Night Life in Ibadan: My Exploration in The Ancient City

By Fẹmi Ojo

My inside life journey to explore the amazing night life in the brown roofs' City (Ibadan) started with my decision to hang out with a new set of friends I just made. 
After a couple of invites, on this fateful Friday,  I decided  to take Tobi (not the real name ) round the city as he was new in Ibadan.

We began the expedition from House 25, a cool hang out/ lounge located at a very coded region of Old Bodija Ibadan.

I had earlier called my homie from way back ( that is, my childhood friend) Kay - a guy who I can boldly say was  "street"  to know where the evening was set to start .

After Kay had relayed how he had spent the productive hours of the day, we agreed to meet at the aforementioned location. 

We had some chat, met some new dudes (Kay’s pals) then Tobi showed up with some of his friends who are media guys from Lagos. 

We exchanged pleasantries and some introduction was done at least to get to know each other. Cool guys, I must confess.  Pranks were played while we talked about work, street hustle and the like. We also took time definitely to talk about marriage and how boys , sorry I mean men have being balancing family life with the street (definitely your thought might be right).

After we had kept some bottles silent at our first location, the five of us decided to leave for another joint (GQ) at about 10:40pm. That was where the sixth guy (the conference guy) joined us.

He talked about his work, his boss, the media jobs he has done ( some profitable , some not) and how men have outsmarted each other, apologies were made while friends laughed at the mistakes and we moved on.

The bartender was called to calculate the bill for the bottles gentle men had canceled, then we headed straight to the club in the same building at 12:45am.

At that time, I knew I wasn’t going home again ( this was when I recalled it's two and half years I last spent the night outside my home).

We had dancers of both genders dressed in club  outfit satisfying the quest for fun with their dance steps, some dancing around the poles in the club, while others who came in pairs did the two can do the dance thing,  while those who came in groups had their fellow party people dance around them .

Then the pretty bartenders all dressed in white popped up with a price list of the club drink, extremely expensive as usual , we scrolled through the list and decided we had already had enough to drink for the night, so we declined.

We later moved to the executive section of the club to have a clearer view of what was happening , then my friends from Lagos announced it was time to call it a day at around 1:30am. 
We hailed each other as Borbors Twale themselves inside life, then they left.

Already, I knew going home wasn’t an option, so my niggie, Kay suggested we go to another hangout. Interestingly I was eager to, then he said "there are places in Bodija you never knew existed", and inquisitively I asked, 'tell me more'.

So he told me 'let’s drive down the road', which we did. About 10 minutes from Platinum Club, he alighted  and I followed suit. Lo and behold, it was a strip club.

I have never being to one before, so I exclaimed.  My dude spoke the normal language to the bouncers, sorted them and we were in.

The scene was totally different from where we were coming from: Darker room, lots of club sparkling lights hovering around, with the typical club chairs at strategic corners of the hall.

What caught my fancy at first when we entered was the huge number of whites, probably expatriate seated there. Definitely we had some of our people also in attendance all feeding their eyes with the magical acrobatic display by the professionals. The ladies (I mean stripers), were pulling stunts, doing what they know how to do best, jumping up and down the swing pole.

Every guest was treated specially, having gotten to locate the place amongst commercial buildings in an area which used to be a region for the so called elites in the brown roofs' city , I guess was a criteria needed to be considered as special.

The dolls went up to each new customer that came  through, exchange pleasantries, ask for what you care to drink and tell you once you make an order and supply is made, they automatically  become your guest. By this I mean ,you are given a complimentary lap dance  but if you want something much exquisite, you will have to pay a token depending on how long and the exact escapades you want.

I actually had a taste of the experience, as my friend sure did fix me up with an average size 7 doll, who came over, asked me some naughty questions while she touched my nipple and later went down (your thought definitely is wrong).

But at this time , instead of flowing with the whole activities, I became more inquisitive about their dealing ( I meanhe dolls) with their every day customers.

While she played her role , I politely asked her questions like  how do you cope with customers who make orders but don’t pay , do you always end up having sex with these customers? Do you do it raw? (Like flesh to flesh), What does it cost? Do you actually do it here while the whole Lap dance is actually happening? I asked these and some others questions.

Responding to me , she calmly answered my question with innocent look on her face: “yes , we actually give our customers a one of kind treat that makes them come back again and again". She further disclosed to me that they keep their bodies safe by using protection when the clubbers who are ready to pay for the services request for LAMBA, but in a different section of the club.
We both laughed at each other while she continued to give me all she’s got (fill in the gap yourself).

As a curious person, due to my profession, I looked around, observing all that was going on as different people came in , some dudes with their beibs,  some of the beibs who popped in hurriedly left may be disgusted at the performance I think , While some enjoyed the show and waited as long as they wanted to.

I also noticed that the club had this giant Television hanged on the wall, you -could imagine what was being televised for our viewing pleasure to compliment the real drama happening inside life in real life. 
Actually I must confess it was an heck of an experience.

We decided to call it a day at some minutes to 5am and bid the joint good bye for now.

However, What I have observed in my whole expedition is that, Ibadan from coast to coast has greatly evolved  entertainment wise  particularly the night life aspect from what it used to be some years back when I really was into the clubbing thingy.

The Ring Road axis now plays host to various hang out, meaning one might not be able to exhaust all the clubs on this axis if decided to start from Mobil Junction down to Challenge , same is the situation at the Awolowo axis of Bodija, Akala express / Oluyole extension, and the Bashorun /Akobo axis is also not left behind.

All this means that the state definitely has a sector, which if really nurtured and groomed well will outrightly become a gold mine for Oyo State economy.

I sign out. 


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