Hello, Mr. Big Stuff. Are you one of the many male prostitutes that spoon off the female politicians in government or top bankers without husbands or the big time lace and jewellery traders in the heart of Lagos Island? This week, let's beam our searchlight on the male opportunists and the female predators who pay their bills.

They spoon off both rich and not-so-rich women. You will find them in the top echelons of society. They are also well placed in government and private business circles. In our churches and mosques, they are quite esteemed. Most of them occupy the front rows. They are gigolos and they are on the increase.

There is a prominent female senator whose stock-in-trade is to pay younger men to 'service' her. Indeed one of her steadiest gigolos has become quite a bit of a popular hunk on the screen as he stars in series of Nollywood movies. He thrives best as a gangster or spoilt brat. Oh yes, gigolos are pampered harlots in male skin and they outnumber the growing hordes of homosexuals in our society.

Imagine this Internet advert: "Men Required: Registration, Work, Bodyguard, Companion, Model, and Chauffeur. Please take note when deciding which package you require as there will be an administrative set-up fee required. Recruiting in all areas of the United Kingdom & Ireland. If you are interested in a career as one of our exclusive escorts, please fill in our application below. We will contact you promptly."

The mess that really caught my attention is the innocuous sentence that holds a stunning revelation: "We urgently require male escorts across the whole of the UK. Some areas such as Glasgow and Lagos are showing the most recent growth in demand." Lagos, Nigeria is already on the world map of homosexuality and now, it ranks atop the list of gigolo spots too!

Gigolo, according to the Oxford Advanced Learner's Dictionary is "a man who is paid to be the lover of an older woman, usually one who is rich." This simple but rather technical definition of the word, which tries to clean out the filth and debasement attached to the lifestyle of a gigolo. It calls him a lover rather than the prostitute that he obviously is.

This definition seemingly leaves out any man that offers similar 'lover services' to a younger woman even if he gets paid good cash doing the yeoman's job. Come to think of it, a gigolo has to get it up somehow all through the night as long as his 'client' wants and is paying for it, even if he'd rather fall asleep or do it with a girl half her age.

Perhaps it is primarily because of gigolos, whose equipment must stay awake even when they are half asleep, that sex drugs like Viagra were made. The burning truth, however is that once you are offering sexual favours to an older woman or a teenager in exchange for gratification (either in cash or kind), you are a gigolo.

According to Wikipedia, the online encyclopedia, male prostitution is the sale of sexual services by a male prostitute (commonly called a "hustler" or "rentboy", with either male or female clients. The gender of a male prostitute's sexual partner or the sexual act that he and the client participate in may not indicate a prostitute's sexual orientation. In other words, a hustler may be homosexual, transexual, heterosexual or bisexual.

Same-sex male prostitution has been found in all advanced cultures. In the ancient world, the practice of "sacred prostitution" (the selling of sexual favours by men or women in sacred shrines) is attested to in the Old Testament. In Ancient Greece, prostitutes were generally slaves or freed men. Ancient Greece and Ancient Rome both saw the existence of male brothels.

In the Medieval Islamic world, work as a same-sex male prostitute was similarly restricted to social "inferiors" (boys, slaves), while frequenting prostitutes were considered a sin, the practice was nevertheless tolerated.

Here is more on cross-cultural and historical male prostitution:

BACCH¡ - in northern Turkic-speaking areas of Central Asia, an adolescent of 12 to 16, who was a performer of erotic songs and suggestive dancing and was available as a sex worker.

HIJRA - in the Indian subcontinent, a heterosexual or transvestite, who may enter into prostitution.

JINETERISMO - literally "horse jockey" (i.e. someone who "rides" tourists); a term used to describe Cuban male prostitutes (female prostitutes are called "jinetera") who play a large role in Cuba's booming tourist industry.

KAGEMA - young male prostitutes in Japan whose clients were largely adult men.

K÷«EK -in Ottoman Empire culture, very handsome young male rakkas, "dancers," usually dressed in feminine attires, employed as entertainers and sex workers.

TELLAK -masseurs/sex works in Turkish hammams.

SANKY-PANKY - a male sex worker in the Gambia and Caribbean Islands who solicits on beaches and has clients of both sexes.

This decade has seen explosive growth in the male escort industry everywhere in the world with the demand driven mainly by career-oriented women who do not have the time for relationships but have the money and desire for male escorts! Major online services now offer free searching on male escorts across the world; a pitiful development for MAN-kind.

Imagine a Nigerian magazine and scream: "We urgently require male escorts; earn N50,000 a night". I imagine that quite a few virile guys would mull over it; something like,"I am a handsome, single guy; I may as well get paid for my services rather than do things for free." Yeah, that exactly was how almost every female prostitute found herself pounding the streets for harsh cash. It starts as "It's better to make cool, easy cash, instead of giving sex for free as I'm now doing it."

Abosede, a 45-year-old Nigerian female cashier in a big mall in London recently confessed to sending an email to a mail escorts' website contact - incidentally to a Zimbabwean: "Are you sure you will escort me to the dinner in Essex tonight... Oh, I have never done this before and I hate to make mistakes because I am very nervous".

The growth in demand for male escorts is being driven in part typically by professional females looking for company and excitement. Unfortunately, the Nigerian society is fast changing for the worst; socio-politically empowered women are taking more control and they can and will pay for male companionship! Are you sure you are not already a bought husband, live-in-lover, ceremonial escort or worse still, the typical wham-bam-thank-you-ma'am paid dick-head?

In same-sex male prostitution, participants may engage in a variety of sexual acts based on the client's desire and sexual orientation. Although some prostitutes may restrict the clients, restrictions often fall when the price of the service increases. Financial incentives may be the primary reason that gigolos engage in this work, but they are by no means the only reasons. Hustling may also confer on the hustler a perverse sense of self-worth (when he feels desired by the client) or of social status (when treated to expensive restaurants or travel destinations) or in some cases, erotic gratification or of societal rebellion (breaking social conventions) or plain mystery. Conversely, some prostitutes may also experience a sense of self-destructiveness or exploitation or difficulty in distancing private sex from commercial sex or suffer from the social stigma of hustling.

Few prostitutes in Nigeria rely exclusively on sex for their income. Some prostitutes supplement their income by work as pornographic actors or models (and vice-versa), nude models, massage therapists and burlesque dancers or by performing in orgies. Other prostitutes have jobs entirely unrelated to the sex industry.

The same complexity of motives may underlie the justifications of the gigolo's client. Although sexual gratification is often a primary motive, the client may also be moved by many emotional concerns (including issues related to sexual orientation, power and emotional attachment, their own age and attractiveness) as well as needs for special treatment like fetish, sadism, humiliation. The clients in male prostitution are not exclusively older gay men. Typical clients include married men, businessmen, inexperienced gay men, gay men looking for sex and couples (gay and straight).

Some male clients (especially men who identify as 'straight') may prefer escorts, who are cross-dressers or pre-operative transsexuals and transwomen ("she-males").

Open male prostitution with male clients is still poorly tolerated in Nigeria - thank God - but there is a growing concern about the renewed aggression of all kinds of perverts - homosexuals, pimps (and soon gigolos) who crave societal acceptance of the aberration they unabashedly call a lifestyle.

Up north and in cultures where a young man's access to women is strictly prohibited before marriage, sexual perversion is expectedly rampant. Little wonder that we now have gay bishops endorsing and solemnising same sex marriages and rich adults paying heavily for gay mates. The tolerance, reduced price and exoticism of male prostitution in other countries lead some clients to engage in sexual tourism. Male prostitution in urban centres is also an outlet for economically and socially disadvantaged individuals, including immigrants.

Clients and male sex workers match up in several ways. Male sex workers are often referred to by different names based on where they find their clients. Men working on the street, in bathhouses, or parks are typically known as "hustlers"; men working in bars are called "bar hustlers".

Men advertising for clients in the print media or via the Internet are typically known as "escorts," "massage/masseurs," or "rent boys." All over the world, the number of street workers (hustlers) has been declining with the advent of Internet-based resources, but the need for quick cash by homeless or poor men guarantees the continued availability of street hustlers across the country. God help us.