RELIGIOUS VIOLENCE AND MIGRATION CRISES IN NORTH EAST NIGERIA
Violence and migration crises are serious social problems in contemporary Nigeria. While volumes have been written on violence and migration of Africans, there is dearth of literature on the religious perspective to the issues of violence and migration. Available literature has also shown that violence have affected migrant Africans’ identity in time past and even now. Up till the present, globalization has also been one of the major factors responsible for migration of many Africans in contemporary society. In present day Nigeria however, the narrative is different. Violence, and in fact, religious violence, is, the main cause of migration crises among Nigerians. This is especially the case in the North East of Nigeria where a decade old religious violence has continued unabated, resulting in the total displacement of over 3.3 million Nigerians, who now face migration crises. This is a serious social problem that this paper addresses. The main aim and objective of this paper is to show that religious violence in the North East of Nigeria has caused migration crises. The paper used a qualitative method of research. The study leaned on normative theory of social exclusion which was used as the theoretical framework. The paper concluded that the crucial issue that has taken prominence is that a decade old religious violence in North East Nigeria, remain the main cause of migrant crises in the aforementioned region. It was also discovered that migrantophobic discrimination, displacement and loss of personal identity, economic hardship, denial of fundamental human rights and sexual abuses, health and hygiene, poor housing conditions and a host of others are the major humanitarian crises migrants faced in the geopolitical zone. Concluding, the paper recommended that if the basic tenets of the normative theory of social exclusion is strictly adhered to and applied by all Nigerians and the stakeholders in the North East, migrant crises would be reduced to the barest minimum.
Keywords: crises, east, migration, nigeria, north, religious, violence