Yemisi Olusina
When the former Vice Chancellor of the Federal University of Technology, Akure, (FUTA), Prof. Albert Ilemobade, was called out of his room by his domestic servants over a fire outbreak within his compound, on a fateful day early 2017, little did he know that it was a trick to lure him to death.
The duo of Ilemobade’s driver, Olayemi Bamitale, and security guard, Daniel Ita, had obviously conspired to kill him just to steal his recently purchased Toyota RAV 4 Sport Utility Vehicle (SUV). And to cover up their evil track, they went ahead to hide his body in his motor garage.
Just when Nigerians were heaving a sigh of relief with the arrest of the murderers, a similar incident occurred in Ikoyi, Lagos.
A 22-year-old Togolese cook, Sunday Anani, stabbed his boss, Chief Ope Badamosi, Chief Executive Officer of Credit Switch Technology Limited, to death in his Ikoyi residence in Lagos, just three days after he was employed. Anani was later arrested in Yaba area of Ondo where he fled to.
Those were two instances of domestic servants as harbingers of death.
At one point in every couple’s life, there always arises the need for assistance in the homes. This is because combining the rigours of house chores with that of a career is always a challenge. And as the family’s population and strength increase, the want for more people to help cater for different assignments in the house also becomes unavoidable.
Househelps are either that male or female persons who render help to clean, wash, cook, drive, iron or secure the gates at homes. Some are even useful around their employers in their shops in one way or another.
But some of them, according to reports, are wreaking havocs more than the good they are employed to perform. Are househelps then supposed to be necessary evil? What can be done to curb the ugly trend?
According to a Human Psychologist from the University of Lagos, Mrs. Comfort Adeniyi, most employers of househelps are always hasty whenever the need to get a helper in the house arises. They usually care less about the background of the stranger they are about to bring into their homes. They often fail to conduct security checks on the would-be househelps. It is this major error that always leaves them at the mercy of the wicked. She said: “It is important that anyone who intends to employ a househelp, whether male or female, digs deep into the background of the person, to be able to find out his real home, parents and other peculiarities about his background.
That way, you will be able to determine if the person is the kind of help you need or not. A situation where someone just tells you anything about a helper and you accept without crosschecking may end up putting you in trouble.”
Another thing that will help any family that desires to hire a househelp is to know the health status of the helper. A proper medical check of a person who intends to live under your roof and cater for your kids is indeed very necessary.
You should ensure that such a person is free of transmittable disease, such as the dreadful HIV/AIDS, Hepatitis, Tuberculosis or any skin disease. It is important that the person is not also a patient of any mental problem.
“A mentally sick maid can poison, maim, kill or even abuse a child at any time and unexpectedly,” observed Mrs. Adeniyi.
Knowing the religious background of a househelp before employing him or her will also save any home from a crisis triggered by religious incompatibility. To add to this is the fact that if a househelp is God-fearing, he or she is not likely to be involved in any form of evil in the house.
Experience coupled with maturity is again necessary to ensure a peaceful relationship with any househelp. An experienced househelp would work with little or no supervision. He or she knows gadgets that are dangerous and will keep the kids away from them.
On the part of employers, if they will be fair to their househelps on salaries and welfare, if they will improve on their disposition towards them this New Year and will begin to see them as human beings and as equal in the eyes of God just as every other member of the family is, most of these strangers in today’s homes will be a positive addition and not otherwise.
