Promoting The Mother Tongue Initiative

The importance of mother language
was again brought to the fore on
February 21, when the United Nations celebrated this year’s International Mother Language Day with the theme: “Mother Tongue, Our Collective Heritage”. The yearly event has been observed since 2000 to promote the preservation and protection of all languages used by peoples of the world.
This year’s celebration particularly highlighted the benefits of mother tongue and questioned the drop in its usage. This is most apt because there appears to be little or no efforts by successive governments at both State and Federal levels, to revive the speaking of the different mother tongue.
While The Tide commends the efforts of the United Nations to promote unity in diversity through multilingual and multicultural practices, we wish to frown at the drop in commitment of many countries to this noble ideal which has also resulted in sharp drop in the use of mother tongue across the world.
It is disheartening that so much premium is being placed on western culture and foreign languages in Nigeria. Even when it is incontrovertible that our local languages are the most powerful instruments of preserving and developing our tangible and intangible heritage, many Nigerians prefer the use of English language.
It is in view of this that it has become imperative to look for more ingenious ways of promoting the use of mother languages, especially through the early education of the children. The teaching of mother tongue should therefore be made compulsory for every child from nursery to primary school level.
While we expect children to be proficient in the use of the official language, the understanding of one’s mother tongue makes the use of the foreign language deeper. Even more, the understanding of the mother tongue provides the confidence and security that cannot be replicated otherwise.
The International Mother Language Day should therefore remind the leaders of the responsibility of teaching mother tongue to the children. Deliberate efforts should be made to promote language based competitions in schools, while more local language based films and music should be encouraged to bring out the rich cultures and values of the indigenous people.
We think that a lot is required to reinforce the linguistic values of the people. This is because the mother tongue develops fuller awareness of linguistic and cultural bonds as well as enhances better understanding among the people. In the words of Late Nelson Mandela, “If you talk to a man in a language he understands, it goes to his head. But if you talk to him in his language it goes to his heart”.
The average African is fast losing his identity. Our people are becoming more western by the day especially because of the failure to utilize the local languages. Some dialects are already vanishing and some people think it is sign of civilization. No.
In some families parents cannot speak their language with their children, even when one may need to send secret message across in the presence of other persons. Sadly, some books on the local languages lack patronage as they are not in any curriculum.
As a nation that is united in cultural and lingual diversity, we should value and encourage the unique nuances and subtleties of linguistic architecture that connect us to our culture and personal identity. Indeed, the future of our people can only find a foundation when the language of the people is preserved.