Community leader tasks govt to arrest parents who turn their children into domestic servants

Chief Christopher Onyekwue, a community leader in Enu-Abomimi, Enugwu-Ukwu, in Njikoka Local Government Areas, Anambra, has called on government agencies related to Children welfare to arrest parents who send their children as domestic ‘servants’ to strangers.

He made the call in an interview with The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in  Enugwu-Ukwu Community of Anambra  on Thursday.

Onyekwue was reacting to the high record of abuse of underage children whose parents turn to domestic servants to total strangers or some relatives.

These stories have continued to trend on various news media.

Onyekwue said it is time for government agencies to introduce records of underage children used as domestic servants with rules and regulations to guide such services.

He suggested that grave penalties be meted out to both parties who engage in such unlawfully act as a way of putting a check on ill treatments of domestic servants in various homes across the country.

Onyekwue urged parents to have the number of children they can afford to cater for instead of using their children as business ventures where guardians treat their children like animals. Even animals do not deserve the type of treatment reported on pages of newspapers.

“The story of a 10-year-old girl who was battered just because she bedwetted is a proof of dangers associated with sending out underage children as domestic servants.

“The recent story of the girl, Oluebue, from Akpaugo community in Enugu state, which was all over the social media recently and many other unreported cases of abuse of domestic servants are enough to put a check on that trade.

“Tell me how a normal human being can batter a minor in that manner simply because she bedwetted,” Onyekwue queried, saying “as if his own child of same age does not bedwe. To make matters worse it was the man of the house who battered the girl.

“This is why I call on the government to arrest the parents because they have demonstrated the highest sense of irresponsibility and inability to train their children.

“These type of people should be made to realise that children are not transferable commodities and should be punished severely for inhuman act towards their children.

“Children are minors, they cannot speak for themselves, therefore government should speak for and protect them at all times,” he said.

He said that the Lord actually declared for people to bear children but HE never asked anyone to bear the ones that he or she cannot train.

According to Onyekwue, “In the modern world, parents bear only one or two children but in Africa, we have a high level of fornication, immorality and taste which push people into fulfilling flesh desires, thereby going into having many children who they force into unplanned slavery.”

He said that government at all levels should give free primary and secondary education to all citizens as a way to cushion high level hardship experienced by citizens.

This, he said, would create the spirit of oneness among Nigerians and cushion the negative economic effects which push parents into sending their children into “slavery”.

“It is also wrong for parents to send their young children to be domestic servants at the age they could barely defend themselves.

“Parents who trade their children should be arrested for bringing the innocent children into the earth unplanned. Unborn children need be well planned for, with adequate preparation and care.

“Parents who depend on people to train their children are big jokers and government should have a law to take away such children from their biological parents and hand them over to social welfare officers for better care,” he said.

“Even if a child is a product of out of wedlock or death of a spouse, the living should try and take care of the upkeep of children instead of slavery prospects and practices,” he said.

Onyekwue urged men to stop producing children they will later abandon either due to their mothers’ negative attitudes or death, rather more efforts need be put in the development of the children.

He said there is the need for public increase in neighborhood surveillance on child abuse, saying such cases should be reported immediately to government official in charge of child welfare or to the nearest police station.

He advises guardians of domestic servants who derive joy in kicking, beating and abusing other people’s children to remember the Lord’s judgement.

“It is much better to send back the servants to their biological parents on the discovery of unbearable faults than maltreat them,” he said.

He suggested a jail term of five years to any person caught molesting underage child as a deterring other persons who may be involved in the same cruelty.

Onyekwue said that war against abuse of a child is a collective responsibility of Nigerian adults to ensure the growth, protection and welfare of every child around them.

“Children are rare and strong gifts from God that need to be nurtured and grown to be full adults with sensibility. (NAN)