PUNCH
With the massage therapy industry booming in various cities across the country, many practitioners are frequently solicited and compelled into offering erotic favours in exchange for money by their numerous clients and they are often subjected to abuse if they decline, VICTOR AYENI writes.
As Gaiya Habila alighted from his car late evening of a certain day in April 2022, he looked around his surroundings to be sure he got the home address of his new client correctly.
A warm, gentle breeze unsettled the dust particles which paved the street in the Ungwan Rimi area of Kaduna State, as Habila knocked on his client’s gated entrance.
The 30-year-old, a professionally trained masseur, was no stranger to providing therapeutic techniques such as Swedish deep tissue, chair massages and aromatherapy on a home service basis.
But this time around, he drove down to the area in response to a night massage session booked by a lady who was probably in her late 30s or early 40s.
The booking had come late due to her busy schedule.
Yet, nothing prepared the native of Jaba Local Government Area of the state for the salacious twist to the service he was expected to render for the night.
Describing his experience to our correspondent, Habila said as he walked into the woman’s living room, she was seated on the sofa and grimaced in discomfort as she complained of shoulder and back aches.
He said, “She related with me officially when I got there and her complaints were quite normal given the nature of her work. I went on with the session and after about 25 minutes, I noticed she was asleep and snoring and I was happy.
“It was not until I was almost done with the massage that she suddenly blurted out to my surprise, ‘Is that’s all?’. I answered in the affirmative with a smile.
“In a seductive tone, she asked me to have sex with her because she was sexually aroused and promised to pay me more in exchange for it. I told her, ‘I am sorry, I don’t do happy endings’ and urged her not to be offended.
“But this woman kept on begging me for sex, saying my massage made her horny. I kept to my words of ‘no happy endings,’ and she eventually accepted, paid me, but never called me again.”
Due to the gender restrictions and the fact that some clients prefer masseuses (female) to masseurs (males), Habila usually gets an average of three to six massage bookings in a month, sometimes less.
Interestingly, during his interview with Saturday PUNCH, he complained that in the three years since he started the business, he had received more sexual advances from male clients than female clients.
He recalled an experience in which he was booked for a late evening session by a client.
When he arrived at the man’s place on Birnin Gwari Street, Barnawa, he warmly welcomed him with a toothy smile.
“I was shown a place to set up and I proceeded. During the session, he asked me to masturbate him straight up and I told him respectfully, ‘I am sorry, I don’t do that.’ His countenance changed and he said he won’t pay the agreed amount because he wanted what he described as a complete package.
“I explained that it wasn’t what we agreed on but he insisted, so I finished the session without the hand job and he gave me a part payment. I could tell that he wasn’t pleased but I just smiled and left,” he stated.
On another occasion, it was suggested that Habila would have to sexually pleasure a group of men.
He said, “I got booked by this client in Ungwan Rimi and we agreed on a location and price. So, I prepared and arrived there in the nick of time. When I got there, I was surprised to meet a group of four guys in his house and the man that booked me introduced them as his friends. So, I was a bit relaxed.
“But as I was about to start, he asked, ‘Hope there will be a happy ending?’ I told him ‘no’. I noticed the negative reactions on his friends’ faces, and one of them asked me again, ‘So, you mean you don’t give happy endings?’ I repeated, ‘Yes, I don’t’ and continued setting up my equipment. The client then said if I won’t give them happy endings I should leave his residence, and I did.”
A wild pursuit of happiness
According to the slang terms section of Dictionary.com, “a happy ending is a massage that starts with the usual full-body rubdown but ends with a sex act,” usually masturbation or oral sex.
For decades, body massage has been regarded by experts as offering health benefits such as improving blood circulation, reducing anxiety, lowering stress hormones and increasing the happiness hormone in the body.
However, many men and women who flock to massage parlors seek another layer of bodily happiness – sexual favours offered by masseurs or masseuses in exchange for money.
A 2018 study by the non-profit Polaris Project estimated that the illicit massage industry in the United States of America generates about $2.5bn in revenue a year.
Although definitive data on the beauty spa and massage business industry in Nigeria do not exist, it has become a thriving and ubiquitous enterprise for many youths across the country.
Far from operating in stripping malls and dingy backrooms, as it was decades ago, nowadays, massage therapists may not need to wait all day for their clients to visit beauty spas in bustling cities.
With the appurtenances of the Internet, they could be part-time students or workers, full-time mobile professionals, or simply operate from under the various shades of anonymity provided by social media.
Findings by our correspondent show that dozens of personal and company accounts on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram, offer body massage services with the extra thrill of happy endings.
However, several other therapists add caveats to their posts and fliers, notifying their potential customers that they do not offer any form of sexual favours.
Creepy clients, spiked drink
A Lagos-based mobile massage therapist and nail technician, Fasiat Busari, got her certifications in body massage in 2019 and introduced this to her beauty services.
Following this disclosure to the public, she began to receive inquiries from potential clients if she also offered erotic side perks.
Speaking with Saturday PUNCH, Busari said she decided to state a ‘no-happy ending’ clause on her social media bio-data and reiterate it every time an intending client reached out to her.
