We should be careful how we treat our housekeepers – Effah-Chukwuma

PUBLISHED BY TIMOTHY
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Josephine Effah-Chukwuma, Executive Director, Project Alert on Violence Against Women told OLUWASEYIKEMI ANDREW in this interview that domestic servants appear to be on a revenge mission in recent time.

The issue of killer house helps appear to be getting out of hand. How did the country find itself in this seeming mess?
Well I would say that it is a combination of factors. One of it is the carelessness of people that hire them in the sense that they seem not to take the proper step before hiring them. One of the questions should be where did they come from? Who brought them to whom? Did those that engage them get the details of who is to work for them? Those are things you should consider before engaging them really. Getting a maid or any domestic servant for that matter is not a bad idea and I am not supporting them or judging anybody but we must be careful in the manner we hire them. We should also try to get them from the right source if there is anything like that again. Get them from a proper agency, don’t just get them from anybody in the name of family, or close relatives. That’s it.
These middlemen that arrange them for their masters, are they culpable?
Will they ever be found if something unpalatable happens? It’s difficult; the thing is that there is no regulation for that. I know there are employment agencies for different things even for drivers, maids, you know people are doing all sort of assorted things. These are essential house workers people need. All sort of people are starting that business with little or no regulation or supervision. Someone will say if you want a driver contact me, if you want that contact me, but what are the regulations for them? If there is a regulation and they are been linked to someone or an approved agency, at least they will be able to track the person to know where he or she was gotten from. But without that it becomes a basket cake. You know without regulation, and way of monitoring this things through agencies that we all know, then it becomes a problem when one of such people go and commit such crime like murder and all of that and get away.
Can people really know the mindset of these servants?
Like William Shakespeare would say: ‘There is no art to find the minds construction in the face.’ Just like you going to an office and applying to be employed and once you are employed do they know what your motive is? If you are to come into the office and rob the office do they know? No, they don’t know. So, there’s a lot of risk in the things we do, but what we are talking about to a large extent is minimizing the risk through some checks and balances through some precautionary measures.
How can this possibly be achieved?
We have to be careful again and again.I tell people some simple things, for example, if you are in the house, especially for women because women are not just been killed, there are women who has been raped and killed by their housemaids, houseboys, drivers, gardeners and all that. There are simple precautionary things. The first step is checking out where you get this person from because that security is not 100 per cent. Second step is when the person is with you, reduce access, in the sense that when you are alone with the person, like I tell ladies if you have a driver in your compound and you are alone in the yard with him or her when you get into your house close your door. Let him stay within the compound but must not enter the building where you are. But you know some carelessness also happen, people are sometimes too careless and all of that. These are perilous times, a lot of things are happening and we all need to be careful and be on our guard as much as we can. But like Shakespeare said, ‘There is no art to find the minds construction in the face.’
What would you say about those maltreating the maids?
That is another point that should be highlighted. Most people think that their maids and other house keepers are actually their slaves and they treat them as such. We are daily assorted with the horrifying stories of all kinds of maltreatment from heartless people who play God in their homes. For crying out loud, the maids may have been taking a sort of revenge. You can never tell; that is not to say that what is happening now can ever be justified, no. But we also need to caution ourselves. We should always ask ourselves, this way I am treating this chap, can I treat my child or children in such a manner? If the answer is no, then we should repent and turn a new leave. People should always weigh what they do to other people’s children. Evil is evil no matter who commits them.

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