Anthony Iwuoma
Domestic workers come with different appellations. Most people prefer to address them as househelp; housemaid or boy. However, whatever name they are called does not subtract or add to their core function, which is to serve their masters and mistresses in their homes.
The life of this genre of workers is everything but palatable. They merely exist at the mercy of their employers, who see them as pieces to be thrown around anyhow.
Of course, they can be easily identified in any household. They are often set apart, not for God’s use though, but as slaves of sorts. Their eyes are vacant, portraying nothing but grief and sorrow.
Many of them were given out by their parents based on promises of a better life. Unfortunately, it turns out to be a woeful life instead. They work almost nonstop, cleaning the house, washing clothes and utensils, and cooking but yet surviving on leftovers,unfit for even dogs to eat.
With torn rags barely enough to cover their nakedness, they have no foot wears either.The few that are lucky to be enrolled in public schools have no books or uniforms, except patched ones and they are sure to be last to come to school. They would still be in the house, cleaning up the mess left behind by children of their guardians long after they had been driven to their posh private schools and even when they are done, they still have long distances to trek to school totally worn out.
Believe it or not, ideally, some of these domestic hands are actually relations happily given out to assist other relations, who may be richer, or just for better exposure. Sadly, once they enter the house, kinship dies and they turned into beasts of burden.
Different reasons could be adduced to the creation of this category of workers that truly qualify as child labour and abuse. Top on the list is poverty, as already noted. Less privileged parents who cannot adequately take care of their children or send them to school, latch unto rosy pictures of a better life, as painted by relations and release their children to them. Sadly, no sooner do they arrive in their new abode than the rosy pictures become fragmented life of torture. A lot of these relatives send them out to hawk sundry stuff, exposing them to the vagaries of the hard streets instead of sending them to the school they had promised their parents back home.
It is a life of horror all the way. They are starved, tortured and brutalised, Sometimes, the abuse is also sexual, especially the females, who are converted into unwilling pleasure maids for lecherous male bosses or their sons. Some do not even survive the ordeal.
Nigerians are yet to recover from the shock, resulting from the death of an eight-yr-old Miracle in 2017. The poor girl was beaten to death by her then-pregnant mistress (names withheld), who was arrested by the police while going to dispose of the corpse. The suspect had coached Miracle’s co-traveller in grief, Chinaecherem, to lie that Miracle died while they were fighting. However, Chinaecherem wilted under police interrogation and blew the suspect’s cover.
A year earlier, another maid, 10-year-old Joy, had been beaten to death in the Ikorodu area of Lagos. Her corpse was deposited at the Ikorodu General Hospital mortuary but the eagle eyes of one of the doctors spotted the scars on her body; he invited the police.
Another 10-year-old maid, a poor widow’s daughter from Umuoju Ngwu area of Abia State, narrowly cheated death when her guardian, who accused her of beating her children, used pressing iron on her barely two months after she was brought to Lagos, in Lagos. She was lucky to be rescued by neighbours. The abusive madam had also reportedly poured hot water on the victim. It was while taking her employer’s children to school, with the still fresh burns that some concerned women reported the case to the police, leading to her madam’s arrest.
Even law enforcement officers are not left out. There was the case of a policewoman, who allegedly poured hot water on her 15-year-old maid, Chinyere Igwe, who hailed from Igbere in Bende Local Government Area of Abia. Chinyere’s offence that almost claimed her life was her failure to properly apply ingredients in a pot of soup. Officials of the Ebonyi State Ministry of Women Affairs and Social Development later rescued the victim from the house of horror in the Mile 50 area of Abakaliki, Ebonyi State capital.The severity of the case drew the ire of the wife of Ebonyi State Governor, who called for immediate arrest of the offending woman.
Abuse of househelps is so rampant even lawyers too are caught in the evil web. Take the case of a female lawyer, who was arrested in December 2017 by the Lagos State Police Command, over alleged repeated assault of her housemaid. Irked by the picture of the victim with a deep cut on her forehead that circulated on the Internet, then police boss in Lagos, Imohimi Edgal, ordered the lawyer’s arrest, wondering why one who knew the legal implication of such action could be culpable.
Also, a female banker was arrested by the Lagos State Police Command in January 2018, for locking her maid inside an apartment in Mafoluku area of Lagos. It was also CP Imohinmi that personally rescued the 11- year-old maid , Precious Nwafor, whose life was not precious in the sight of her employer, following complaint of abuse by worried neighbours. The banker suspect confessed to the offence but added that she locked up the poor girl only while she was away at work.
For allegedly making the child of her guardian to cry, Peace Goewam, who hailed from Plateau State and given out as a maid at the tender age of six, would have been history today. In a video clip that went viral on the Internet in December last year, Peace, was served a bitter fate contrary to name. She was seen being dragged out of a vehicle and thrown out; she survived the ordeal. Thankfully for the victim, the Enugu State Police boss, CP Ahmad AbdurRahman, waded in for her rescue.
The list of assault on housemaids is endless. In Alagbado area of Lagos, in 2016, nine-year-old Chiwendu Precious, practically went to hell on earth, as her madam poured hot water on her. She survived the vicious attack but not the scars on her body and in her mind.
One Justina is another maid that experienced man’s inhumanity to man. Her guardian allegedly used a saw to cut her hand in Meiran area of Lagos State. Concerned neighbours, who heard the girl’s screams, had forced open the locked door of their apartment, only to see the bleeding maid, prompting one of them to call the police.
In November last year, not a few Nigerians were horrified by a viral video of a 10-year-old orphan being led and locked up inside a kennel like a dog by his aunt.The Commissioner of Police ordered for the woman’s arrest. The victim’s parents had died, leading to his being brought to Lagos in 2012 alongside his two siblings by the suspect’s mother and converted to a houseboy.
The latest of such vicious attacks, took place in Abia State where Operatives of the state Police Command have arrested a woman for allegedly pouring hot water mixed with pepper on her 10-year-old maid.
The command’s spokesperson, Geoffrey Ogbonna, who confirmed the incident to newsmen said the suspect, one Mrs. Zazi David perpetrated the act on her maid, identified as Ifunanya, because she had broken a plate.
According to Ogbonna, it was not the first time the suspect was abusing the victim, resulting in visible cane and burn marks on her body.
Hapless Ifunanya narrated how the woman was in the habit of stuffing pepper into her eyes and vagina, as well as poking other objects into her private parts.
It was gathered that medical personnel have confirmed that Ifunanya’s hymen is missing and that there may be lacerations.
The cup of the suspect ran over and she was eventually exposed after the latest assault that left the young girl with burns on her lips, shoulders and back.
In the latest assault, Mrs. David is also accused of forcing hot water down Ifunanya’s throat. It burnt her lips, her throat and oesophagus/trachea.
Ogbonna said: “Afraid that the girl may die or develop an infection, the suspect took the girl to a nearby chemist who advised her to take the girl to a hospital. When she refused, the chemist raised alarm, exposing the suspect, which eventually led to her arrest.”
At first she couldn’t breathe, but she later gradually started to breathe.
However, Ifunanya still cannot eat solid food and require a surgery.
Medical personnel reportedly suspect that Ifunanya’s stomach may have suffered damage.
There is suspicion that the suspect is highly connected and there are moves to subvert justice.
Nevertheless, the police spokesman insisted that the suspect would be prosecuted after investigation into the matter is concluded.
Wife of Abia Governor, Mrs. Nkechi Ikpeazu, is said to have personally waded into the matter while the police commissioner has assured that the suspect would be charged to court.
The Abia First Lady visited the abused child in hospital
and promised to take care of the medical bills and also directed her personal doctor to join the medical team treating Ifunanya.
It is unfortunate that all this is going on in the country despite the adoption of the Child Rights Act in 2003, which was aimed to domesticate the Convention on the Rights of the Child and also serve as a legal documentation and protection of Children rights and responsibilities in Nigeria.
This obviously was the reason former APC senator, Magnus Abe, once described domestic workers as endangered because their case is not properly captured by law or law enforcement.
According to him: “There are spots in the Nigerian firmament where nobody is, the law is not there. If you are in those spots, you are practically on your own. These domestic workers are the Nigerians stuck in dark places where nobody is looking and no light shines.
Painting a graphic picture of the deplorable life of these unfortunate Nigerians, Abe said: “They usually work 24 hours a day. They do not have any day off. For a lot of them, even on Sunday, madam will still call you to carry the children and all that.
“A lot of them are in those situations simply because their parents are poor and cannot feed them. So, they trade them off just to provide a meal for them basically and give them the opportunity to grow in life; but nine times out of 10 it becomes a point of stagnation.
“They cannot move anywhere. They cannot move forward they cannot move backward. They are stuck there for years without help.These situations are around us daily. We cannot pretend it does not exist,” Abe lamented, adding: “Time has come for us to shine the light to all those dark spots in our nation.”
Indeed, time has come for government to be more proactive in protecting these vulnerable Nigerians.
Abe had advocated for terms and conditions before any domestic worker would be engaged. He added that all domestic workers ought to have work hour rules that governed their jobs.
More importantly, it is not even enough to promulgate laws that are even unenforceable in the first place. It is much better for government to be more responsible and provide necessary ingredients for good life for the people; that way, no family would be to poor to train their children, which is at the rot of this aberration.
