Informal Settlement and Teenage Prostitution in Yenagoa, Bayelsa State, Nigeria

Informal settlement which sometimes used as synonym of slum, has over the years led to various social problems such as prostitution and many others. Base on this, the paper examined informal settlement and teenage prostitution in Yenagoa, Bayelsa State. Two objectives were raised as guide to the study. The study area is Yenagoa which is the capital city of Bayelsa State. The study used the survey design, and also adopted primary and secondary sources. 150 respondents constituted the population size and purposive sampling technique was also adopted. Mean and standard deviation and t-test constitutes the method for data analysis. The findings revealed that urban slum settlement and poor family background are responsible for teenage prostitution in Yenagoa. The study concludes and recommends for urban renewal programme for the slum dwellers as well as government and other institution even individuals to embark on economic empowerment programmes for slum dwellers.


Introduction
Informal settlement, over the years has remained a permanent feature of most cities. This is irrespective of whether the city is in third world or developed country. It is essentially a product of or a pointer to the existence of inequality. This phenomenon is more prevalence in third world nations. United Nations (2003) Habitat report reveal that about 33% of urban population in developing countries live in sum and that the highest percentage of this (approximately 62%) live in slum area. This report equally report that the total number of urban slum dwellers will increase to about two billion if no meaningful or joint efforts are made to address the phenomenon. Its emergence in most cities in the world, especially in Africa according to Livinus, Tamunomiete and Yiinu (2009) signify that slums constitute crucial dements in contemporary urbanization issues.
As observed by McManu (2020) informal settlements are slums and that over the years, its spread have grown. Using Port Harcourt as its study, the study claimed that its providence is due to migration of people to the city for the purpose of working for job opportunities. Slums are phenomenal and it constitutes a product of failed planning policies and lack of political will to improve conditions of slum dwellers. Given this overview, slum area is mainly peopled by low income earners. Such land lack security of tenure; access to improved water, poor sanitation and are exposed to multiple health and security problems. It is this general drive for meaningful economic life that informs the emergence of slum. As predominantly poor residential area, Childslumz-school (2019) described children who reside in this area as vulnerable children. On this basis, slums areas breed criminality and harbor delinquent offenders (Omole and Owoeye, 2011). That is, slums are breeding ground for majority of social problems in the cities. Omole and Owoeye (2011) claimed that an informal settlement provides hideout for criminal gangsters. It is on this basis that most urban renewal programmes are predicated on. In support of this, Njoku and Okoro (2014) argue that high criminal rate inform the use of alcoholism, psychological issues making suicide common in urban slum. This relationship therefore makes this work imperative.

The problem
Generally, informal settlement, also called slum or unplanned settlement is not limited to developing countries. It is a reaction of people towards not just unavailability of housing, but affordability of existing houses. It is a function of rapid urban growth. This phenomenon, according to United Nations Habitat Development Context and Millennium Agenda (2002), about 2 billion people will be living in such informal settlement by 2030 if major changes are not made in urban management policies. Critical in slum prevalence in urban environment is that slums especially in Nigeria are attributed to rural -urban migration for job opportunities (Ebakpa and Brisiba, 2019). According to these scholars, slum or informal settlement play crucial role in the urban scenery and have the potential of housing the poor due to its affordability and availability.
In the context of unplanned settlement's attributes, very low income people live there. This over time has become the basis why Nubi (2015), Ekpenyong, Nyenge and Mathias (2019) claimed that slum communities are veritable breeding grounds for criminality. Ekpenyong and Mathias (2019) study of urban slums and youth criminality in Bayelsa State Nigeria: A study of selected slum settlements in Yenagoa metropolis confirms that there is high incidence of youth criminality in Yenegoa slums. Among the deviant acts observed are prostitution, steeling and robbery. These scholars also established that residence dire poor economic condition coupled with moral breakdown and the lack of visible law is critical elements in the existence of the observed delinquent acts.
Similar studies by Bodo (2019) confirm that prostitution constitutes one of the vices in typical Nigeria city and that it is caused by massive rural -urban migration. Reaffirming these scholars work, Azibasuam (2019) in a related study established that Yenegoa, just like any other Nigeria cities have slums: Obele, Gwegwe, hospital junction, Tombia and that many more are still springing up. The scholar observed that in these slums brother, beer parlors, restaurants and guest houses within the slum attract quite a number of teenagers and adolescents who usually hang around the premises in an attempt to find clients as a means of raising quick money to meet up with the day to day social realities of life.

Objectives of the Study
 To establish if the existence of slum provide a natural cover for teenagers' involvement in prostitution.  To establish if teenagers' involvement in prostitution, is related to their poor family background.

Area of the Study
Yenagoa is the capital of Bayelsa State, Nigeria. The primary economic activity of the residence is fishing and business. The city becomes administrative capital of Bayelsa in 1996 on the creation of the state by General Sanni Abacha. The city is bounded by Mbiama communities of Rivers State in the North and East by Kolokoma/Opokuma Local Government on the West (Idoko, 2016). As a local government, it comprises of twenty one communities. Its population size, according to 2010 National population commission report is about 352, 285. Yenegoa has an equatorial type of climate. The monthly temperature is 25 0 C to 31 0 C (Idoko, Ndiweri, Ogali, and Ikegbulan, 2016).

Methodology
This work is a survey research. Data were collected through questionnaire and secondary sources. The population of the study is 150 respondents. These are mainly teenage prostitutes. The study made use of purposive sampling technique. The collected data were analyzed through mean and standard deviation.

Literature Review
Generally informal settlement and prostitution have had plethora definitions. In some instances, informal settlement for example is substituted with slum, marginal land or unplanned settlement. As for slum, some scholars see it loosely as a crowded, dilapidated area lacking basic social amenities. Drawing from this informal settlement has been conceived as an area heavily inhabited by the poor; such area is noted for poor sanitation, wretched living conditions. It is simply a degraded area with heavy population and this population is predominantly poor. Conceptualizing this, UN-Habitat (2007) described informal settlement as slum. Such settlement, according to UN-Habitat (2007) is characterized by substandard housing and squalor. Of great interest in all these, is that slum is not a planned environment and it is a neglected settlement often found in urban area. It is also a pointer to the existence of inequality in housing.
Prostitution unlike slum suffer similar definition problem. Feminist abolitionists whose interest is to end prostitution agree that prostitution is not just a profession, but the oldest profession in the world. This group however disagree that it is a job like any other job. Using the cases in New Zealand, Germany Denmark, Netherland and Australia where prostitution is considered as job, the body disagree that prostitution is not skill as conceived by these. That if prostitution is "sex work", then rapists is theft. The inside of a woman's body should not be seen as a workplace. What is clear is that the liberalist sees prostitution as a work and legal while feminist abolitionist see it as illegal. That is, engaging in sexual activity in exchange for payment is bad. Generally, the act involves indiscriminant sexual relationship for exchange for money.

Analysis and Presentation of Data
In order to give a directional empirical touch to this study two groups of respondents were considered, classified as groups I and ii. Group 1 constituted 150 inhabitants of slums and group ii consisted of 50 teenage prostitutes, in Yenegoa in BayelsaState. The concept of drop-and-pick was adopted in the administration and retrieval of the copies of the research instrument. The responses of the respondents were used to answer the research questions and analyze the stated hypotheses for this study.

Research question one
Standard reference mean of the five (5) point Likert rating scale is 3.00. Table 2 depicts that the mean ratings of the items measured are each greater than the standard reference mean of 3.00 therefore are all deployed in the analysis of hypothesis one. It further reveals that the associated standard deviations are small which indicates homogeneity of the responses of the respondents.

Ho1
There is no significant relationship between slum existence and teenage prostitution in Yenegoa, Bayelsa State. i.e; Ho1: rho (e) = 0 Ha1: There is significant relationship between slum growth and teenage prostitution in Yenegoa, Bayelsa State. i.e; Ha1: e ≠O (i.e., a two-tailed test) Computation of coefficient of correlation Therefore, tcal = 6.350 Means and standard deviations of the sets of data; Table 4 Computation of means and standard deviations of the sets of generated data.

X1 X2
3 x ̅1 = 4.01, N1=150, S 2 1 = 0.3164, S1 = 0.563 At a level of significance of 5% and number of degrees of freedom of 13, the critical value of t, for a two-tailed test, is 2.160 Decision: t cal >t critical , fail to accept Ho1 Results are presented in a tabular form as depicted below Table 5 The t test of relationships between Slum Growth and Teenage Prostitution in Yenegoa.  Table 6 Showing a relationship between prostitutes poor family background and their engagement in prostitution in Yenegoa.  Table 6 shows that the main reason why most teenagers engage on prostitution is because of their parents' poor economic statues. It is not just a means for these teenage prostitutes to meet their own needs but that of their parents and other family dependents.

Hypothesis Two
Ho2: There is no significant relationship between teenage prostitutes' poor family background and their involvement in prostitution in Yenegoa, Bayelsa State.
i.e; Ho2: e = Ο Ha2:There is significant relationship between teenage prostitutes' poor family background and their involvement prostitution in Yenegoa, Bayelsa State.
i.e;e≠Ο (i.e., 2 tailed test) Coefficient of correlation, rho(e) of the sets of data Means and standard deviations of the sets of data: The results are presented in a tabular form as depicted below:

Conclusion
Drawing from the above, it is glaring that slums exist in the Yenagoa just like any other city in the world. The presence of this provided the needed impetus for other vices including teenage prostitution. Of great concern in the existence of teenage prostitution is that slum environment is a marginal environment, as such the cost of housing is easily affordable by the low income group. Secondly, as a marginal land, the layout of the area makes it attractive or convenient for other deviant stimulants like drugs to exist.
Based on these, it is expedient for government and other institution even individuals to embark on economic empowerment programmes for slum dwellers. Such programme should include compulsory primary and secondary education for those who are interested in schooling. Skill acquisition programmes like hair dressing and barbing saloon is important here. If possible such people after training programme should be established with start-up capital. In this, it is necessary for government to monitor the progress of the business. Other businesses training like bead and hat making, catering services, computer operation and sewing are essential here.
Equally important is that there should be urban renewal programme for the slum dwellers. In this case, affordable houses with layouts should be built for slum dwellers. The need to address migration and unemployment problem is urgent here. To do this, it is necessary for government evenly distribute social infrastructure between rural area and urban area. This is important because it is the current urban bias development style that is the pull factor for excessive rural urban migration; a phenomenon that is the root cause of informal urban settlement development.