The yoke of domestic workers in Nigeria

Samuel Akpan, a 49-year-old indigenous man from Abak Oko in Ikot Ekpene, Akwa Ibom State, studied English and Literary Studies at the University of Calabar.

Currently, he earns 30,000 naira every month working as a contract security guard at a pharmaceutical company in Ilupeju, Lagos.

“Security guards hired by surveillance companies and private residents do not receive uniform salaries, based on their rounds or locations,” he said.

Richard Amuwa, Managing Director of Mega Guards Limited, Abule Egba, Lagos, confirmed this saying that the payout is usually 70:30 per cent.

However, an independent check reveals that the operations and activities of the more than 250 registered and recognized private security companies are regulated by the Nigerian Security and Civil Defense Corps, NSCDC.

But who regulates the activities of the millions of domestic workers in Nigeria today? Gbenga Komolafe, Secretary General of the Federation of Informal Workers’ Organizations of Nigeria, FIWON, says there are no regulations for domestic workers in the country.

Miss Funke Lawal, a native of Abeokuta, Ogun State, receives N300 every day and does all kinds of housework from dawn to dust at a restaurant located at the vesper bus stand, along the Lagos-Lagos highway. Abeokuta in Ifo, Ogun state.

According to his calculations, his slave salary translates to N7200 each month, as he lamented that “he will resume as soon as 5 am, from Monday to Saturday, he sweeps, cooks, washes dishes, pots and then begins to attend to the customers when they come. “.

National Bureau of Statistics-Nigeria, says that in our country with an estimated population of 203 million people, the number of unemployed increased from 5.5 million in 2015 to 21.7 million in 2020.

In the same period under review, people living below the poverty line increased from 43.1 million to 102.1 million today.

“Therefore, people like Akpan and Lawal are among the millions of people desperate to make ends meet, doing all sorts of menial and household jobs to survive,” Komolafe said.

The FIWON notary also regretted that these domestic workers who take care of people’s most important assets such as: children, the elderly, goods, well-being, etc., receive slave wages at the whims and whims of their bosses and with heavy overloads of worked.

He explained that it was based on this that FIWON decided to establish the cooperative society and training arms of the NGO, where domestic workers in the country could be assisted, who do not have retirement, maternity, social benefits or government subsidies. . in the formation of savings and credit cooperatives, whatever their location.