Don Fears Extinction Of Many Nigerian Languages

A University teacher, Pro
fessor Ozo-Mekuri Ndimele, has revealed that given the linguistic situation in Nigeria and its impact on the overall development of the country, over half of Nigerian languages will vanish in the next century.
Professor Ndimele, who made the revelation recently in an inaugural lecture titled, “Nigerian Core Grammars in Global Communication. Any glimmer of Hope in this Looming Armageddor,” also revealed reasons for the development.
According to the professor of  Comparative Grammar and Communications in the Department of Linguistics and Communication Studies, University of Port Harcourt, one of the reasons is that currently, there is no one common indigenous Nigerian language.
“At the moment, and perharps in the near future, no one indigenous Nigerian Language can serve as the sole medium of instructure in our schools, or official language of national communication.
“The sentiments and emotional attachments to one’s native language are still very strong to favour any one local language as lingua franca,” he said.
Another reason for the steady decline in indigenous language, he stated, is that competence in English by the Nigerian populace is also on steady decline.
More over, the Nigerian populace cannot continue to tie its destiny around a language that the majority of us people cannot speak, “unless something radical is done to improve its learning”.
In addition, Professor Ndimele continued, “The curriculum for training English Language teachers in Nigeria is overly defective, so are the products.
He concluded that currently, not much learning is taking place in schools because of the linquistic barner existing between the teacher  and the pupils.
The result is that “inadequate learning culminates in low academic achievement which has obvious implications for the individual and the nation”, he said.
On solutions to the impending indigenous language extinction, Professor Ndimele’s proposition include Nigeria children must be encouraged to speak their languages.
In the same vein, linquists must also be funded to embark on aggressive documentation of some of the severally endangered indigenous languages.
There is also the need to recognise and promote regional or state-wide languages, by making them official languages in their various states or regions.
“We should use the hitherto recognised official regional language in each region or state as the medium of instruction in that region or state, while effort is made to encourage the learning of the English Language for natural communication”, he said.