There are these recent prevalent cases of house-helps/ maids brutality and physical abuse by their guardians in Nigeria. It is very much on the high rise that there is no week that goes by without us seeing on the print media or social media a gory case of a maimed and brutalized kid usually from the ages of 5-12 who are serving as house-helps/ maids.
Interestingly, eight out of ten of these reported cases of domestic violence melted on these househelps do take place in the eastern part of the country and mostly in Anambra state. These statistics are struggling to back up a stereotype made around the block (which I the writer is yet to believe) that Igbo women are very brutal and aggressive with their house helps and maids but with the recent cases which I have been seeing I am beginning to think that there is an atom of truth in that stereotype.
“Instead of being defensive about this, Eastern stakeholders should rather look into it because it calls for worry”.
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Where do I begin in citing gory examples of how women brutalize their house helps or maids over a trivial issue or at the slightest provocation to the viewing pleasure of their husbands who sometimes feign ignorance or claim that they were never in support of their wives doing that but cannot do anything to save the poor house help from the fierce clench of their wives.
Just last November, we heard of the death of an 11-year-old Magreth Joshua who died as the result of torture and physical abuse she received at the hands of Mrs Nnaemeka Nwachukwu her guardian. The late Magreth Joshua was serving as a maid to her killer in Jos, plateau state where they reside. The details of the event that led to the death of the kid were quite pathetic; witnesses narrate how Mrs Nnaemeka Nwachukuwu do pour boiled water into the kid’s private parts as a form of punishment, the guardian constantly hit the girl with hardwood and always use machete and wires to flog and inflict pains on her at the slightest provocation until the girl died from the torture.
Mrs Yemi Awolola, another serial house help abuser was also arrested some time ago by the law enforcement agency for allegedly placing a knife in the fire and scarring the private parts of her 14-year-old maid, Princess Michael. Similar to the case of another abusive mistress who was arrested also in Enugu state for allegedly burning their 10-year-old maid with a pressing iron and drilling nails into her head.
Last week, a woman by the name of Chinyere Ifesinachi was reported to the police by neighbours for the level of physical abuse she always melts out on her house-help, a seven years old, Idinma. Eyewitnesses narrate that she used a pestle to hit and broke her fragile bones. She also uses knives on the seven years old child as the child has deep cuts all over her body and she is currently at the hospital battling for her life.
Just yesterday, the 16th of May, 2023, The Anambra State Ministry of Women and Social Welfare arrested one Mrs Abigail Eguta for physically assaulting, brutalizing and battering her seven-year-old house help until the lad nearly went blind. The offense of the lad according to the guardian was that the kid failed to recite the English alphabet (A, B, C, D…) correctly.
Believe me, all these above-mentioned cases are just a pinch of salt out of a sea of examples and references too numerous to mention and they are all verifiable.
This high level of cold-hearted guardians maiming, brutalizing and killing children who serve them as maids/house helps at the slightest provocations is getting out of hand. There have been far too many gory and despicable house help physical abuse cases for lawmakers and national stakeholders to keep feigning blind eyes and deaf ears. It has gotten to the extent where a state of emergency should be declared on brutalizing house helps/ maids and every well-meaning Nigeria must rise to the occasion that this stop.
Every child is someone’s child, and no parent living or dead, rich or indigent will be happy seeing his or her kids being maimed or brutalized by the guardian for whatever reason. What even makes my body twirl is that most of the reasons why these kids are being brutalized by their guardians are just the most trivial of reasons and unjustifiable; like the Anambra lady that nearly killed her house help for failing to correctly recite ABCD.
The maids who are lucky enough to escape their guardian’s homes alive are being left with lifetime trauma, physical, emotional and psychological damage to their person which they never recover from.
This is a call on national stakeholders and law enforcement to beam their bright lights on the guardian/ househelp relationships. New regulations should be made to tackle this incident to save these kids. New regulations prohibiting some level of harsh treatment on kids and stringent punishments like long jail terms melted on recalcitrant offenders.