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As the global community marks the 2026 Day of the African Child (DAC), a United Nations expert and renowned United States-based law professor, Uche Ofodile, has challenged the Nigerian government to urgently enact legislation protecting house helps from rampant abuse and molestation.
Ofodile, who serves as Africa’s representative on the UN Human Rights Council’s ‘Working Group on the Rights of Farmers,’ highlighted the harrowing plight of Nigerian child domestic workers (CDWs) in a statement commemorating this year’s DAC, themed: “Ensuring universal access to water, sanitation, and hygiene for every child in Africa.”
To ensure these legal frameworks are effective, Ofodile outlined a comprehensive roadmap for the Federal Government, urging authorities to adopt mandatory reporting rules for professionals who interact with vulnerable children, including doctors and teachers, establish law review commissions to identify and close loopholes in existing federal and state child protection laws, impose stiffer penalties on individuals who unlawfully recruit, transport, harbor, receive, or hire child domestic workers, as well as those who abuse them and fully operationalise a social service system at both national and state levels specifically targeting children and vulnerable groups.
She also seek for the launch of a public sensitisation campaigns on existing laws and support services designed to protect children from abuse, and address socio-economic barriers to education and justice for children, particularly in underserved rural areas.
“No Nigerian child deserves to live and die in agony and misery in the name of child domestic work, foster care, or traditional guardianship. Poor children and those in rural areas deserve decent schools and economic opportunities. They should not have to sell their very souls to eat, receive an education, or access basic social services,” Ofodile said.
Reflecting on past tragedies, she added: “The voices of Ochanya, Chiziterem, and thousands of other children who have suffered from abuse and exploitative domestic work—disguised as child fostering—beckon us all. I call on the local, state, and federal governments, as well as Nigerian society, to immediately pass robust house help protection laws.”
