While many Nigerians were celebrating the 58th Independence Anniversary of their country on October 1, 2018, a family was taken hostage that day by gunmen who demanded $20,000 (about N7million), part of a contract fee, which the head of the family brought home after banks refused to save the money on lack of Bank Verification Number (BVN) required for foreigner currency deposits.
Despite the harassment and assaults, the man denied knowledge of the money, leaving the gunmen with no option than to escape after several futile attempts.
But the intrigue was that the gunmen repeated the ungodly visit in the early hours of the next day, Tuesday, breaking into the house and going to the exact place the man hid the money to take it and killed the man for lying to them.
After a week of investigations, the Police discovered that it was the house help that gave the details to the gunmen, among whom was her boyfriend. Her reason, according to the police, was that the family refused to increase her N8,000 monthly salary since four years. Sadly, she could not get something out the stolen money as her boy friend’s phones were permanently switched off.
But while the above sad incident was perpetrated by a house help who was a total stranger to the family she served, the case of Milia was heinous, to say the least. Millia was brought to Abuja by her blood relation, a proprietress of a private school. She was enrolled in a junior secondary school, but could not cope, she was sent to acquire tailoring skills, yet she could not concentrate, hence she became a house help.
While doing her job, she managed to send part of her monthly salary to her poor parents. With time, her family relied on her for financial support. But her trouble started when her younger brother, a secondary school drop-out, wanted to travel to Europe and needed N500,0000 (half a million naira). As family pressure on her increased, she became desperate to raise money to meet the demands.
Today, Milia is in Kuje Prison for killing her aunt and one of her daughters by food poisoning. Part of her charges was selling of a car, and stealing N1.3 million cash that belonged to her aunt’s school.
No doubt, house helps are increasingly becoming a nightmare in Nigeria, and hiring one these days has become a huge risk as many people have been brutally murdered in their own apartments by these strange aides.
As well, many working class women have gory stories to tell about their experiences with house helps. From those who took over their matrimonial beds, those who eat food meant for their babies, house helps who steal their money, those who turned the children against their parents to house helps who seek outside collaborators to rob or kill their employers, the risks outweigh the benefits of employing house helps.
However, the intrigue is that despite such gory stories and sad experiences that are commonplace today, people still hire house helps. The trend is even changing now from hiring Nigerians and Ghanaians to Togolese and Cameroonians.
Interestingly, the new trend is opening job opportunity for middle-men who stand between the families in Togo and Cameron, who are releasing their children or relations for the house help job and their clients in Nigeria, especially working class families.
“The trend is replacing the Aboki gatemen with well-kitted and equipped security guards from organised security firms, and the Akwa Ibom or Calabar house helps with the Togolese and Cameroonians who are more obedient, hardworking and cheaper to remunerate”, Dele Kukoyi, a banker, who keeps a house help says.
Ada Eneji, a mother of two, thinks that Nigerian house helps are more expensive, troublesome, daring and even scarce now, especially with the combined efforts of Cross River and Akwa Ibom governments over the years to discourage their citizens from becoming house helps. “The house helps from Cross River and Akwa Ibom states used to be the most behaved, more reliable and friendly, but house help is no longer fashionable for them now, and there seems to be legislations against it in the two states”, Eneji explains.
But while many are now going for Togolese and Cameroonian house helps, a lot are also complaining of the bad experiences from them. “The Togolese are becoming killer house helps now. My landlady is still receiving treatment at the Lagos University Teaching Hospital (LUTH) for the several knife stabbings by her Togolese house help who was arrested while trying to kill the woman and run away with jewry box and some money”, Daniela Okwara, a trader, says.
Speaking on the reasons for hiring house helps despite their excesses, Kukoyi explains that working class families can hardly cope with the stress of working or doing business in Lagos without house helps and when the stress becomes so much, those who swear not to have house helps are seen hiring one.
“I am a banker, while my wife is a lawyer. We leave home very early everyday, leaving the school bus to pick and bring back our two children from school. But the house chores are also huge because my sick mother stays with us and I don’t see my busy wife doing everything alone. So, house helps are the option despite their excesses, they can really hold you to ransom, but you need them”, Kukoyi confesses.
For Daniela Okwara, it is only a magician that can operate between Idumota and Trade Fair in Ojo almost everyday without breaking down and still gives the home front the required attention. “I am a very busy business woman and often travel overseas to buy my goods. What I did to ensure stability in my home is to employ an older woman who cooks, and a younger house help who takes the children to school and do other house chores. I cannot say I trust them, but I pay them well to ensure they do their work”, Okwara says.
Ikedi Onyia, a businessman, thinks some women who do not need house helps still employ one due to laziness and when the house help discovers that madam is too lazy, she will hold her to ransom until she raises her lazy legs and hands to do the chores herself or find another house help.
But why do some house helps kill or defraud their employers?
Following lots of police investigations, most house helps who kill or defraud their employers do so for personal gains. In Milia’s case, she told Police that she needed to raise her family from sufferings and killing her aunt was the only way to get her money because she was very stingy.
But the case involving foreign currency, the culprit was looking for more money, and the flash of dollar she saw while sweeping raised her hope and further involvement of outsiders hardened her mind to commit the crime.
Yet, some house helps who suffer several sexual abuses and assaults from their employers are easily convinced to kill or defraud their employers in retaliation.
Aisosa, a Togolese house help in Lagos, who suffered several sexual abuses from her employer, poisoned the man’s food after a night of marathon sexual abuse while the man’s family was away in Abuja for a relation’s wedding.
There are cases where some women employers or wives force the male house helps to sleep with them and those who are remorseful of the acts look for something bad to do to end the abuse, including killing their madam.
Some house helps from very poor homes cannot stand the extravagant display of wealth by their employers who often do not take care of them. In such cases, they work to get their own share of the cake, which is usually through crime, Police reports say.
Though there are some good house helps, the bad ones seem to outnumber them. This means that more families who employ house helps are vulnerable, while the cases of killer house helps will definitely be on the rise.
EMELIKE OBINNA
