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| Primary School Children |
ACCORDING to the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), half of the over 6000 languages spoken all over the world today will disappear by the end of this century, unless conscious efforts are made to safeguard them.
Already, with the disappearance of several unwritten and undocumented languages, humanity could lose not only the cultural wealth, but also some important, ancestral knowledge embedded in indigenous languages.
To corroborate UNESCO’s claim, Kole Omotoso, a visiting Professor at the Adekunle Ajasin University, Ondo State, submitted in his lecture last week that in 1953, UNESCO had emphasized the importance of educating children in their mother tongues, while the 2004 Global Monitoring Report on Education for All (EFA) argued that the choice of language of instruction was critical for effective leaning.
He further said that the 2004 Association of Education in Africa Report concluded that the language factor emerged strongly as one of the most important determinants of quality education.
Omotoso, who was the guest lecturer at the public lecture organized by the Nigeria Institute for International Affairs (NIIA) last week in Lagos, posited that Nigerian languages were “very poorly researched,” compared with indigenous languages in Europe, the Americas and Australia.
Experts at the event expressed worry over what they described as a drift of many Nigerian languages into extinction, while calling for concerted efforts to save the local dialects. They decried the “absence of conscious efforts” by successive governments to encourage the use of local languages in public places.
Eminent scholars, including Omotoso, former Director General, Nigeria French Language Village, Prof. Samuel Aje, Ambassador Olusola Sanu, and the Director General of NIIA, Professor Bola Akinterinwa were unanimous in their declaration that Nigerian languages have remained poorly researched, compared with indigenous languages in other parts of the globe.
Omotoso said: “The number of individual languages listed for Nigeria is, in total, 529. Of these, 522 are said to be living languages and seven are dead. Of the living languages, 22 are institutional, 80 are developing while 358 are vigorous, while 20 are in trouble and 42 are dying.”
He added that today, Nigerian languages constitute one quarter of all African languages, and besides Papua New Guinea, Nigeria is one of the most linguistically diverse countries on earth.
His words: “Besides the 529 listed languages, there are tens of dialects attaching to each language. Yet, Nigerian languages remain very poorly researched compared with indigenous languages in Europe, the Americas and Australias.”
Apart from the three major languages – Hausa, Igbo and Yoruba – the former Obafemi Awolowo University don said others are dying, with about 20 languages severely endangered while some 200 other are under threat.
Aje, who chaired the event, listed several efforts by the government to encourage the use of local languages in schools, but admitted that beyond learning, language defines the customs and traditions of its people. The coordinator of the Abuja-based Goodluck Ebele Jonathan Foreign Language Institute further said that the neglect of local languages by most African countries had contributed to their struggle globally.
For him, the lip service being paid to the language industry in Nigeria had led to the extinction of many languages.
He said: “The neglect of language has really come to fore and it is for all of us to accept responsibility for this problem. We should all know that language is more than a means of communication as it defines the customs and traditions of the people. It is also a product of many generations and it is its neglect that had contributed to the struggle being faced by many African countries.”
He described language as a working tool as well as bedrock of people’s existence. He added: “We need to rescue our local languages from extinction to be able to compete favourably with others. Despite the adoption of English language as the official language, we have not been able to master it well, as the results from the school certificate examinations have shown this. We need to develop our language by empowering researchers to provide a good ground for it to prosper.”
In his remarks, the guest of honour, a former director, Economic Commission for Africa (ECA), Ambassador Sanu, called on parents and guardians to encourage their wards to embrace their local languages rather than compelling them to make use of foreign languages.
He said: “Language has been at the vanguard of everything we do and we should do everything possible to promote our languages. I want to admit that parents contribute a lot to their wards not speaking indigenous language and it is essential that our children understand our language.”
With several gestures made in the past to conduct research into Nigerian languages, Omotoso said all of them have been futile.
“This is not to say there are no token gestures made towards these Nigerian languages,” he noted. In 1993, the National Institute for Nigerian Languages Act passed through the national assembly. It set up a Nigerian Centre for Research into Nigerian Languages. There is little to show for this gesture.”
He was of the view that parents must make conscious efforts to help their wards understand their local language. “Understanding language is very important as it is full of information. If you lose your language, you have lost everything,” he warned.
In his remarks, poet/writer, Odia Ofeimun argued that it was imperative for language development to start from the local council.
“I think the basic thing is the local council and language development should start from here where the students are encouraged to embrace the language synonymous with the local council. We should take every Nigerian language serious,” he said.
On the economic gains of languages, the don said: “A cursory look at the economic contribution of Language Service Providers in countries such as China to the country’s economy, should convince us that this is something that can be done. By 2011, there were 10,546 language service providers in China working in finance, culture and Information Technology sectors. Language services have become the fundamental support industry for global economy with 1.19 per cent professionals in the language services industry.”
He added: “What stops South Africa and Nigeria and other African countries from going into this 21st century industry is the absence of fundamental work in most African languages.”
For Akinterinwa, there must be concerted efforts by all and sundry to promote local languages in order to prevent them from dying.
The NIIA DG however emphasized the importance of language in international diplomacy, while disclosing that the six United Nations recognized languages – Russia, Arabic, Spanish, Chinese, French and English would take off at the institute.
However, the National Institute for Cultural Orientation (NICO) has been championing the campaign to bring back to consciousness, the need for Nigerian children to be versatile in their mother tongue.
Executive Secretary of the institute, Dr. Barclays Ayakoroma, once told The Guardian that the institute was intensifying efforts to entrench the use of indigenous languages among school children, by inaugurating cultural clubs in schools across the country.
Also, the Institute has commenced an indigenous language programme, aimed at helping Nigerian children to communicate in their mother tongue and adults with spouses from different ethnic backgrounds, the language of their spouses.
Besides, NICO has further replicated the Nigerian Indigenous Language Programme in its six zonal offices in the country, comprising the North-West (Katsina), North-Central (Kwara), North-East (Yola), South-West (Akure), South-East (Owerri) and South-South (Bayelsa).
The Institute was established by Act No. 93 of 1993, to serve as a focal point for orientation in cultural matters for Nigerian policy makers and to promote, revive and develop Nigerian culture and history among other objectives.
Ayakoroma had also stressed the need for parents to place priority on teaching their children indigenous languages. According to him, parents could now to take advantage of the platform provided by NICO learn indigenous languages.
“If parents do not imbibe the culture of speaking indigenous languages to their children, the incursion of various foreign cultures through different media will continue to take its toll on our local languages, where people will no more be proud of what is Nigerian,” he had observed.
The NICO boss, who said music, foreign movies and language, among others, were the common ways through which the country’s indigenous ways of life have continued to be invaded by foreign cultures, called on broadcast media regulatory agencies in Nigeria, like the National Broadcasting Commission (NBC) and Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC), to ensure strict regulation of such programmes being churned out of some broadcast stations.
Source Guardian News Website