[depirate]

The househelp issue is one that is dear to my heart and i do believe it is plain human abuse or at the very least exploitation, and it creates a societal underclass as i find it hard to believe that ex children of "oga" will ever view an ex househelp as an equal (this is from personnal experience - there are certain types of curlery i still will not eat with as i see them as "househelp's cutlery") and for those who say they/their parents treat/treated their househelps like their children i say howmany househelps went to the same private schools as your children/you and how many times did they sit at the table with you during meals.
The author's attitudes and believes also goes a long way to explain why so many of these poor souls get abused, he starts his article by giving examples of househelps who do things like turn to snakes (i can't believe someone will actually post that and reminds me of a poor girl that was left to die on the streets of Warri in the 80s - was accused of being a witch and her swelling tummy was said to be her "madam's" eaten pregnancies, though with hindsight it sounded like she had nephrotic syndrome or some other renal pathology and she just died a dogs death) and infect children with AIDS (did anyone test the parents and how did the housegirl do it - have sex with all 3 children or transfuse them with her blood) and even killing their bosses, not to talk of "displacing" the madam (the fact that these helpless members of society often get raped - usually from an early age - is inconsequential)
Then of course he had to bring in the pastor (to ensure she was "spiritually" safe) to establish his christian (religious) bona fides, the fact fact that he will be treating another human sub-humanly (stopping their schooling - or sending to a school that makes as much difference, treating them with constant suspicion, andpaying them an illegal wage) is not very christian-like seems to be lost on him (and most Nigerians similarly)
I do not believe in having househelps and have never contemplated having because it IS abusive (even if they are "better off" with you than suffering in their village) and the sooner the present system of slavery sorry househelphood is is made illegal and proper checks put in place to prevent further exploitation the sooner we will have a better and more just society

Christopher

Ps my sister and parents have househelp and growing up i cannot remember any one time we did not have at least 1 (usually 2 or 3) househelp