HomeFeaturesWe Have No Plans To Relocate – Hausa Community In Abia

We Have No Plans To Relocate – Hausa Community In Abia

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Yaro Danladi is the Sarkin Hausawa Abia. He is also the chairman, of Northern Traditional Council, South-South and South East, and chairman, Northern Community, Abia State. We first met many years ago in Umuahia while doing a similar story.  

Eket road is one of the main hubs of the Hausa community in Umuahia, where Sarkin Hausawa’s office is located.

Mahdi Adamu provides a definition of the position of Sarkin Hausawa in his The Hausa Factor in West African History. According to him, if at the end of the journey they settle down in a ‘foreign community,’ they would choose a political leader among them with the title of Sarkin Hausawa to be the liaison officer between them and the community where they settle.

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On the beginning of the Hausa community in Abia, Sarki Danladi said, “Our forefathers came down here from all parts of the North to trade in fish, cattle and all kinds of farm produce, such as yams and onions.

“From the story I heard from my late father, the Hausa began to come to Umuahia in 1936 from Kano. I was born here. My father was born here too. My wife is from Abia State. She converted to Islam after we got married in 2001.’

On the challenges facing the Hausa community in Abia, Danladi said, “The sit-at-home order by the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) is affecting us; not only our people but everybody. We are good citizens, so we do whatever they say we should do. We have lost so many things, including lives, but we believe the state government would do something about it.”

On migrant labourers, he also said, “If somebody is leaving his state he should have a contact in the place he is going to. If he is arrested he can say where he is going and who he is going to meet.”

‘We won’t go anywhere’

He is committed to Abia, the state where he was born, and does not anticipate relocating to the North.

His also said, “We are not ready to go anywhere. This is our fatherland. Kano is just a name. I don’t spend more than five days there. All my life I have been here. My wife is from here and everybody is here. I only spent a week in Kano when I lost my mother.

“We are good people; we are not for violence. We want to live in peace with our host community. We want everybody to know that we are peaceful people.”

Sanusi Gwarzo, the youth leader in the Hausa community, Umuahia also said, “We cannot go anywhere. I was born in Umuahia. I speak Igbo and Abia is my state. I hail from Kano too. One of my brothers married an Igbo girl from Imo State.”

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