A pivotal research publication exposing the challenges faced by domestic workers (DWs) in Nigeria has been launched in Abuja, Nigeria.
Supported by the Rosa Luxemburg Foundation West Africa, the research looked into the precarious states of domestic workers in the country.
The study, conducted in Abuja and Lagos, delves into critical issues such as working hours, wages, sexual abuse, and the potential for unionization to integrate DWs into mainstream labor organizations like the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC), amongst other burning issues.
The authors include Ms Hauwa Mustapha, an eminent researcher, labour activist, and board member of the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC), and Comrade Lekan Soneye, an activist, lecturer, and researcher on the informal workforce. Prof. Etannibi E.O. Alemika, an eminent researcher and retired professor of Criminology and Sociology of Law from the University of Jos (UNIJOS), was the consultant on the project. Both Ms Mustapha and Abah (CEE-HOPE’s founder) were present at the event.
Also launched at the occasion was another publication sponsored by the Rosa Luxemburg Foundation West Africa, “Aluta Continua: The Story of Nigerian Student Movement (1992-1992).” It was edited by Onyeisi Chiemeke and Chijioke Uwasomba.
The launch of the publications at the Rockview Hotel in Abuja attracted several persons, including members of the human rights community and academia in Abuja and beyond. They include Dr. Claus Dieter Konig, Regional Director of Rosa Luxemburg Foundation West Africa; Hon. Uche Onyaguocha, a former House of Reps member, former Secretary to the Imo State Government, and a student union leader in his younger days, was the chairman of the occasion.
Ms Ene Obi, former Country Director of ActionAid Nigeria, and other prominent activists and scholars, such as Hon. Abdul Oroh, former House of Reps member, Dr. Otive Igbuzor, Chido Onumah, John Odah, Nasiru Kura, Comrade Sa’eed Husaini, and several others, graced the well-attended occasion.
The books were reviewed by Prof. Y.Z. Yau, the Director-General of the Centre for Information Technology and Development (CITAD) and Convener of the Nigeria Civil Society Situation Room, and Dr. Magdalene Igbolo, an Associate Professor of Sociology at the University of Abuja, respectively.
The event featured two panel discussions dissecting the books’ themes. Conversations around the domestic workers’ publication explored working conditions, the National Minimum Wage’s applicability, child labor, unpaid labor by young relatives, the pending Domestic Workers’ Bill in the National Assembly, and the undomesticated International Labour Organisation’s Convention 189 on fair treatment for domestic workers.
The potential for unionization among Nigerian DWs is currently ongoing in several African countries and others around the world, which mitigates the abuses and other unsavoury work experiences faced by DWs in the country.
In the second book, there were reminiscences by some of the former students’ union leaders present who are currently heavyweights in the human rights communities. The speakers, including Ene Obi, who was the first female SUG president of UNIJOS in 1989, spoke about the resilience, selflessness, and the battles fought as youngsters, especially in the military era, for a saner Nigeria.
While lamenting the decline in activism tempo and compromise in some instances amongst the current crop of student union leaders, some speakers canvassed for intergenerational engagement. Miss Kangyang Jane Pwajok, a medical student and current student union leader of UNIJOS, was also present at the meeting.
Mrs. Angela Odah, Country Manager of Rosa Luxemburg Foundation West Africa, thanked the attendants, writers, and book reviewers while deeply acknowledging her boss, Dr. Dieter Konig, for his immense support towards the success of the book projects as well as the work of the German international agency in the West African subregion in general.