Heartwarming gesture has emerged amidst a viral video controversy surrounding an 11-year-old girl assisting her mother with a cleaning job in Lagos.
Gatekeepers News reports that Tunde Onakoya, a renowned Nigerian chess master, has offered to sponsor the girl’s education up to university level.
The video, which showed the mother and daughter sweeping a street in Ikoyi, sparked a heated debate on social media. Activist JustAdetoun condemned the mother for involving her child in cleaning services, labeling it as “child labour.”
However, Onakoya took a different approach.
Onakoya, who is the founder of Chess-In-Slums, expressed dismay over the public shaming of the mother in front of her child. Reflecting on his own childhood struggles, he recalled how his mother worked menial jobs to make ends meet.
“Extremely cruel to humiliate a mother in front of her daughter like this. Even worse that this was recorded and posted on social media,” he wrote.
“My mother used to sweep people’s houses and gutters in 2016. It hurt too much that I could do nothing financially to stop her. I often insisted on going with her, just to help fetch the water she needed so we could finish quicker and get back home before daylight. I didn’t want anyone to see us. The poverty that pushes one to hide their labour in the dark is a painful one.
“Yes, that child should not be working. But more than outrage, what she and her mother deserve is compassion. The only humane response is to help.
“If no one has done this already, I would like to take full responsibility for the girl’s education through university. I hope this eases their burden in some way. These are incredibly hard times.
“Our Privilege blinds us in ways we’ll never truly understand.”
