- Nigerian employers need to be much more careful when hiring domestic servants
The recent arrest of a driver who organised the kidnapping of his Filipino bosses is yet another grim reminder of the very real danger posed by subordinates who betray their employers instead of serving them.
The driver, Yinka Adebanjo, allegedly connived with six others to kidnap Mr. Jamie Larcar and Mr. Mario Maglundo and hold them until a ransom of N4 million was paid. They were kept in Iperu-Remo in Ogun State for nine days after being abducted in Odogunyan, Ikorodu, Lagos State, while being driven by Adebanjo. After their release, policemen from the anti-kidnapping unit of the Lagos State Police Command arrested the driver in Ikotun, and he led them to other members of the gang.
This case has all the ingredients familiar to a phenomenon that has become all too common across Nigeria. The driver had all the information regarding the targets’ location, movements, capacity to pay and other intelligence necessary to a successful kidnapping. As their driver, all he had to do was to arrange for other members of the gang to wait at a convenient spot to carry out the abduction.
The country’s recent past is replete with stories of housemaids who have conspired with armed robbers to loot the homes of their employers in their absence, personal servants who have robbed and killed their employers, and nannies who have kidnapped the children they were hired to look after.
Running through these tales is a gullibility that is amazingly persistent. Nigerians repeatedly hire domestic servants on social media sites without seeking references of any sort, without obtaining authentic guarantors, and without carrying out security and background checks. At best, they usually depend on the dubious recommendation of acquaintances whose claims cannot be verified.
To make matters worse, a troublingly high percentage of employers treat their servants with very little concern for their welfare and negligible acknowledgement of their human dignity. Domestic servants in particular suffer all kinds of ill-treatment, ranging from long working hours, sexual harassment and physical abuse. Drivers are expected to resume early and sign off late, and often have to undertake tasks well outside the scope of their official duties.
The optimism inherent in the social mobility of the past years is often denied these servants who can no longer hope that their children will rise to positions of social prominence like those they are serving. The scarcity of jobs makes them even more vulnerable to the caprices of cruel employers; the absence of domestic workers’ unions and the scant regard for servants by law-enforcement agencies only compounds the problem.
In essence, a toxic combination of poor vetting, harsh treatment, economic recession and the absence of institutional safeguards has created a situation in which many of those who work for others also prey on them.
If the phenomenon of insider kidnappings is to be reduced to the barest minimum, strategies must be evolved to make them less easy to undertake. The employment of domestic servants should be streamlined to make it more open and transparent. Government can encourage the establishment of licensed agencies which can hire out properly-registered domestic servants, with verified home addresses, authenticated guarantors and comprehensive biometric data. Background checks must become a compulsory aspect of the hiring process, and a comprehensive database of all domestic servants should be made available to prospective employers.
Employers themselves must stop engaging in the casual hiring of domestic servants. Word-of-mouth recommendations are insufficient for employing strangers who will work intimately with one. Greater social protections must be established for domestic workers to protect them against inhuman treatment and exploitation.
Ultimately, however, increased caution must be the watchword. The more difficult a prospective target is to kidnap, the less incentive servant-kidnappers will have to activate their nefarious plans.
