Instead of attending school, girls as young as 12 are being pushed into domestic work in the houses of the wealthy in Maiduguri.
Women activists have expressed concern, saying first that these girls should still be in school and second that it puts them at greater risk of emotional, violent and sexual abuse.
It also goes against the Child Rights Act.
Zara Musa, a former agent who supplied young girls to well-off households, told RNI reporter Aisha Jamal that she had been in the business for more than three years.
“Girls were brought to me daily to be placed in homes where they did domestic work. In most cases, it was the parents or guardians who brought their daughters to look for work. The girls came from the city and from far away. Many were the daughters of internally displaced persons. Most of the parents claimed they were poverty-stricken and they needed their daughters to work to bring in some money for the family. Some even brought their sons.”
Musa said there was a demand for domestic workers, mainly by working mothers and also by wealthier people who lived in large houses.
“When they brought the children to me, I would choose a suitable home for them. I usually took the girl’s mother, sister or guardian to the home where the girl would work so that they knew where their child was staying.
“I did that countless times. There were many parents who asked me to find domestic work for their daughters.”
Musa said she normally chose girls from the age of 14 and upwards. If the girls were lucky, the people who employed them sometimes enrolled them into Islamic schools and others into Western schools. The girls would do domestic work before and after school hours.
“Unfortunately, not every girl got that privilege. The jobs they did included nursing babies, cooking, keeping the house tidy, washing the laundry and other domestic activities.
“Before the economic crisis, they were paid ₦1,500 or ₦3,000 and sometimes ₦6,000 a month but now they get paid ₦6,000, ₦8,000 and even up to ₦10,000. That is the reason parents are happy to let their daughters do domestic work.”
Basira Yusuf, a domestic worker in Maiduguri, told RNI that she started doing domestic work when she was 12. Her parents brought her all the way from Katsina State to Maiduguri, almost a 700km journey.
“I’m still working in a house as a nanny and cleaner. I really wanted to go to school to be educated but my parents are poor and cannot afford to take care of us all and so they brought me here to work. My salary is kept in an account and some of it is sent to my parents to help them take care of the family.”
Mansur Isa said: “I was brought here for schooling by my teacher, who was also my guardian. But he asked me to look for a job because he could not cater for all the children. So, I started working to feed myself. I am 13. I do domestic work. I clean and I wash the laundry at someone’s home.”
Musa told RNI that she had stopped working as an agent for domestic workers, adding that she had an accident a while back. “I broke my leg while I was taking one of the girls to the house where she was going to work. My children also insisted I quit the job because I was not making any profit out of it. When I took the girls to people’s houses, some of them did not pay well, some did not pay at all, and others gave us food or wrappers containing used fabric to make clothes.”
Musa said the business was not as successful anymore because there were not so many children around. “Many of the girls were IDPs’ children and when the government decided that they should leave Maiduguri to return and resettle in the communities from which they came, there were a lot less children needing work.”
But, she said, she knew of two women who were still working as domestic worker agents in Maiduguri whose businesses were thriving. “They are still taking many girls on a daily basis to do domestic work.”
Lucy Yunana, a woman and children’s rights activist, told RNI that child labour was becoming more common.
“Not only is child labour against the Child Rights Act, but it also opens the door for the abuse of children. The public still assumes children have no rights because most people have not been made aware of the Act and what it means for children. They are ignorant about the law and do not understand that it is there to protect children. The protection of children is paramount and we should all be doing what we can to avoid putting children at risk. Child labour is continuing unabated, despite the protection of the law.”
AISHA SD JAMAL
