Create A Directorate For Language Matters From The National Level To Local Governments In The Country

February 21 every year is celebrated as the International Day for Mother Tongue. It is a day set aside to create global sensitization on indigenous languages in a bid to bridge the gap on language discrimination.
This year, the celebration focused on education with the theme, ‘Multilingual education – a pillar of learning and intergenerational learning’.
According to the United Nations, presently, 40 per cent of global population lacks access to education in their native languages. And the figure is over 90 per cent in some regions. In Nigeria, one can point to places or regions where native languages are used as means of communication or even taught in educational institutions sector. Regrettably, this global concern has not been a major concern in Nigeria even though much of our younger population is fast losing touch with their mother tongue, no thanks to the erroneous belief that anything western is better.
The Nigerian situation seems challenging with about 625 recognized languages and over 2000 dialects, making it difficult to design how best to actualize a multilingual system in our schools. To foster some solution, the former Nigerian minister of Education, Mr. Adamu Adamu on November 30, 2022, announced a new language policy, making the mother tongue a compulsory medium of instruction from Basic (Primary) one to six.
One year, three months after that announcement, little or nothing has been done to actualize this policy. There have been no laid down implementation structure or road map to bring the policy to light. It has become another established black and white policy that will remain so without visible successes.
Although, in some states, mother tongues are taught in schools, this is merely in a few in the whole. In some cases, some individuals facilitate processes which have created little impact in the system. However, there is the challenge of using the mother tongue in cosmopolitan areas of mixed language origins, which need to be addressed for a smooth transition to mother tongue usage in the basic level schools.
Nigeria has welcomed over the years, the influx of English, French, and Arabic into her education system as the vehicle for learning. Consequently, English is the accepted and recognized lingua franca in the country while French and Arabic are presently the most learnt foreign languages with Arabic having so much foothold in the Northern region of the country. Meanwhile, some indigenous languages are silently disappearing.
Thus, there is need to implement the Nigeria Policy making mother tongue a compulsory medium of instruction in schools. Underscoring the difficulties in achieving this policy holistically, the first step is to make the language of a geographical location a compulsory subject in Basic one to six. Secondly, make it compulsory that students from Basic seven to nine (Junior Secondary Schools), and Senior Secondary Schools, select two indigenous languages (either their mother tongue and another or two languages different from their mother tongue), one in junior and the other in senior school. This implies that teachers will be needed to teach the languages in the schools.
This can create more learning especially about our rich cultures, more employment, reduce the number of unemployed persons in the society, increase appreciation of various languages, reduce language apathy and discrimination, and, improve unity and oneness in the country.
I therefore, call on the government to as a matter of urgency, begin to put in place modalities for achieving a multilingual system in the country. There is need to create a directorate from the national to state, even down to the local government level on Language Matters which will be responsible for the development and sustenance of indigenous languages in Nigeria, implement policies on language and recommend for amendment, any policy on language that does not add to language development in the countryn. Funds should be budgeted for the development of indigenous languages separate from any institution’s budget.
In addition, a national language conference (bringing together language scholars, language experts, language advocates, civil society organizations and representatives of the 625 Nigerian languages) should be convened to examine fashion out an effective means of actualizing language policies in the country.
By Josiah Chijindu Egbilika
Linguist & Indigenous Language Advocate