Sexual abuse, physical violence, emotional trauma, disruption in education – the life of domestic workers in Nigeria

 

Rose Fruitful Edeh began work at age six while still bed-wetting. By the time she was 20, she had served four families as a domestic worker, also known as house help. None was a palatable experience.

Her father had passed before she reached age two. The 13 children he left behind were too overwhelming for her mother to feed, clothe or send to school. Rose was sent, like her other siblings, to anyone who was willing to take them in.

From Benue, and without her consent (she was too young to give any), Rose found herself in Lagos to live with a family.

In her new abode, she was sure of receiving beating every morning because of the wee that sneaks out during her sleep, which is normal to most children at night.

“Sometimes I used to pee on the bed. The children (of her boss) used to wee on the bed too. But it’s only me that their father would beat most morning,” she said.

The father was harsh, mean and hateful. He wouldn’t want Rose anywhere near his children except to serve them, even though they were age mates.

“Sometimes I would want to play with the children, the man would tell me not to play with them. Sometimes when visitors were around and they gift us money, and we all go around to buy something, he would beat me up because I accompanied his children. Even his wife was afraid of the man,” she narrated at a recent seminar on the Rights of Domestic Workers in Nigeria and the Imperatives for their Unionisation.

The seminar was organised by CEE-HOPE, a child-protection NGO in partnership with Rosa Luxemburg Stiftung.

To return to Rose story, one day her aunty came visiting to check on her. Rose seized the opportunity to leave.

“When my aunt came the first time, I was happy. But when she left, the man beat me up. The second time my aunty came, I held her hand and said I must go with her. That was how she took me back home to my mother.”

But as bad as that was, it turned out to be the least mean experience Rose would receive from all the people they shipped her to work for as house help.

One day, her mum tossed her off to live with another family of a man with two wives and six children in Ibadan. She became their washing machine, cook, messenger, cleaner and house manager at barely 10 years old.

The third family she lived with was her aunt whose household was somehow dysfunctional.

The aunt was a small-scale trader in Lagos who would most times not be at home, leaving her children in the care of Rose who is also a baby needing care. Her husband was a drunk and a sexual predator.

Meanwhile, Rose last attended school as a primary one pupil. Her aunt skipped primary two and put her in primary three.

While it seems her aunt put her in school as though she was interested in her future, she ensured that Rose worked for the money to see her through the school by hawking after school hours.

The predator husband was always lurking around to sexually molest her.

“Any time my aunt was out of town, I would be in the same room with the children. So, there was this time I was lying down. I felt something strong on my buttocks. It was the husband. He returned and was drunk. He was lying down with me naked. When I woke up, he pretended to be sleeping,” she told the shocked audience.

But here’s even the bigger shock. Rose was cooking moi moi and had to climb a stool every time she needed to reach the pot to check the progress. Then, there was a slip in one of those climbs to bring down the pot. Hot water from the pot severely scalded her chest.

After some homemade remedy to keep the burnt from being swollen, she had to also unbutton her shirts at all times, and at night for air to aid the healing.

For the pervert husband, it was an opportunity to fondle her breasts.

The aunt suspected that something was not right. She took Rose to her pastor for ‘spiritual interrogation.’

“The Pastor interrogated me if I have slept with any man. I said no. He too touched my breasts. He said he wanted to check if I was still a virgin.”

From that dysfunctional home, Rose was taken to the house of another aunt, this time in Abuja, literally handed over to Satan

“This my aunt is a distanced cousin. She is very harsh. Sometimes she used bottle of alcohol to beat me. She said I was a witch, that every time she beats me that I used to come with my witch people to fight her. She said I should confess.

“One day I finished cooking about to 7am. She had warned me to finish cooking by 6am so that I could bath her children and prepare them for school. As I was hurriedly taken boiled water in kettle to the bathroom to bath the children, one of them passed and the water pooped out and touched him, just a minor touch. The woman beat me and poured all the hot water on me. I still have scars on my breast. That was how I ran away. One of her sisters came and took me back to my mother’s house.”

Rose’s experience is not an isolated case. It is the norm for most people engaged in domestic work or persons from financially challenged homes living with a relative.
Funmi Ajayi, a child rights activist shared her personal experience while living with her uncle in Jos, Plateau State as a little girl.

She said: “Even domestic worker was better than me when I was living with my uncle. It is the remnant that their children eat that would be left for me.

“The wife of my uncle is a teacher, so harsh. She does not tolerate nonsense. She is so neat. I would have to wake up as early as possible to clean everywhere. That was where I learned how to wash women monthly flow. I would go to their bathroom to wash it.”
She called for proactive measures to ensure the unionisation of all domestic workers in Nigeria, emphasising the need for on-the-ground advocacy.

The Freedom Fund estimates that 35 per cent of domestic workers started work before the age of 10. They work long hours that leave them with limited time for rest, education or social activities, according to the group in a report published in February 2024.

The International Labour Organisation (ILO) also estimates that 152 million children are in child labour globally – 64 million girls and 88 million boys, leaving them with a future of limited opportunities.

Executive director of CEE-HOPE, Betty Abah said the potpourri of laws and conventions against modern day slavery have failed to stem the tide in Nigeria. She said unionisation is the viable option of putting an end to the violation of their rights.

She said: “Domestic workers work mostly in isolation and in harsh, unregulated conditions, are underpaid with many facing various forms of abuse ranging from physical, sexual, psychological and other forms of dehumanisation.

“Millions of underage persons are also in domestic work and facing multifaceted abuses even with existing laws and conversions that criminalise child labour, eg the Child Rights Act of Nigeria 2003.

“In Nigeria, despite the ratification of ILO Convention 189 of 2011 (the Convention on the Rights of Domestic Workers), domestic workers continue to suffer abuse, remain invisible and unrecognised.”

She canvassed for a legislation to guarantee the unionization of domestic workers like other mainstream labour unions.

“Unlike other countries across the world (India, UAE, Kenya, South Africa, USA etc), domestic workers are not unionised in Nigeria. Because they are not part of the mainstream labour unions (eg the Nigerian Labour Congress) and have no unions of their own, their human and labour rights continue to be violated.

“This campaign is a consolidation of an earlier one that focused on the abuse of domestic workers. This will look at the need for the unionisation of domestic workers in the country while engaging critical stakeholders in the labour unions, human rights and informal workers communities in various fora, and the utilisation of various forms of digital and creative media to push towards the target.”

National Coordinator, Education Rights Campaign, Hassan Soweto, echoed the need for legislative review and advocacy.

“We need to study current labor laws in Nigeria and learn from other African countries where domestic workers have union protections. This will help us to intervene effectively and propose new legislation,” Soweto suggested.
He also noted that, “Domestic work is going to continue to exist and would be carried out by people. Even those not domestic workers like women in patriarchal relationships have found themselves in this situation where they find it difficult to aspire, then these individuals must be protected.”

Ronke Oyelakin, the Lagos State Coordinator of Child Protection Network (CPN), explained that the Child Rights Act of Lagos State made it clear that equal opportunity; regardless background must be given to every child.
Oyelakin dissuaded the use of children as domestic workers and noted that those engaged are at risk and their labour often forced, unpaid or underpaid.

She noted that anyone who wants to engage children aged 15 and above as domestic workers needed to register with the appropriate agency of government in charge of labour and employment, adding that “such child must be enrolled in school, and given age-appropriate work, no forced labour and the child’s fundamental human rights must be protected.”

Vickie Uremma, another participant, recommended learning from countries with established unions for domestic workers and building a comprehensive database in Nigeria.

“Let’s start with Lagos State and create a database of families with domestic workers. We need to continue aggressive advocacy and awareness campaigns,” Uremma urged.