AFTERALL THEY ARE HOUSEHELPS!

The topic of this post is apt and best describes how some insensitive Nigerians treat their domestic staff.This attitude right here is the belief most Nigerians have about their domestic helps. I say this because I have witnessed alot of inhumane treatment meted out to these set of people, I have also heard numerous tales of how helps are treated in our society and it is not nice at all .

 While I am not saying these maids or whatever name we choose to call them are angels,infact most of them are wolves in sheep clothing:I still believe they should not be discriminated against in the various household where they serve or the society at large.So this article is not to hold forth for house helps in Nigeria,but to rather expose or give light to this social malaise.

What prompted this write-up was an event that  caught my hubby's attention recently at an eatery and he told me to take a look myself. We were at an eatery in the mall when this obviously well to do man who appears to be in his middle- age sauntered in with his three kids,all boys and one other teenage boy,making the whole team four,it is obvious the three other kids were his children, because apart from  the fact that they called him daddy, they all wore the same pattern of shirts, same color on a pair of jeans and also the resemblance is uncanny.The teenage guy was the odd one out, not that that would pose a problem really, what caused the issue and inspired this topic is the fact that this man bought cones of ice cream for his kids and left out the supposed house boy,he might even be a relative from the village,but treated like an house help all the same.


 There was this longing in the eyes of that boy who cannot be more than fourteen,you could see through him that will appreciate a cone just as much as oga's prized possessions. I can just imagine the man saying 'you will eat Eba when we get home' while his own children licked their ice cream away delightfully.My husband took this personally and said the action touched a nerve in him,and i really feel the same way.Pray tell,what will a cone of extra ice-cream cause this man?it will definitely not put a dent in his pocket.But just to make the poor lad  feel he is lesser than his own children he failed to show just a little act of kindness.

I also heard of a self professed born-again Christian who makes her help sleep in the balcony of their three bedroom flat,making the poor girl who is in her early teens,have mosquitoes as companions for the night.What happened to the  sitting room even if you feel she's too less of an human being to share a room with your own children.Today is not the day i will point out the evils of house helps in Nigeria which is rather very plenty,from them  ill treating your children to snatching their bosses' husbands,the list is endless,but i just want us to focus on the master/servant relationship which is nothing to write home about.

We all heard of the woman at Surulere,an Educated nurse who sprayed Kerosine all over her thirteen year old maid's body,setting her ablaze over the allegation that the girl stole a piece of meat from her pot,how ridiculous!The girl eventually succumbed to death from the 1st degree burns she sustained from the incident.I am so sure the 'madam' is cooling off her heels in jail now.

No week goes by in the country without a report of underage helps being subjected to harsh punishments by their masters/mistresses,some are inflicted with burns from irons,beaten with iron rods,and exposed to all kinds of degradation,and these are the people women leave their children with on a daily basis.What will it cost you to feed your children and the maid with say toast bread,but you ll rather your house maid drinks Garri.Of course he or she will start building a kind of resentment towards you and will eventually take it out on your children.Even the ones that are shown kindness still rebel,how much more the maltreated ones?Just think about it.

It will not take us anything to sow a seed of kindness to those we feel are beneath us,they were also birthed the same way our children or loved ones were birthed,circumstances however made them what they are.So let us continue to show empathy to our fellow human beings.