Nigeria

By Uzair Adam Imam

Niger Republic has sought greater cooperation through the strengthening of students’ exchange programmes and other related issues on collaborations with tertiary institutions between the country and Kano State.

The Niger Republic Minister of Vocational training, Kassoum Mamane Moctar and his counterpart of Education and Scientific research, Dr Mamadou Djibo from the same neighbouring West African country, made the proposal.

The Chief Press Secretary to the Deputy Governor of Kano State, Hassan Musa Fagge, in a statement signed Thursday, disclosed.

The minister said many years back, students from Niger Republic came to Nigeria, particularly Kano, to study in various tertiary institutions.

He said, “now we want that students exchange programme to be revived and sustained”.

“Through the partnership, we will promote quality of education and research in both our tertiary institutions, which will be of benefit to all of us,” he stated.

Responding on behalf of the Governor, his Deputy Dr Nasiru Yusuf Gawuna said Kano State is ready to collaborate with Niger Republic in areas of interest and benefit.

Gawuna thanked the delegation from Niger Republic for the visit and assured them of cooperation.

By Muhammad Sabiu

Following a horrific attack on foreigners by criminals, the Nigeria Union South Africa (NUSA) confirmed the death of another Nigerian, Nicholas John, in South Africa on Thursday.

Mr. Collins Mgbo, the President of NUSA, disclosed John’s death in a statement to NAN on Thursday.

On February 12, a mob allegedly attacked John, an Ogun State native, at his shop in Kimberly, Northern Cape, South Africa.

Many young Nigerians who immigrated to South Africa to find work have continued to perish.

According to NAN, at least 128 Nigerians have been slain in the erstwhile Rainbow Nation since the beginning of 2019.

On December 12, 2021, a man named Olusola Solarin died after hoodlums attacked him and stole his money.

Mgbo revealed that John’s South African wife had just been married for three months.

On the circumstances surrounding Nicholas’ death on Tuesday, the NUSA president stated that a South African gang assaulted him on February 11 for allegedly purchasing a stolen laptop.

By Sumayyah Auwal Usman

The worsening fuel scarcity that hit Kaduna State has forced several motorists to abandon their vehicles in queues at many filling stations when petrol was not available to go back home.

The Daily Reality visited some filling stations and observed that long queues have risen exponentially. Motorists were seen in the early hours, precisely, 6.30 am, queueing at Mobil Fuel Station, Independence Way, Kaduna, where PMS was dispensed via only one nozzle point with four orders inactive.

Also, at the filling stations on Constitution Road, Ali Akilu Road, Yakowa Way, among others, fuel attendants were seen turning back motorists.

The development came almost one week after the import of millions of dirty PMS from Europe into Nigeria disrupted the fuel supply system of the country, leading to long queues nationwide. The situation has resulted in total confusion and long lines of vehicles at various filling stations in the metropolis.

By Ahmad Deedat Zakari

The Minister of Justice and Attorney General of the Federation, Abubakar Malami (SAN), said reasonable grounds for suspicion had been established against the embattled Deputy Police Commissioner, Abba Kyari.

Malami disclosed this while featuring on Channels Television’s ‘Politics Today’ programme on Monday, February 7.

According to Malami, “Reasonable grounds for suspicion have been established, and that will eventually translate to the possibility of prosecution and conviction if indeed one is adjudged guilty by the law.”

The discussion became necessary due to Kyari’s alleged involvement in a $1 million scam allegedly involving the international internet fraudster, Ramon Abbas, alias Hushpuppi and five others. 

Malami also noted that justice would be done, “It is an issue that has international and national dimensions. Actions have been taken, it is a work-in-process locally and internationally, and we are doing what it takes to ensure justice is done within the context of law regardless of the personalities that are involved,” He said.

By Sa’adatu Aliyu

In August 2020, the Port of Beirut came under explosive attacks, which shook the country’s very foundation. After many reports came in after that, it was said that another attack to have shaken the country with such intensity was that which killed the then Prime Minister Rafik Hariri in 2005.

Before the explosion, however, Beirut had been struggling with its economy, thanks to its widespread corruption. That already had it standing at the doorstep of the World Bank begging for financial relief. It also saw many of its populace unemployed, uncertain of the future.

Therefore, for a country already grappling to pay its citizens their salaries, with families finding it increasingly hard to feed their children or send them to school, the explosion added fuel to the fire. After much investigation, it was gathered that the port officials had been indirectly responsible for the incident, which killed and injured many. This is because the large amount of chemicals initially bound for Uganda was instead stashed up in the Beirut port, left without any safety preservative precautions taken to prevent an imminent attack.

After that, Beirut was indeed to see itself knocking at the gates of the World Bank, yet again-if once silently and with patience – then now it was with desperation for help. It would, in fact, at this point turn its hands to accept any offer coming in from any country but most importantly, the Saudi government with which it maintains a close political tie.

What makes me liken the Nigerian state to the status quo in Beirut is its corruption and the most recent proposition by the government on the possible removal of fuel subsidy. For a country whose system is heavily built on corruption and even more so we can say still thrives because of it, I am afraid to say that I hope we, too, do not one day wake up to the smokes of our country in flames with everyone running helter-skelter in search for safety.

Beirut’s reality stares Nigeria in the face. The trudging of its imminent collapse is ever so closer. Abject poverty remains the order of the day with the larger part of the population living below one dollar; price for education forcing worry heaves and sighs out of its largely lower-middle-class population, price of food items costing twice more than before. To make matters worse, the state of our country’s security has never been so fragile and then to have life becoming more difficult by the removal of fuel subsidy by a government on which many have placed the hope of a better living condition is to assert to the population that the government lacks any sense of good direction.

I don’t want to sound pessimistic. However, with the country’s challenges rising every day and a government that focuses more on enriching themselves and their families, I cannot see a brighter future for us either.

With the drama in display and the Nigerian state calmly maintaining its dance on the tracks of lagging-behind countries, and as we face yet another upcoming election next year, I pray we do not wake up to the scorching burns of increased crime rate, escalating terrorism, among other ills.

One thing that doesn’t require divine telling is that Nigerians have never felt more apathetic towards the system. We are all bracing for what lies ahead.

Sa’adatu Aliyu comes from Kogi state. She is a graduate of English Language from Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria and a Masters student in Literature at the same institution. Her email is saadatualiyu36@gmail.com.

By Usama Abdullahi

Nothing could be scarier than seeing some people sympathising with the ruthless murderer of little Haneefa Abubakar. Anyone who does that does it out of unflinching apathy toward human’s life. Liu Jan, a Chinese billionaire businessman, was convicted of murder and executed in February 2015 simply because he ran a mafia-style gang. Likewise, one of his siblings and some other three associates were executed. 

If this could happen in a well-evolved, progressive and most populous country on earth, I wonder why it wouldn’t happen here in Nigeria. Does it mean Nigerians are the most softhearted people in the whole wide world? Of course, no. If issues of sympathy arise, I bet many Nigerians would bury themselves in shame because they are wont of barbarism.

Our hypocrisy knows no boundary and is second to none. It’s deep-rooted, and we seem not ready to change for the better. Innocent poor people are cruelly barbecued as chickens and kidnapped daily, yet the (un)repentant criminals are warmly received and mollycoddled. Their barbaric actions are overlooked. Unfortunately, those wounded and displaced to new unfavourable suburbs are left unaided.

It’s a grave sin to glorify or pardon criminals whenever they fake repentance. This is why our country breeds a generation of stubborn criminals and why insecurity thrives. Actually, we do no justice by neglecting the fact that those criminals are worthless and deserve to be tortured to death just as they did to our brothers and sisters.

We escalate the precarious situations of our dear nation by being soft on criminals. No doubt that laws in this country are imposed upon the labouring classes or less privileged ones. If the needy steal to feed their bereaved or starved families, they are burned to ashes when caught by mobs who are thieves themselves. Those disadvantaged are primarily refugees and victims of bad governance. I’m not trying to justify their crimes either. No, I am not. 

But who do you think should be burned to ashes unhesitatingly? Yes, the real unsparing and often politically sponsored criminals, I suppose. It’s true that the so-called sympathisers neither mourn the slain nor denounce the slayers. On the contrary, they are quick to condone and gloat over innocent people’s death. One who sympathises with a criminal is either crueller or no different than the criminal himself.

By excusing barbarism, we are trying to eliminate these two words, “deterrence” and “justice”, from our constitution. If criminals are not punished accordingly, there’s no “deterrence”; many people will probably carry out their unlawful activities without fear. And if justice can’t be done too, then this society is lawless. Until Haneefa’s murderer, Abdulmalik, faces the death penalty, I will never forgive our judicial system.

Usama Abdullahi wrote from Abuja, Nigeria. He can be reached at usamagayyi@gmail.com.

By Lawan Bukar Maigana 

The Nigerian government was lucky enough to salvage itself from the intractable calamity it wanted to put itself in—the implications of removing subsidies on petroleum products from July this year. Whoever advised FG to suspend their noxious plans to remove subsidies on the products mentioned above is a true lover of the vast majority of Nigerians and Nigeria as a country.

Even though virtually every country in the world today battles an economic downturn, it is still unjustifiable for the FG to remove subsidies on petroleum products at this critical point. The country is fighting ethnoreligious conflict, refuse-to-end Boko Haram, kidnapping, banditry, mass employment, non-quality education, poor health services for the masses, illiteracy, and unpatriotic leaders, which other countries or most don’t. 

I said it even before the government took a second look at its ugly plan to make subsidies on petroleum products history at the detriment of patients citizens. Had the plan come true, the country would have scattered, and perhaps the avoided fear would have been unavoidable because no one can bear the impact of removing subsidies on petroleum products, not even the haves can. 

Nigeria would have had an unprecedentedly historic hike in foodstuff prices, transportation fare, building materials, medication, among others. And there would be a collapse of many companies in the country because they too cannot bear it, and the cost of living would be unbelievably unexplainable. 

The inflation rate has never been so alarming as today in the country, and it keeps rising every day. Yet, the FG wanted to turn a blind eye to it and remove subsidies on petroleum products from July this year until a group of genuine professionals reviewed the plan and finally rejected it because of the nation’s current state. 

Kudos to the considerate committee for being truthful to themselves. Every reasonable person knows that doing anything that will result in a hike in prices of commodities and services in Nigeria is untimely because most people are still ‘youth.’ Anyone who is economically unestablished is a youth regardless of their age. 

In 2021, the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) extrapolated that “ Nigeria’s annual inflation rate rose to 15.63% in December of 2021, after eight straight months of decline, amid a slight acceleration in prices of major component food (17.4% vs 17.2% in November), linked to the increase in demand during the festive season. Upward pressure also came from non-food products, including transport (15%, the same as in November); clothing & footwear (15.1% vs 14.8%); miscellaneous goods & services (14.1% vs 14%); housing & utilities (11.1% vs 10.6%), among others. 

The annual core inflation rate, which excludes the prices of agricultural produce, rose further to 13.87% in December, the highest since April of 2017, from 13.85% in the prior month. Monthly, consumer prices inched up by 1.82%, the most since May of 2017, after a 1.08% increase in the prior month.

The Consumer Price Index (CPI) measures the change over time in the prices of 740 goods and services consumed by people for day-to-day living. The index weights are based on expenditures of both urban and rural households in the 36 states. The most important categories in the CPI are Food and Non-Alcoholic Beverages (51.8 per cent of total weight); Housing, Water, Electricity, Gas and Other Fuel (16.7 per cent) and Clothing and Footwear (7.7 per cent). 

Transports account for 6.5 per cent of the total index and Furnishings and Household Equipment Maintenance for 5 per cent. Education represents 3.9 per cent of total weight. Health is 3 per cent, Miscellaneous Goods and Services 1.7 per cent, and Restaurants and Hotels 1.2 per cent. Alcoholic Beverages, Tobacco and Kola account for 1.1 per cent of the total index, Communications for 0.7 per cent and Recreation and Culture for the remaining 0.7 per cent.” 

So, tell me how we can endure the impact of removing subsidies on petroleum products in Nigeria? I am happy that the Nigerian government has indefinitely suspended the planned removal of subsidies on petroleum products. 

Lawan Bukar Maigana writes from Maiduguri, Borno State, and can be reached at lawanbukarmaigana@gmail.com

By Kabiru Danguguwa

January 15, 1966, was the beginning of ethnopolitical division in Nigeria, followed by a civil war a year later. One may argue that colonialists initiated this division when they amalgamated the two, perhaps unrelated, protectorates for easy administration and exploitation in 1914. This manifested in the political parties formed on ethnic lines as a prerequisite for self-rule. Whatever the genesis of our division might be, January 15 1966, has been instrumental.

Different regimes have made several attempts, perhaps in vain, to create unity in diversity to address the above issue. Unfortunately, our democracy has not been a solution either. In a book chapter published in 2018, I argued that Nigeria’s democracy had recorded only one achievement. That’s the sustenance of “democratic rule” since 1999 without the return of the military. This is an outstanding achievement indeed. Thus, I conceptualised Nigeria’s democracy as an electoral democracy.

One of the most critical steps in electoral democracy is the transfer of power from the military to civilians, which happened in Nigeria in 1999. The remaining significant features are conducting elections as provided by the constitution and governing citizens with at least some concern of the process of law. From 1999 to 2019, we witnessed six general elections every four years as the constitution demands. The government also, to some extent, care about the citizens. Political science students may agree that we are operating above a facade democracy and, of course, below the liberal democracy found in the West. Put simply, unlike some countries in Africa and Latin America; we keep our military in the barracks and other places they constitutionally belong.

On the other side of the coin, the 23-year old Nigeria’s democracy is full of conundrums. The democracy is so illiberal that some citizens think of going back to the colonial era or the least, returning to military dictatorship. We often celebrate former military heads of state, especially when comparing them with civilian leaders. We almost unanimously prefer the military personalities of the people that ruled as military heads of state to their characters as civilian leaders. What is wrong with our democracy?

As 2023 approaches, just like the previous general elections, Nigerians are being divided over the choices of political parties and candidates that will govern the county. Several divisions emerged; some have been with us since the 1960s, while others were recently created. The North-South division might have come to stay. Southwest-Southeast has also been there for decades. There’s also Igbo versus the rest of Nigeria, mainly connected to January 15, 1966, and the Civil War.

There are at least two recently created or popularised divisions: Yoruba versus the rest of Nigeria and Yoruba versus the North. The duo, especially the former, is connected to the alleged concentration of the present government’s efforts on the welfare and well-being of Lagos and Lagosians.

Other popular divisions are APC-PDP and intra-political party rivalry between camps and political groups. I don’t believe in the religious division, for there are many Christians in the North and numerous Muslims in the South. There is Nigerian youth versus old-timers rift.

Political trends show that Northern Nigeria is more united politically. The North showcased its unity in 2015 when Boko Haram was on the verge of crippling socio-economic activities in the region. Out of optimism, people hated the regime of the day in favour of a Northern candidate. Forgive my conceptualisation of the North to include those who see themselves as Northerners.

There is a need for another unity as the region faces another severe problem mightier than pre-2015 general elections. In 2023, we must gear our unity using our strengths to present candidates who can deliver irrespective of their backgrounds and political parties. The South has never, since 1999, been united, but Yorubas have been. Look at how Southwest (Lagos), with Vice President, has been benefiting from this administration at the expense of the entire country. I firmly believe that we should only be united, not too ambitious. They say “politics is a game of numbers”, and we have the “numbers”.

Kabiru Ibrahim Danguguwa lectures at the Department of History and International Studies, Yusuf Maitama Sule University, Kano. He can be reached via kabiru.ibrahim87@gmail.com.

By Ambali Abdulkabeer

On January 22, 2022, a seemingly terse letter by one Muhammad Rabiu Jibril to the perennial critic of Nigeria’s asphyxiating political system and its enablers was published by The Daily Reality, an online news medium headquartered in Kano. In the letter, Bashir writes about Kperogi’s consistent verbal umbrage at Nigeria’s geriatric political stagers and asks him to recommend a candidate for Nigerians in the 2023 elections. Bashir implicitly hints that faulting our leaders alone won’t suffice. More worryingly, several people who commented on the letter challenge Kperogi to, in lieu of writing belligerent, “big grammar” articles to condemn all the candidates currently available for Nigerians to pick from in 2023, come out and participate in the laborious task of choosing a leader for Nigerians during elections. That, to me, seems ignorant at best and unwarranted at worst. Here is why.

We need to understand that political participation is in layers. In other words, our involvement in politics, as significant as it is, can take various forms. Some of these include voting during elections, participating in mature political campaigns, conducting political sensitisations especially in places far removed from the mainstream politics, holding political positions, donating money to a political cause (in the interest of collective prosperity), participating in meetings that keep citizens close to their leaders and blogging writing about political happenings.

It’s unarguable that Prof. Farooq Kperogi is renowned for one or all of the above. As a dyed-in-the-wool political commentator and justice advocate, he writes consistently about political issues. His writing has propelled many public decisions that have shaped the country’s economic, social, cultural and political trajectories. His weekly political columns are devoted to critically analysing the myriad of sociopolitical issues bedevilling Nigeria in the last three decades or more. For me, this is a heavier role to assume by someone who, despite not being directly affected by several political diseases in the country, takes his country’s progress as a priority.

The fact that Kperogi has taken it upon himself to right the wrongs of the monsters in power by exposing their egregiously corrupt practices, not minding the consequences, should be enough for us to know that he wants the best for the country.

Ngugi wa Thiong’o, the Kenyan man of letters, aptly reminds us about the responsibility of a writer in his essay “Writers in Politics: The Power of Words and the Words of Power” when he argues that writers in politics operate within complex forces. He refers to them as people who risk many things to create a befittingly just world. One of the paragraphs in the strongly-worded essay is worth quoting here:

“He (writer) must reject, repudiate and negate his roots in the native bourgeoisie and its spokesmen, and finds his true creative links with the pan-African masses over the earth in alliance with all the socialistic forces of the world. He must, of course, be very particular, very involved in a grain of sand, but must also see the world past, present, and future in that grain. He must write with all the vibrations and tremors of the struggles of the working people in Africa…behind him. Yes, his work must show commitment, not to abstract notions of justice and peace, but the actual struggle of African peoples…and be in position to lay the only correct basis for real peace and real justice”.

In all fairness to Prof. Farooq Kperogi, his writing has always been within the prism of the above-identified responsibilities of writers, especially those who are caught up in the terrible sociopolitical conditions of countries like Nigeria. Nigeria is plagued by existential problems, including bad leadership, mass ignorance, and smelling regional biases exemplified in people’s attitudes toward the establishment and others. Therefore, for anything, any writer that informs their people and unrelentingly writes to challenge the status quo by giving the blueprint for emancipation and genuine leadership, which Nigeria truly needs, doesn’t deserve ill-founded condemnation.

This is not to argue that Prof. Kperogi’s political essays are watertight recommendations; it’s hard to discredit the courage and foresight his work forges for concerned Nigerians. Perhaps, this is what Breyten Breytenbach means in his polemical essay titled “The Writer and Responsibility” when he says, “a writer, any writer, to my mind has at least two tasks, sometimes overlapping; he is the questioner and the implacable critic of the mores and attitudes and myths of his society, but he is also the exponent of the aspirations of his people”.

Those who have commented on Jibril’s letter by calling Prof. Kperogi out should know that it takes massive grit to do what he is doing. They should know that his writing is really helpful. Even though he is not in Nigeria, he is doing what many Nigerians who are direct victims of the mess the country is enmeshed in can’t or fail to do. Of course, many scholars in Nigeria should have taken it upon themselves to inform the public through writing and go against the grain in the interest of a better Nigeria.

I would end this essay this way: Voting during elections isn’t the only way to participate in politics. Before voting, voters need to have the required knowledge of the process and understand the qualities a responsible political aspirant should possess. They must also come to terms with the power dynamics in the country and know who is fit to say this and that on their behalf. This is the leitmotif in Kperogi’s writing. So, before launching baseless ad hominem digs at a patriotic Nigerian who is voluntarily doing his part to fight for a country we can all cherish, we should understand that the role of a writer, first and foremost, is to inform. And that is exactly what Prof. Kperogi is doing.

Ambali Abdulkabeer is a writer and critic of contemporary writing. He can be reached via abdulkabeerambali@gmail.com.

By Yusuf Shuaibu Yusuf

Though there is still one form of slavery or the other worldwide, I was particular on this topic after watching recent footage showing how a housemaid was savagely killed by her supposed Arab employer. I, therefore, aim to join multiple voices clamouring for the governments of some Gulf countries, United Nations and other international communities to end the practice of domestic servitude whose victims are primarily African and Asian migrants. These poor people are stuck in many Gulf countries. The housemaids undergo horrendous treatment. Among these victims are many Nigerians who leave their country for political or economic reasons. 

At first, I couldn’t have expounded on issues so sensitive as this, even more so, as it involves the place of birth of our Noble Prophet, the country inhabiting the holy sites, the Qibla and the pilgrimage of any Muslim. Still, the issue at hand transcends any sentiment. 

While many Arabs in Gulf countries are piously angelic, treating their housemaids with honour and dignity, others are contrary to that. Instead, they are fiendishly sadistic as they take delight in humiliating their African and Asian housemaids, turning them into modern-day slaves.

Since time immemorial, it has been a long tradition for African Muslims to stay in Saudi Arabia and work as domestic servants after performing their religious obligations. Consequently, domestic service in Saudi Arabia came to be considered lucrative jobs among many Asians and Africans, particularly Nigerians.

Recently, due to political and economic challenges, Nigeria has witnessed the proliferation of bogus travel agents who fill their clients with utopian ideals about Gulf countries and who themselves are loosely linked with the recruiting firms in those countries. Desperate to leave the country, these clients easily fall for these lies and illusions. Hence, there has been an influx of youth from Nigeria into Saudi Arabia, Oman, Dubai, Qatar, Lebanon and some few Arab countries in Africa like Libya and Algeria. 

While most of the pilgrims working as domestic servants in Saudi Arabia before were primarily people of diverse age and sex, the recent influx has seen political refugees and economic migrants constituting of youth – predominantly females. Some of these migrants usually become disillusioned a few days after their arrivals in such countries as their recruiters leave them at the mercy of their employers. Having nobody to turn to for help, they often become subject to molestation and other forms of gender-based violence.

Women are believed to be more exposed and vulnerable to all sorts of these harassments than men. Perhaps their relatively delicate biological constitution and the fact that most of them live in the same compounds with their employers heighten their risks of being abused. 

The emotional story of “Sarah”, a Ghanaian maid in Lebanon who narrowly made her escape from the abusive family she had been working for, is an excellent example of how prone to abuse housemaids are. Sarah is not her real name for privacy sake. Shortly after her escape, she narrates to Mark Stone, a Middle East correspondent, how she was raped at knifepoint by her employer’s brother while taking a bath. 

It was also recounted, in another video clip, by a former housemaid in one of the Arab countries that a housemaid can be called to work at any time. A housemaid is not assigned one particular job like cooking, cleaning, or attending to children. Instead, she is given different tasks like attending to the sexual needs of her employer or some members of his family or both. Should she fail one of these tasks, she is treated savagely. 

The case of housemaids being thrashed by their bosses in Gulf countries has become a norm. Racist and invective are the common languages used to address the housemaids on slight provocation.

I couldn’t believe what my eyes saw in one footage sent to my sister on September 16, 2021, from Saudi Arabia via WhatsApp. I had never before imagined a barbarous and atrocious act of that magnitude could be perpetrated against animals at this so-called civilized age, much less a human being. The footage videotapes a person, allegedly a Saudi nobleman, attired decently in Arab dress, closing in on a black lady, supposedly his maid, who is lying on the floor, screaming, frantically struggling to disentangle herself from her supposed killer. But, on the other hand, stands, a broadly built woman, dressed in a green jacket, clenched in her left hand is what looks like a syringe, yelling at the struggling and screaming woman to stop resisting (at what only God knows what). This second black lady could be a nurse or anything else.

I’m sure that she is also under the payroll of this assumed killer. Even though the man’s intention is bent on killing the other housemaid, this woman has never attempted to intervene. Throughout the footage, she can just be seen yelling and pleading with the screaming girl to stop resisting. The man is captured in the video clip incessantly hitting the face of this screaming lady with his right hand and his right knee while pinning her down with his left hand and his left knee so that she can’t escape. Finally, the man ruthlessly strangulates her.

Prompted by this macabre footage, I tenaciously grew more curious and went further to download some television interviews, more violent footage and audios (some of which I have already hinted about) of some ex-housemaids in Gulf countries recounting their harrowing experiences while conducting their jobs as housemaids. 

According to Middle East Eye, the first video is of Sumi Akter 25-year-old Bangladeshi maid, bitterly and soulfully crying and begging for her escape.  She shares how she was beaten, tortured and abused by her employer and his family in Saudi Arabia. She is said to have posted the video from a hidden location to her Facebook account, where millions viewed it, which prompted protests in Bangladesh. 

Another footage of a black lady trying to get out from what looks like a toilet while being sent back by repeated flogs by her supposed Arab boss. As shown in the video clip, the incident occurs in a family room in an Arab quarter in an unidentified country. Arab family and other black housemaids are in the footage. An Arab lady asks the enraged boss to stop beating the black lady, but he doesn’t seem to listen. Later the beaten housemaid is captured standing in the middle of the living room, desperate, her back awash with blood. 

An ex-Nigerian housemaid in Oman shared her tormenting experience in audio recently trending on social media. She recounts how she had to leave two jobs because of advances made to her by her lesbian mistresses.

To end this crime, the countries these victims come from should impose laws checkmating the activities of those bogus domestic service agencies and their clients internationally. They should also ensure the rights of their citizens are not only protected within their countries but also in foreign countries. The governments of the Gulf states should crack down on those households who take advantage of the defenceless migrant domestic workers in their states. The killers such as the one described above shouldn’t go unpunished. They should be tracked down and brought to justice to serve as deterrents to others. United Nations should also formulate stricter laws safeguarding the rights of domestic workers internationally. 

Yusuf Shuaibu Yusuf sent this via yusufshuaibuyusuf@gmail.com.