Prostitution Rife On Legon Campus

...50% Are Engaged In It

The dream of the average parent is to educate his or her ward to the highest academic level and also to morally train him or her adequately to make them responsible citizens in future, so that in event of sickness or old age, the parent can rely on his investment in the children to survive till he or she meets his Maker.

Unfortunately, however, investigation by the Ghanaian Observer newspaper (GO) have revealed that student involvement in prostitution has become rife, with a section of students from the University of Ghana interviewed claiming that about 50% of female students in Ghana`s premier university caught Legon, are involved in what is now known as ‘Professional Prostitution`.

According to our investigations, these students, most of whom in the very near future will be taking up weighty and influential positions in public institutions as well as the nation`s growing private sector, have sunken so low in morals that some of them even have their names, contact numbers and pictures pasted in some well known hotels in the country. That is intended by the individual `applicant` to respond to any request from hotels to come down and perform `night duties` for professional fees.

Our investigations also revealed that most of these students whose parents are not aware of their involvement in such soliciting are those who dress flamboyantly to lectures and extramural programmes, regardless of their religious upbringing. These students who have been labelled `professional prostitutes` own properties which their parents are not even aware of, including houses, cars and small businesses.

Cars belonging to some of such students, according to some of their own colleagues, are sometimes parked with friends when the universities go down for vacation. Strangely it is some of these students who are also involved in the shameful sex for money act in pornographic businesses like the Esewani Productions exposed by GO a few weeks ago. GO was told that student prostitutes engage in those shameless acts when they get the opportunity to travel outside the country during vacations.

Speaking to some students on the issue, they decried the new craze of prostitution on our campuses. Miss Akua Asantewaah, a level 300 Political Science student of the University of Ghana admitted that such a thing exists on campus but lamented that the few students involved are bringing the good name of the students into disrepute. She added that when such a picture is presented of our students to foreign students, who are admitted at the institution, it carves a very sorry and bad image of the university and the country as a whole.

According to Becky Sowatey, a former student of the University of Ghana, this behaviour on the part of some of the students is a disgrace to the universities and also the society. She admitted that, whilst she was at the university, some of the students used to involve themselves in disgraceful acts of immorality, though not on the same scale as currently prevalent at our nation`s tertiary institutions.

She lamented that; if care is not taken, all female students in the universities would be branded or tagged as prostitutes. Above all, certificates and testimonials from the universities would not be given the recognition it deserves, especially by employers, since the temptation on the part of the employer to think certificates were obtained with sex would be great. Another student who identified herself simply as Mary, stated that those involved in such acts are those who tend to have little regard for their dignity and their education. According to her, some of these students, most of whom are from `good` homes enter into prostitution due to peer pressure.

'Some of our colleagues want to be seen in new dresses everyday; they want to be seen in cars; and the only way they can afford this is to offer their bodies for illicit pleasure, in order to afford that extravagant lifestyle` she stated. One of the female students, reacting to the internet pornography story, argued that she did not have any problem with it. She admitted that, even though it could tarnish the image of the nation, she still felt it could create employment for those who found it difficult to get jobs.

Another respondent pointed out that she did not think that the ladies in the pornographic movies were from Ghana, even though they spoke fluent Twi; she believed that some deviants are just trying to destroy the image of Ghanaian ladies. She stated that she has watched the particular pornographic movies to verify things for herself and was convinced that the ladies are not Ghanaian. Another student interviewed said she was very surprised about the story, saying that considering the cultural values underpinning traditional society in Ghana, `it will make Ghanaian men have an evil perception about Ghanaian ladies.`

A gentleman who was interviewed also said the spectre of Twi-speaking Ghanaian ladies engaged in pornography on the internet is an affront to Ghanaian culture. He said he is surprised that Ghanaians, after all the moral standards taught and practiced in the average Ghanaian home, are getting involved in such an outrageous occupation as pornography.