Residents decry foul language by herbalists - Shepherd Digest Magazine

Residents of Dutse Local Government Area of Jigawa have decried the use of foul language by traditional medicine sellers (herbalists) while marketing their products. 

A cross section of the residents expressed their disgust in separate interviews in Dutse on Saturday. Malam Yusif Ibrahim regretted that the herbalists used vulgar language to advertise their products. “The words which these traditional medicine sellers use in advertising their products are very immoral, irreligious and contrary to our cultural styles. 

“Honestly, these words are also offensive to the moral, religious and cultural lifestyles of the people of this area and state generally,” Ibrahim said. 

Another resident, Malam Ahmad Nasir, noted that the herbalists further use public address systems to say all sorts of offensive words to the hearing of everyone, not considering the ages and calibre of the audience. 

“These people shamelessly use microphone to say all these words in the presence of children, women and the elderly persons; they are against our cultural belief. “Honestly they must be regulated by the appropriate authorities,” Nasir said. 

One of the residents, Alhaji Ahmad Rufa’i, said that the activities of the herbalists conflict with the norms and values of the people in the area. Rufa’i pointed out that the words being used by the herbalists are unacceptable to the residents. 

“We send our children on errand to all these spots where these people sell their products. “And as children, there are some words or utterances they are not supposed to be hearing at their age, so religiously and culturally, this is not good development at all. 

“They even go further to use microphones for advertising the herbal medicines and our parents and wives clearly hear all these bad languages they use, and that is very bad to the upbringing of our children,’’ he lamented. 

The residents, therefore, called on concerned authorities to check the excesses of the herbalists as well as regulate their activities. 

This, they said, would assist in promoting and inculcating good cultural values in children and other citizens in the area.