As part of the mindset change needed to overcome this coronavirus economic depression, Nigerians need to eschew the lazy, uneconomical and egotistical habit of employing house helps

Ayo Akinfe

[1] I have always maintained that the notion that poor governance is the sole cause of our problems is a total fallacy and a cop-out. Nigeria's government is a mirror image of society and the leaders are a genuine reflection of all our shortcomings as a people

[2] There is very little that our leaders do which the common Nigerian is not guilty of himself. I have repeatedly said that the only problem with Nigeria is Nigerians and if we are to get out of this crisis, we need to jettison many of our bad habits, chief among them vanity, low productivity, revelling in squandermania, egotism, etc

[3] Can someone please explain to me why the middle class Nigerian needs a house help to wash their car, do their laundry, sweep their houses, cook their food, etc. It certainly is not because they are too busy to do such chores themselves. When you spend four hours every week day at a vigil, your entire weekend enjoying owambes and two hours a day gossiping, busy is not a word you can use to describe yourself

[4] If we want to be honest, employing domestic servants is just plain vanity, arrogance, egotism and living beyond our means as a people. Just as the elite commit heinous crimes such as buying private jets they do not need, so too do the middle class indulge in such vain things and hiring house helps is one such bad habit

[5] Since 1960, we have been spoilt as we have run a country by selling crude oil without adding any value to it and then using the proceeds to revel in squandermania. We throw needless parties non-stop, acquire pointless feudal titles, amass SUVs, go on health holidays abroad neglecting our own healthcare system, boost the tourism industry of other nations at the expense of our own and import things which we could easily produce locally at much cheaper prices

[6] When you look at how many domestic house helps in Nigeria are involved in robbing their employers, conniving with criminals to attack them and in several cases actually involved in murdering them, you has to ask if we did not bring this problem on ourselves. By making someone a domestic servant, you are denying them an education and training and confining them to a life of poverty and destitution

[7] Someone who has worked as a domestic servant has no future, no career prospects, no training and no education. What we are doing by allowing this industry to boom is creating future armed robbers, bandits, prostitutes, terrorists and political thugs. No serious nation would make this mistake knowing that it is only storing up trouble for the future

[8] Let me just give you an example. If say 100 middle class professionals live on an estate with each of them employing 100 house helps, has it not occurred to them that they would be doing more for the Nigerian economy by forming say a fruit processing cooperative and employing these people there to engage in a productive endeavour? These staff would have better prospects, live more fulfilling lives, generate more revenue for their bosses and would be less likely to resort to criminal behaviour in the future

[9] In this new era where productivity has got to be our watchword, we need a law that first of all makes employing a minor a statutory criminal offence. We then need to introduce a German-style national vocational training scheme under which everyone over the age of 16 gets free three-year training at a technical college. Every house help in Nigeria should be immediately enrolled under this scheme

[10] One of the hallmarks of apartheid was that the Afrikaners lived off the fat of the land and employed blacks as their domestic servants. There is no way you can describe the relationship between a boss and his or her house help as humane. It is an exploitative relationship designed to get the maximum out of another human being. Those who claim they are helping the less well-off should get them trained if they are that concerned. In the modern Nigeria we are trying to build, there is no room for 19th century practices like serfdom, servitude and domestic slavery. I actually find it surprising that in this automated world of today, Nigerians do not find it embarrassing that they are still employing house helps. We hold 21st century parties in Dubai then return to 17th century serfdom a week later. When the rest of the world is moving towards automation, we are still thinking like Victorians. We need a radical mindset change as we contemplate a future without oil but I am not yet convinced we are ready for the adjustments required.