NewsPeopleAnother Shock for Victims of Boko Haram Residing In Host Community

Out of more than 2 million displaced persons as a result of eleven years of insurgency in Nigeria, 25 households are now residing in host communities within Makama “D” ward, Yola town headquarters of Yola South Local Government Council in Adamawa state.

 The displaced persons are facing another challenge of life as the residents referred to them as “Yan Gudun Hijira,” a Hausa word meaning Refugee which they now considered as derogatory considering their long stay in the community.

According to findings, the use of the phrase has negative effects on the victims as they are being treated as second-class citizens which repudiated them from exercising their rights as Nigerians with male residents refusing to marry female children of the displaced persons.

Despite their longest stay in the community with their own personal houses, the residents are no longer calling the victims and their families with their names, but always refer to them as refugees.

Commenting, the ward head Makama “D” ward, Yola town, Alhaji Muhammad Sali some of the displaced persons have spent more than four years and have not shown any interest back to their ancestral homes why calling with the derogatory phrase when they have their names and that of their families.

“Even children while playing with their peers refer to their father as “Dan gudun Hijira”, it is wrong, society should have a rethink, it is not their making that they found themselves in that situation, and it is a calamity that befalls them.

“It goes to a point adult male in the host community are being denied marrying daughters of the displaced persons, this is uncalled for.

“We should not treat them like second class citizens, but embrace them and give them necessary support to heal the trauma of the crisis they pass through”, he said.

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Hassan Umar Shallpella (Regional Correspondent)

Veteran journalist and recipient of A.B.C Yola, Reporter of the Year Award (1997), Hassan Umar Shallpella, works with WAP as a Regional Correspondence. He was trained at Institute of Mass Communication and Technology Jos and Federal Radio Corporation of Nigeria, Training School Lagos.He was a News desk Editor and a Correspondent at the Punch newspaper and till 2019, was the Deputy Editor ofThe Scope newspaper.

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