The Chief Executive Officers of the Nigeria French Language Village, Badagry, Professor Lateef Babatunde Ayeleru, speaks with a group of journalists in Ibadan, Oyo State, on the role French language can play in combating insurgency. DARE ADEKANMBI brings excerpts.
You said somewhere that language can be used to fight insecurity in the country. We have been wondering how this is achievable, particularly with French language which is your area of specialty.
We primarily provide language immersion programme for all undergraduate students offering French in federal, state and private universities. We also organise language acculturation for those from colleges of education who are students of French. We also have extended mandate where we teach other interested Nigerians, especially government agencies, to be proficient in French. We teach those in Customs, Immigration and Armed Forces generally. I remember that even despite the COVID-19 pandemic of last year, we were able to train some naval officers who came to learn French for about 90 days on our campus. We also train those in Foreign Service and those from DSS. These people know the import of French as it would affect intelligence gathering.
But specifically as it relates to insurgency, the narrative is that these people are foreigners who come from different countries into our own country. And when you look at Nigeria, you would see that we are surrounded by Francophone countries. I am not even sure whether the Atlantic Ocean does not speak French because if you look at the North, the East, the West, our neighbours are Francophone. So, logically you would look at our neighbor down South, which is the Atlantic Ocean, is also speaking French in a way. So, if our neighbours are Francophone, then it is important for us to be able to relate with them and be minimally proficient in French, especially for those who are in the business of fighting insurgency and those in charge of cross-border crimes prevention.
Recently, I visited the Chief of Defence Staff, Leo Irabor, and we looked at the possibility of synergising with the Armed Forces in the fight against insurgency, knowing that those coming into our country from the borders are largely from Francophone countries. So, we are looking at what we can do to help and we are making good progress. I must say that, already, French is very important to the Armed Forces. They are learning French. I was surprised the day I got to his office, his principal chief of staff, a Brigadier General, said he was once in the French Village in Badagry for three months where he learnt French and he is still speaking French. Even the Chief of Defence Staff himself speaks some French. That is to tell you that the Armed Forces know the importance of French and they know too that the men and officers of the forces should also be proficient in French. What we are going to do, as an institution, is to also contribute in a way to see that we further enhance their mastery of French as a foreign language in a way that will help them to further carry out their mandate of maintaining peace and security in the country.
Will it be sufficient to affirm that those who are coming into the country are largely French speaking people because the noise we hear is that they are pastoralists?
I will say yes, because they have their own countries. I studied at Université de Niamey for my year abroad programme.
What we should underlie is that, in spite of all the indigenous languages in those Francohone countries, they have French as their official language, like in the case of Nigeria where English is the lingua franca, in addition to the numerous indigenous languages that we have.
I believe if Nigeria has an officer who is proficient in French and does not need someone else to do the translation or interpretation and can listen and pretend that he does not understand, the way such an officer will gather his information will be different from somebody who has a document and does not speak French and relies on someone else to do the translation. And you can’t rely on the translators and the interpreters. That is why there is this saying that if you are doing translation, you have the tendency of cheating in a way. Somebody is saying something, you can decide to make the translation mild or more serious or even keep the fact, when the translator is not faithful to the original text. But if you speak the language, you do not need to go through any translator or interpreter who can distort the fact. That is exactly what we are looking
I know the National Policy on Education talks about the use of language of the immediate environment to teach children at the elementary level. But the policy does not really play up French as it plays up Arabic. Are you willing to do some work in that area so that apart from the Armed Forces, we can have the locals also engage?
Let me take you back a bit. The late former military Head of State, General Sani Abacha, during a meeting of one of the Francophone countries, made a pronouncement that French would become Nigeria’s second official language. This was a presidential statement. But there was no documentation to give effect to the pronouncement. Nothing to back it up. Today, we can say it has dropped off somewhere and nobody is talking about it. Even as a Professor of French, I am skeptical about it. In my inaugural lecture, I said Nigeria should not go the way of second officialisation as it relates to French. What we should do is, since we already have English as a lingua franca, let us help our indigenous languages, Yoruba, Hausa, Igbo and others too. As a Yoruba man, I should be able to pick one or two other native Nigerian languages. If we have that and our children are also able to do that, then let French continue to enjoy its status as a foreign language. So many private schools, from nursery to primary and even secondary schools, are already teaching French. I was not born in a Francophone country. I learnt French in Nigeria as a foreign language in secondary school and I went to the university up to this level.
I think what the government should do and with the French government too is to further encourage the teaching and learning of French. And we need funding in this regard too. I always tell people that government cannot do it alone. You need individuals to also contribute.
By size and population, Nigeria should be a power house in West Africa. But we are not adequately represented in some of these regional bodies like ECOWAS because our people can’t speak French. Is there some mental siege preventing our people from learning French while citizens of other countries can speak both English and French?
I am happy you noticed that. One of my achievements in the University of Ibadan as Head of Department of European Studies was the fact that we were able to start French as a General Study course. I would like to thank the then Vice Chancellor and his successor, Professor Isaac Adewole and Professor Abel Olayinka respectively. Today, about two to three sets have taken the course. So, if you go to UI, irrespective of the course you are admitted for, at 100 Level you do take French. French is not a gymnastic course. It is a communicative-based course that, after a semester, you should be able to communicate in French and a serious student should be able to write the internationally recognised examination, DELF or DALF. When our colleagues from Francophone countries come to Nigeria for conferences and their papers are written in English, they don’t want to use any translator or interpreter. Their English may not be as fluent as ours, but they deliver their papers in English and people will understand. But you can’t say that about our own people.
We can say this is partly due to our curriculum in a way because in the Francophone country, if you are in the Faculty of Arts, apart from French, you must take one other European language. In Benin Republic, it is either German or English or Spanish. In Togo, it is either German or English. When you see a Francophone African, in addition to French, he has one other European language.
You are advocating we should train our military in French, how easy is it for an adult to learn the language?
Let me say we are not just going to start teaching them French. They have been doing it. In fact, there is a French institute that is collaborating with them already. But we are now offering ourselves to them that instead of doing it bit by bit, we want the CDS to coordinate so that they don’t even need to come to our campus in Badagry. We will package our materials and go to the geopolitical zones where they have their formations. We are the only inter-university centre for French studies. This will not be a problem. The Armed Forces recongnise the need for us to understand our neighbours and that is why they have been taking French learning very seriously. What we are offering will be on a massive scale, but at no serious cost to the Armed Forces. We believe this should be part of our contribution to the fight against insurgency and national development.
I agree with you that for adults, learning a new language is a problem. You know children don’t learn languages. If you have a child and you put the child somewhere where there are three languages coming up simultaneously, that child will pick the three at the same rate without any problem of interference. But for adult, it is difficult. For instance, as a Yoruba man, you have your mother tongue which is your L1, English which is the second language L2 and you want to add French, L3 to it. So, you now have two languages combating the first one. Don’t forget that the sound too is different. In French, it is not what is written that is pronounced and somewhere you pronounce the last letter and in other places, you don’t. We always advise adults who are learning a foreign language, not only French, that they must drop behind the linguistic baggage they are carrying, that is, their Yoruba or English and so on. Don’t think the structures are similar and you can then do quick substitution. Adults have to start learning as children and it is better that way.
YOU SHOULD NOT MISS THESE HEADLINES FROM NIGERIAN TRIBUNE
Battle For First Bank: The Untold Story
Last week was one of twists and turns for First Bank of Nigeria Limited, the nation’s oldest banking institution. It was a week that saw the bank’s MD sacked and reinstated, as major shareholders struggled for control of the financial powerhouse. SULAIMON OLANREWAJU reports…
#EndSARS Panel: Drama As Witness Presents Video Evidence Of Slain Lekki Protesters
A witness of the Lekki tollgate shooting incident, Miss Sarah Ibrahim has presented video evidence of people injured and killed at the scene to the Lagos State Judicial Panel. Tribune Online reports that…
Truck loaded with live bullets falls, spills contents in Onitsha
Onitsha residents are currently in fear, as a truck fully loaded with cartons of live bullets fell into a ditch and spilled its content all around the street, in the commercial city of Anambra State…
After Two Years, Daddy Freeze Apologises To Bishop Oyedepo
Daddy Freeze whose real name is Ifedayo Olarinde has apologised to Bishop Oyedepo who is the presiding bishop and founder of Living Faith Church aka Winners Chapel…