The move to promote Yoruba

AS part of efforts to protect, preserve and promote the Yoruba language, Commissioners of Education in the six South-West states and Kwara and Kogi states will meet in Ibadan, Oyo State, tomorrow. According to a statement issued by the organiser of the meeting, Yoruba World Centre, the commissioners will be joined by chairmen of the Association of Local Governments of Nigeria (ALGON) and chairpersons of the Committee on Education in the South-West and Kwara and Kogi Houses of Assembly, with the meeting deliberating on, among other things, institutional backing for scholars and private sector operators involved in the promotion of Yoruba in order to re-establish it as a language of commerce and development. Part of the stated objectives of the meeting is to examine the role of Yoruba as a tool for development, nation-building, youth empowerment, national unity and peaceful co-existence. The statement read in part: “This meeting, the first of its kind in recent times and in collaboration with Oodua Investment Plc and DAWN Commission, is to discuss extensively the coming annual Yoruba Language Millionaire Contest among secondary schools in all Yoruba-speaking states, a programme meant for the reclamation of Yoruba youths hooked to foreign ways of life.”

In the context of the continuing relevance of Nigeria’s indigenous languages as vehicles of life, the proposed meeting of political actors in the South-West states as well as Kwara and Kogi states is indeed a step in the right direction. As scholars, researchers and other specialists engaged in the business of language promotion recognise, no investment in language can be considered a wasted effort. Language, as a vehicle of culture, is a vital, perhaps the most vital, part of identity. And Yoruba, in particular, could make do with greater investment in language policy and planning, including advocacy planning. It is a major Nigerian language that is widely used in all spheres of Nigeria’s national life but is subordinated, like other major languages, to English, Nigeria’s official language par excellence.

In Nigeria’s linguistic ecology, as scholars such as Wale Adegbite have pointed out, with the categorisation of languages spoken in Nigeria in terms of number of speakers and the roles assigned to languages, there is a dominant official language, namely English; major ethnic languages or regional lingua francas proposed but not utilised as official languages (Hausa, Igbo and Yoruba); a transnational language proposed as second official language (French); main ethnic languages used in network news (Angas, EFik/Ibibio, Fulfude, Kanuri, Ebira/Igala, Ijo, etc); minor ethnic languages (Fula, Ikwerre, Itsekiri, Jukun, etc); a restricted lingua franca (Nigerian Pidgin), and languages for religious and personal use (Arabic, Latin and German). While English, that is, a domesticated version of English characterised by the late novelist Chinua Achebe as a language still in full communion with its ancestral home but altered to suit its new African surroundings, is no doubt going to be a vital part of Nigeria’s languistic resources for all of time regardless of the love-hate relationship that Nigerians have with it given its history as the language of colonialism, there is no doubt that Nigeria’s future is bound to be imperilled without massive investment in the indigenous languages, major and minor. These languages constitute the best expressions of the Nigerian identity and the Nigerian way of life. They are the languages in which the majority of the Nigerian population have the greatest facility and conduct their daily affairs. In this regard, it is a thing of joy that political actors are taking the initiative to promote Yoruba, a vital part of Nigeria’s indigenous heritage. Yoruba is spoken and studied around the world, and by an estimated 45 million Nigerian local speakers, and its use as an official language in the Yoruba-speaking states will no doubt advance Nigeria’s developmental narrative.

In the field of education, we recall with pride the landmark study spearheaded by the late Professor Babatunde Fafunwa on the efficacy of Yoruba as a language of instruction in primary school. The study established the fact that using mother tongues like Yoruba as a language of instruction in primary education, with adequate teaching of English as a subject on its own, is far better than the extant practice of using English to teach all subjects except the indigenous languages provided for by the National Policy on Education. It is saddening that the gains of that study have not been fully harnessed either at state, regional or national levels, in part because of the elitist fixation with English. That situation has to change.

We salute the resolve of the commissioners, chairmen and lawmakers in the South-West states, Kwara and Kogi to promote the fortunes of Yoruba. We fully identify with the project and urge the organisers to make it a continuum. It is important for them, however, to take full advantage of the expertise available in Nigeria’s universities and colleges of education. If well coordinated, the Ibadan meeting can produce something of value for the teaching and learning of Yoruba in schools in the affected states, and ultimately lead to issues that have to do with language policy and planning, in which case a recourse will be made to the National Policy on Language. At that stage, the inputs of specialists will be even more critical.  This is important if only because as the late scholar, Efurosibina Adegbija, once observed, language planning policies in Nigeria have often been ignorantly formulated, haphazardly and hastily implemented, when implemented at all, incoherently coordinated, and carelessly and carefreely evaluated. There is much that can be achieved with expert advice and involvement.