Residents of Kaduna metropolis have decried the use of vulgar language by traditional medicine sellers (herbalists) while marketing their products.
In separate interviews with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Kaduna on Sartuday, the residents expressed their disgust.
One of the residents, Malam Musa Goro, who resides at Tudun Wada, regretted that the herbalists used obscene language to advertise their products.
“The words which these traditional medicine sellers use in advertising their products are very immoral, irreligious and contrary to any cultural styles.
“Honestly, these words are also offensive to the moral, religious and cultural lifestyles of responsible people ,” he said.
However, Rabiu Muhammad, a resident of kinkinau, said the herbalists further used 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; these are against our cultural beliefs.
“Honestly, they must be regulated by the appropriate authorities,” Muhammad said.
Malam Zakariyya Usman, a cleric, says the herbalists usually take advantage of places where Friday congregational prayers are performed.
“It is unfortunate that those herbalists advertise their products even in places of worship; we always preach in sermons about bad utterances and their consequences in the hereafter.
“Every human must account for his words on the judgement day, it’s better to keep mute than speaking vulgar.
Those herbalists should be regulated by the appropriate authorities; we have done our part”, Usman said.
Another resident, Abdullahi Bala, told NAN that the activities of the herbalists were in conflict with norms and values of conscious people.
Bala noted that the words being used by the herbalists were unacceptable.
“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 a good development at all.
“They even go further to use loudspeakers for advertising the herbal medicines and our parents and wives clearly hear all these bad languages they use.
That is very bad to the upbringing of our children,’’ he lamented.
Some of the vulgar utterances are usually related to sexual matters, depicting obscene ways of taking to illegal conjugal affairs.
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.