikeja is a little different compared to that of Cazz Bar.
At the Cave Exclusive, the entrance fee is N5,000.00. What makes the
operations of Cave Exclusive different from others is that not only
that the strippers are scantily clad, the bar attendants who are
mostly ladies move around and attend to patrons in their underwears.
The
environment speaks sex and you won’t fail to catch a glimpse of
couples engaged in one sexual act or the other and with no damn
given to prying eyes.
One of the attendants who spoke to the reporters claimed she wasn’t
initially aware that the rule is that attendants also will work in
their underwears. she said she discovered this on her first day at work
and that she was planning to quit anytime from now as she wasn’t
comfortable with the practice.
On further questioning, she claimed her take-home pay in a month is
N25,000.00 and she feels she shouldn’t be subjected to such a
treatment for that amount as customers are free to touch and make
passes at her, while the management expects her to smile back at
them.
The Cave Exclusive which has been running for over three years
records a huge patronage on Fridays as fun-seekers throng the hangout to
enjoy what they offer.
The operation in other strip bars is not different and it attracts
patrons who are willing to part with any amount of money as long as they
are satisfied.
Strip and nude bar operation is said to have started in Lagos in the
90’s. Then, some hangouts in Apapa used to bring in ladies who were
used in meeting the sexual needs of European sailors who often
visited the hangout while on trips to Lagos.
The operation gradually gained ground and has now become fully rooted with quite a large number of nightclubs in existence.
A trip round the city of Lagos revealed that virtually every nook
and cranny of this city has this strip and nude club due to the
commercial gains derived from them.
Teenagers and young ladies see the club as an avenue to make money not considering the consequences of their action.
It was also gathered that top businessmen and politicians catch fun,
but they choose to do that in hangouts that operate strictly by
membership.
A strip bar owner in Lagos is said to rake in between N5m and N10m every month depending on the location and patronage.
A usual strip club is open everyday for business, but has Wednesdays and Fridays as its special days.
Many had thought that the Lagos state government would win the battle
to curb, if not stop this business, while some opine that it’s a
business that has come to stay whether the government likes it or not.
