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Can Susan ever get free from debt, giving her present relationship with her captors?



Susan (not real name) finished secondary school at 16 years as a bright, lively and beautiful student in the village. Her Italy-based relative, Aunty Stella (not real name), entices her with the show of wealth, cars, clothes, shoes and a big house. So Susan begged to join Aunty Stella in Italy, so she can be as successful as Aunty Stella. Eventually, Aunty Stella took Susan to Lagos for shopping and eventually to her heavily guarded compound in Italy. On getting to Italy, Auntie Stella convinced Susan to temporarily join other sex workers in their sex work. This will enable her to make some money to pay off the money spent for her travelling arrangements and become free from debt.



Auntie Stella would hand Susan over to her rich sex-hunting-male-customers and collect the pay on Susan’s behalf. Days turned to weeks, months and years, yet Susan’s debt for coming, feeding and clothing in Italy is never cleared. Susan does not know how much Auntie Stella collects on her sex-service, nor how much remains for her freedom. Auntie Stella claims that the debt is still increasing because of Susan’s ‘expensive’ feeding, clothing, medical treatment and pastor’s visit. Auntie Stella diplomatically refused to teach Susan any other skill for self-sustenance, so that Susan will have nothing else to offer than sex.



‘Kwuo-ugwo-I-ji-ka-I-nwere-onwe-gi’ is an Igbo adage that expresses the bitter bondage of living in debt. (Pay your debt and have peace). The debt bondage becomes worse when your creditor is stronger than you and can manipulate other factors of your debts. Factors like the account and record of debt, the commodity, terms, conditions and mode of payment. A stronger or ‘smarter’ creditor will continuously manipulate the conditions of your debts, making it evermore-difficult to become free from debt. Buying your freedom may eventually end like Barca’s fatal freedom from the Lanista house of Batiatus in the movie, Spartacus. http://spartacus.wikia.com/wiki/Barca



INTERLUDE

As wayward-sex-hunters use close-relatives to exploit the beauty of naïve girls, so do foreign companies use African representatives to exploit African resources. Using machine-guns, colonial masters seized and controlled African lands and resources, and forced Africans to pay taxes until their exit at independence. When leaving, the colonialists brought loans for building infrastructure to extract and transport African crude resources to the Western markets. The African representatives failed to train their citizens to build these infrastructures and to utilize the resources for their society. http://restartnaija.com/2017/07/25/nigerian-youth-truly-unemployable/ Instead, they paid-back the loans to the same colonialists to build the infrastructures, to exploit and to sell African resources.


In taking loans and paying for foreign infrastructure and consumable goods, African representatives divert huge amounts of the loans. Now, many African representatives enjoy the business of obtaining loans and paying with people’s resources because of transaction cuts. The loans are given by the colonialists at high interest rates, and also paid back to colonialists at inflated price. Then, the African countries have nothing to give but their mineral resources in payment for the loans.





SUSAN’S TOUCHING STORY CONTINUES…



Susan may have more than three options to become free from debt.



She could continue praying, fasting and paying pastors’-tithes, so that Aunty Stella’s accounting style will magically reset for her freedom. Even if she becomes free from debt, what will she be doing to sustain her acquired lifestyle in Italy? She has no savings and has not acquired any skill apart from sex? (Selling away her mineral resources). Where will she go to, and who will support or empower her without asking for the same sex?



Second, Susan could continue in the business until her youthful beauty and freshness has depreciated to no value. When she has lost all her youthful beauty and freshness, the wayward-sex-hunters will no more find her attractive. Then they will allow her to go and struggle to die, reform or repackage her life. Will she be able to repackage herself when her youthful innocence and beauty have been plundered by Aunty Stella’s sex-hunting-collaborators? Will she get anybody to help her patch up her dilapidated body after so much sexual assault?



Third, Susan could run to a human-rights agency, who will assist to negotiate her freedom from Aunty Stella’s house. Then she will be able to decide what to do with her body apart from sex. She can decide to develop her knowledge or skills in sports, fashion, music, arts, physiotherapy, nursing, medicine, etc. When she learns a skill, then she can earn some money and gradually pay off Aunty Stella’s collaborators.



I am not talking about Nigeria today ooh, nor about any other African country; Also Aunty Stella does not depict Nigerian or African government who incur unending loans in the name of the society. I am only talking about Susan my teenage crush. Please if you have a better suggestion for my dear Susan, kindly drop your comment box below. I am going tell her the next time we speak on phone abeg. If you understand any other thing from this passage apart from Susan, kindly discuss with your intelligent friends abeg. I no follow to look again.

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