Nigerian Women Are the Worst Enemies of the Education of Poor Girls

Nigerian Women Are the Worst Enemies of the Education of Poor Girls

The European Union reported that Nigeria is the country where trafficking in human beings is most prevalent. This is a fact that cannot be denied.

From human trafficking of underage girls used as housemaids or hawkers of provisions on the streets to the teenage girls lured and kidnapped for baby factories or used as prostitutes in hundreds of brothels and thousands of others transported like sheep across the borders by sex traffickers; Nigerian girls have become the most endangered human species in the world.

Maltreated housemaid.

More than 6 million underprivileged girls are out of school in Nigeria and majority of Nigerian women in the middle and upper classes are exploiting them as their maltreated housemaids and underage street traders who you can see still hawking goods till as late as 10pm on the streets of Lagos and many have ended up as child prostitutes; child brides and the most unfortunate ones kidnapped by cultists who raped them or killed them for "Juju" rituals.

No reasonable woman will deprive the daughter of another woman from going to school. It is the most wicked child abuse. The deprivation of education causes intellectual, social and psychological underdevelopment of the deprived and worsens the vicious circle of social discrimination with the majority of the poor living in the bondage of perpetual abject poverty.

Majority of the housemaids were given to their madams by their poor mothers who were also deprived of education. So, they don't regard the education of girls as important as the education of boys.

The elites of the ruling class in Nigeria see the millions of underprivileged children as their regular supply of cheap labour as domestic staff and factory workers. And they don't want the status quo of the social hierarchy  of their society to change. The rich will continue to have the advantage and upper hand to be richer while the poor will continue to be poorer.

In many cases of child abuse, the wives and mistresses of the rich big men or "Ogas" demand for these housemaids and nannies, including the loudest Nigerian feminist who shouts We should all be feminists in America, but employs one of these poor housemaids in Nigeria. She has never championed or joined the vanguard of the human rights activists campaigning for the education of the millions of underprivileged girls out of school in Nigeria. Of course, she grew up in an upper middle class family with housemaids and houseboys in the house used as domestic staff and probably she even inherited one of them to continue the vicious circle of the rich ruling class of Nigerian elites using the poor class as their servants from generation to generation and they are quick to quote out of context what our Lord Jesus Christ said in Matthew 26:11: "The poor you will always have with you, but you will not always have me."
That is why the former President of Nigeria and the First Lady still had the time to be dancing "Shoki" psychedelic hip hop hit song; frolicking around with entertainers and having extravagant weddings after the abduction of more than 270 Chibok school girls by the ruthless Boko Haram terrorists on the night of April 14 - 15, 2014.
They did not care since the unfortunate girls were daughters of the helpless poor and powerless Nigerian parents in Borno state of north-eastern Nigeria.

The housemaids are not only deprived of education, but are maltreated by their madams and the tragic cases of maids beaten to death have been reported.
The following report shows how majority of Nigerian elites maltreat their housemaids.

"Why should your domestic help stick out like a sore thumb at gatherings looking ugly with unkempt hair, rough sandals and overall shabby appearance while your own kid(s) hanging on to her arms look like they just stepped out of the Presidential Suite at Radisson? Why should your help only get to eat after you have all eaten? And why is she using a plastic spoon, cup and plate as against the rest of the family using fine porcelains."
~ from What the Nigerian Government, You and Your OLX Nanny Have In Common - Gist - Zegist - Join the Conversation http://zegist.com/t/what-the-nigerian-government-you-and-your-olx-nanny-have-in-common/2463.

The Child Rights Act was accepted by the National Assembly and passed into Nigerian law in July 2003 during the administration of President Olusegun Obasanjo, GCFR. So, there is a law against child abuse in Nigeria, but many of the lawmakers are the worst lawbreakers in the country.
They spend more money on the welfare of their dogs than on the welfare of their housemaids.
The son of one of the rich elites even boasted on the internet that his dog was better fed than one of his fans. But the poor also antagonize themselves in the vicious circle of poverty when poor couples also use the daughters of poorer families as housemaids and the poorer couples use the daughters of the poorest families as housemaids.

Until, the privileged women in Nigeria stop using the underprivileged daughters of the poor as housemaids, millions of Nigerian girls will continue be out of school.
The federal government must enforce the law against child labour and make the education of all girls compulsory from primary school to secondary school levels. This is the only solution to save underprivileged girls from child abuse and their deprivation of education. Every girl must go to school no matter the circumstances of her birth. No child asked to be born poor.


~ By Ekenyerengozi Michael Chima, https://www.amazon.com/author/ekenyerengozimichaelchima. Founder/Executive Director of Girls United Together for Success (GUTS) Project for the education, protection and welfare of underprivileged girls in Nigeria.