Samuel Akpan, a 49-year-old indigenous man from Abak Oko in Ikot Ekpene, Akwa Ibom state, read literary and English studies at the University of Calabar.
Today, he earns N30,000 every month working as a contract security guard with a pharmaceutical company in Ilupeju, Lagos.
“Security guards hired to monitor businesses and private residents do not receive uniform salaries, depending on their rates or locations,” he said.
Richard Amuwa, Managing Director of Mega Guards Limited, Abule Egba, Lagos, confirmed this by saying that the payment is generally made at a ratio of 70: 30 percent.
However, an independent verification reveals that the operations and activities of the more than 250 registered and recognized private security companies are regulated by the Nigerian Security and Civil Defense Corps, NSCDC.
But who today regulates the activities of domestic workers by the millions in Nigeria? Gbenga Komolafe, general secretary of the Federation of Informal Workers’ Organizations of Nigeria, FIWON, says there are no regulations for domestic workers in the country.
Miss Funke Lawal, who hails from Abeokuta, Ogun State, receives N300 every day doing all kinds of menial work from dawn to dust at a restaurant located at the vesper bus stop, along the Lagos highway -Abeokuta in Ifo, Ogun state.
According to her calculations, her slave salary translates to N7200 every month, as she regretted that “she will resume at five in the morning, from Monday to Saturday, sweeping, cooking, washing dishes, pots and then she will start serving customers. when they arrive “.
Nigerian National Bureau of Statistics says that in our country with an estimated population of 203 million people, the number of unemployed people increased from 5.5 million in 2015 to 21.7 million in 2020.
In the same period under review, the number of people living below the poverty line increased from 43.1 million to 102.1 million today.
“Therefore, people like Akpan and Lawal are among the millions desperate for a living, doing all kinds of housework and household jobs to survive,” Komolafe said.
The FIWON scribe further lamented these domestic workers who take care of people’s most important valuables such as: children, the elderly, property, welfare, etc., they are paid slave wages at the whims and whims of their boss and with heavy work overloads.
He explained that based on this FIWON decided to establish the cooperative society and the training branches of the NGO, where domestic workers in the country, who do not have retirement, maternity, social benefits or government subsidies, could be assisted. . in the formation of credit and savings cooperatives, regardless of their location.