Specialists in Languages have expressed their dissatisfaction over what they described as a high level of corruption and political-economic instability in West African countries, saying the development is greatly slowing down the economic prosperity of the sub-region and its people.
They made this observation at the 2021 international conference of the West African Languages Congress (WALC) and the Linguistic Association of Nigeria (LAN) held at the Lagos State University (LASU), Ojo, on Monday.
Speaking at the event, which has participants from across West African Countries and beyond in attendance, the President of LAN, who is a lecturer at LASU, Prof. Harrison Adeniyi, said it was unfortunate that West African countries with no exception have become a laughing stock in the comity of nations, as the sub-region, according to him, had found it difficult to manage its resources and differences well.
He lamented that despite the calamities that the leaders had subjected the citizens to because of their ineffectiveness, they still wanted to remain in power at all cost.
According to him, it is not only that bulk of resources of the sub-region are in the hands of few individuals, there are certainly cases where some individuals are far richer than their counties in the sub-region.
He noted that leaders in the region do make deliberate efforts to cause disaffection among people of different ethnic groups and languages and all for their selfish gains.
He declared that such a situation is one of the strong reasons it becomes difficult to create an economically viable country in the region, tasking members of both LAN and WALC to use languages to tackle corruption and instability in the region.
In his own contribution, the keynote speaker, who is from the University of Vienna, Austria, Prof Adams Bodomo, affirmed that corruption is not only deeply rooted particularly among political leaders in the sub-region, but also greatly retarding genuine progress of the region.
He said the language of corruption is almost the same across countries in the sub-region with each ethnic group having a familiar language to describe and practice corruption.
In his remarks at the one-week long event, the Acting Vice-Chancellor of LASU, Prof. Oyedamola Oke, commended the organisers, saying the forum is expected to provide workable solutions to the twin problems of corruption and instability which he said had made life difficult for people of the sub-region.
He asked participants to come up with a framework for a language policy that would guarantee peaceful coexistence and also encourage the socio-economic and political development of the region.
Some individuals including Prof Francis Egbokhare, Dr Tunde Adegbola, Mr Babajide Kolade Otitoju of Television Continental as well as the Ooza of Ugbodu, His Royal Majesty Oloza Ayo Isinyemeze were conferred with one honour or the other at the event.
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