Cave night club could have passed for any other club but it is not
like any other in Nigeria. It is a strip club where many bevy beautiful
numbering up to 70 dance nude for money, some are undergraduates.
Many of these undergraduates come from far and near, work in night
and then study in the day.
The CEO of the club, Dr. Shina Eddo said he
is proud of his job and wouldn’t kill his daughter if she choose to be a
striper too. See excerpts from his interview with Samuel Olatunji (icampusng.com) below:
How have you being able to maintain the success?
Well, Nigeria is an open ground for business, if you know what to do
and how to do it. Anything entertainment in Nigeria succeeds, if you
know how to go about it. Nigerians love fun especially this kind of fun
because usually we only have it in western countries but now that we
have it here, they are so happy that it exist. Patronage is on and it
will always be because we are giving them exactly what they want, the
kind of girls they want to see, everything especially now that we have
been licence by the government to operate, clients can now patronise us
without fear.
Where you not scared to start?
No, it was not against the law just that we did not have licence when
we started but it was not illegal but now we have licenced, we are
operating licenced now, so people come in here freely.
You are not afraid that people will not buy the idea of you opening a strip bar?
Well you cannot compare a strip bar to a normal night club. Night
club is a kind of business that anyone can just start. A strip club is a
double situation, in terms of maintaining both strip and night club
together, it’s like merging two different things together which is not
easy, it is a complicated situation, that is why a lot of people that
started the business don’t succeed, because they don’t know the do’s and
the don’ts of the business, at the end they pull out. But as the Don,
master of the game, I started it in Nigeria, whatever I say goes, nobody
is emulating me because I alone know the secret of the business and
that is why we are succeeding.
Where did you learn it?
I did not learn it, it just part of me, as an artist things like that
are part of me. I once lived in Europe and while there, I used to visit
this kind of places because places they are all over Europe, so I can
say I leant part of it from there and secondly I am an artist so I just
merged the two together.
What do you mean you started it? Because there was a time I did two
cover stories for sun newspaper on nude club especially on Allen Avenue,
Club Unique and Ocean blue but I don’t know if they still exist now and
I have not heard of this bar as at that time.
Well, the truth is, the first strip club on Allen was TT bar now Club
Unique and I built it, I started it with my partner Tony, and then we
quarrelled and I left it because the quarrel was becoming too serious,
so serious that it can lead one of us killing each other. I left the
club for him and he renamed it to Club Unique. I actually started from
there, that was the first strip club on Allen, the first regular known
strip club on Allen. Thou there used to be a Number10 bar on that same
street but they were not striping fully, it was a partially nude club
unlike the one we started there, totally strip.
And that was the first strip nude club but I think Ocean blue started
around the same time we started but Ocean blue was kind of small unlike
TT bar which was almost the biggest in the whole of Nigeria then before
I left the place and my partner converted it to Club Unique but well it
still functions and by the grace of God, this one is now the biggest in
the whole of Africa and one of the biggest in the whole world. Far
bigger than anyone you can think of, far bigger than all the strip clubs
in Ikeja put together, we have over 60 girls and we are looking at over
120 people working here.
Where do you get the girls?
We don’t look for them, they look for us. Once you are able to
position yourself in this business, the girls would come looking for
you. We have accommodation here at no cost and they have all the freedom
here, they are making good money and they catch all the fun. We have a
clientele, the big boys come here, they come, they don’t pay anything
for accommodation, they don’t pay for feeding, their welfares are well
taking good care of and they make good money, so that is why they all
keep tripping in. Other girls all over Nigeria, once they hear what we
pay them here, they keep coming in and we keep having them, we should
have about 70 girls if I am not mistaking.
From my interactions with the girls, I noticed some of them are
educated and others are in the universities, How were you able to
convince them? Was the money part of the luring factor?
Actually the kind of money they make help them to take care of a lot
of issues, like most of them are in school and can imagine when you are
in school and in a situation where you have to sleep with a guy to get
5/10 thousand or what have you but here you don’t have to sleep with
anyone. In a strip club or you have to do is lap dance a guy or sit on
him, when you sit on him, you wine and he gives you money, some can give
you N5000, some can give you N10,000, some can even give you N20,000,
it depends. So the kind of money they make here enables them to take
care of their parents, some of them have kids, some of them help their
siblings, those going to school take care of their school needs and sort
a lot of issues for them.
In this place a girl makes up to N150, 000 in a day and in a week is
six days because we open on Tuesdays to Sundays and we go off on
Mondays. A girl makes up to a N150,000 in a week that is about N600,000
in a month and when she goes out to tell her friends that this is the
kind of money she makes, her friend will want to come too and that is
why they keep coming from different parts of the world. We have girls
from Kenya, Cameroon, Ghana just name it.
Have you had any parent come here to fight you before?
No, we don’t take minors here, in Nigeria contest, a minor is
somebody below 23 unlike overseas where a minor is somebody below 18
years of age, so once you are a minor we don’t allow you here in
whatever capacity, weather as a dancer or a customer and for guys, once
you are under 27 you are a minor and we will not let you in, you must be
close to 30 before we let you in, you must be very matured and very
responsible.
When you screen the girls what do you screen them for?
A lot of things, we screen them for their body, everything, we do a total system screening on them.
Do you teach them how to dance?
Yes of course, some that does not know how to dance learn from others
that knows how too and sometimes in the evening they do practice, if
they don’t understand they ask others, so basically they teach
themselves. If you don’t know how to poll, we call it polling, you ask
others whoknows better and once you are taught, the individual is good
to go.
I learnt you have coordinators?
Yes, we have coordinators because of the numbers of girls we have
unlike other clubs that don’t have coordinators because their girls are
few but here we are talking about 70 girls and above ,so you need people
to be looking at them. Besides you can see the size of this club, I am
here at the front and something could be happening at the back and
besides some customers will want to make love to the girls inside the
club, so you need coordinators to monitor, to make sure that things are
going on normal and also to ensure that the girls are doing the lap
dance the way they are suppose to do it and also to ensure that their
money does not disturb them because some of them will want to put the
money in their bra and all that, as soon as they give them the money,
the coordinators would collect the money and record it against their
names.
So that is why we have coordinators, we have four coordinators and they are gallant.
Have you had people try to make you feel guilty sometimes or do you feel guilty that you are promoting s*x?
Guilt comes from the mind, you only feel guilty if you don’t know
what you are doing but as far as what I am doing is good and people like
it then I am good to go. I am just a fun provider, an entertainer.Big
boys all over Lagos, men, women, they all come here despite the fact
that we charge N5,000 at the gate, they still beg to come in, even if we
tell them at the gate that we are not ready they still wants to come
in. Like on Saturdays and Sundays, you will see all the foreign
expatriates coming into Lagos, they all come here to have fun.
Perhaps Sunday is a free day?
Yes, Sunday is free but on Saturdays you will see all the foreigners
in Lagos here on . And they are free, they have total freedom here, they
are free to do whatever they want to do, they even enjoy here more than
they enjoy abroad. They are so happy here.
What of a situation where a customer want to have s*x with one of your girls?
Well, if you want to do that, you are free too, we just have your
data such as phone number,address and we know where you are taking the
girl too, we assure the girl of her protection and then she goes with
you.
I met a girl here yesterday and says she stays here for 24 hours and
that is the first time I learnt that people live here and I have discuss
with some of them before who said the money they make here is take care
of their parents. When you look at the positive side do you feel
galvanised to do more? I know somebody who said shes in school, this is
where she make money to pay her fees, I also knowof somebody who said
she lives outside Lagos and she comes here to make money because she
can’t do this in her state and go back. So sometimes when you look at
those good sides do you feel galvanised to do more?
Of course, I am fulfilling their dreams for them. They are having
their dreams fulfilled here and that is a great thing for me to do and I
am the one making that possible for them. I am happy about it and I
think I want to do more, I want to help people to accomplish their
dreams.
How many universities girls do you have here?
They are so many, most of them are polytechnic students.Have lost counts.
Tell me the existence of the licence; is it state licence or federal licence?
It a state licence, Lagos state licence. You can see it on the wall as you enter.
And you pay yearly licence fee and tax?
Yes I do, you don’t get licence without paying and we pay our tax and
every other thing. We pay all our dues to the government; we don’t owe
the government anything.
Do you get harassed?
Not at all. All top government officers, politicians, this is their next home.
Do you give the girls ID cards?
Of course, they have their ID cards.
I am curious, what do the ID cards carry?
They are like dancers fabricator, for the dancers we don’t write stripers, we just write a dance fabricates.
Where do you get this idea from?
I am an idealist. Lots of ideas run through my mind.
What is the next plan for Cave?
We are spreading tentacles, we are moving to Lekki, then from Lekki
to Apapa and then we are moving to other areas which I don’t want to
reveal now.
Do you sometimes get some of the girls to sleep with you or do you sometimes want to sleep with them?
I don’t sleep with my girls, they are my girls, they work for me and I
don’t have any reasons to sleep with them. They can sleep with who so
ever they want to sleep with but not me their boss, I have my woman.
So do you have girls?
I have my wife. (Laughs)
And your wife knows this is what you do?
Of course.
And she supports you?
Yes, she is happy about it. And we are living well.
I learnt that you are very comfortable, is this all you do?
It not easy running this business alone, it like running an empire,
the K is like an empire, controlling about a 120 workers, boys and girls
and then dealing with over 300 customers on a daily bases. You
understand? It just like running an empire, so it not easy
Although, I delegate, I have my brothers assisting me. I have my
younger brother Tayo, another brother,Kola and Ade, they are helping me
out.
You know the first time I came here, I am like how can girls be this bold?
I came here like 10 times and I did not get any lap dance like I am
flabbergasted sometimes, how can these girls be this bold? Are you sure
you do not give them anything to embolden them?
No, if they want to drink they are free to take maybe beer or
anything they want to drink to clear the shyness from their eyes. Not
all of them
Do they take drugs?
No, we don’t allow them to take drugs. If they take drugs they get
drugged, so we don’t allow it. We only allow them to beer or take one or
two shots of spirit and is it and someof them don’t even drink at all.
Now, because Nigeria generally we are shy about the subject of s*x
and as it is what is driving this place is s*x, it might not be actual
s*x, fantasy and all those kind of stuffs and as somebody who is in the
business how would you advice he balance the two?
Yes, this thing is exotic, it is uncommon. When you see the things
you don’t see ordinarily, you would want to look to it. Our customers
come in here every day because the things they get here they don’t get
it on the street. Behind every Nigerian man there is a bad girl, they
want to see the things they don’t see ordinarily especially women and
when they see a naked woman perform, dance in front of them, they love
it and they always want to see it. That is why we have our customers
every day, they can’t stop coming.
I want to ask a funny question. If you were to have a girl and she says she want to strip dance would you allow her?
If I have a girl?As in how?
A girl child, a daughter.
Well, it depends, there is no girl that would tell her parent that
she want to strip dance, no girl would do that. If my daughter wants to
strip dance,for instance my daughter school in the north and she is
doing something and I am not aware of it, I am not going to kill her for
it, I don’t know about it. There is no woman that will tell her father
and mother that she wants to strip dance, they are doing it on their
own. Ours is to make sure that you are not a minor that you are matured,
once you are matured and you want to do it at your own will, you are
free.
If you find out, what would you do?
Well, it depends. I will not kill her.If I don’t like her to do it I
will take her out of it and if she insist then so be it, I wouldn’t kill
her, just like they do aboard. You can’t force your child to do
anything that he or she doesn’t want to do and you allow them to do what
they want to.
When people say this place is expensive, how do you feel?
Oh well, I feel good. It is expensive because we are doing it right.
People keep patronising us, people keep talking about us, that is how we
know we are doing it right.