ADJUSTMENT STRATEGIES ENGAGED IN BY THE INTERNALLY DISPLACED PERSONS (IDPs) IN BORNO STATE, NIGERIA: IMPLICATIONS FOR COUNSELLING

The study is a survey which identified the adjustment strategies engaged in by the Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) in Borno State, Nigeria, reasons for their engagement, assistance rendered and those who rendered the most assistance to the IDPs in the State. The target population of the study comprised of all Internally Displaced Persons in Borno State, Nigeria. However, 2,160 IDPs were used as sample for the study. The subjects were derived from 4 government designated 1DP Camps in Jere and Maiduguri Metropolis made up of S62 (40%) males and 1,298 (60%) females using stratified random sampling techniques based on age, gender, marital status, family size, local government area, socio-economic background and occupation. Authors' self designed questionnaire tagged "Displaced Persons Adjustment Strategies Questionnaire (DPASQ)" was the instrument used to elicit data for the study. Five research questions and one null-hypothesis were answered and tested for the study. Data collected were analyzed using descriptive statistical techniques of frequency counts, percentages, rank ordering; bar charts as luell as rank difference correlation coefficient (r) at 0.05 alpha level of significance. Findings of the study revealed cap making and washing, laundry services, street begging* bricklaying, hair plaiting, nails cutting and prostitution as some of the adjustment strategies engaged in by the Internally Displaced Persons in Bomo State, Nigeria. Reasons for engaging in such strategies include inadequate feeding, poverty and family pressure.Some of the assistance rendered to the IDPs were inform of food items, accommodation, water and toiletries by intra and international donor agencies, government at all levels and philanthropists. The study established significant difference between gender and adjustment strategies engaged in by the IDPs in Borno State, Nigeria. Some of the implications for counselling proffered were prompt relocation of the IDPs to their various destinations, acquisition of entrepreneurial training skills to be supported by soft loans/tools at the end of the training programme and construction of counselling clinics for the provision of individual and group counselling therapy in the areas of value re-orientation, behaviour modification and vocational counselling by qualified counsellors among others.