Group Tasks Government on Indigenous Language 

Blessing Ibunge in Port Harcourt

The African Indigenous Foundation for Energy and Sustainable Development (AIFES) has tasked the government at all levels on the need to protect and preserve indigenous languages.

The Executive Director of AIFES, Mr. Legborsi Pyagbara, while speaking at the 2022 International Indigenous Peoples Day, said language remains the greatest identity that anybody has and also the vehicle of transmitting civilisation.

Speaking on the theme: ‘The Role of Indigenous Women in the Preservation and Transmission of Traditional Knowledge’, Pyagbara said the event was imperative to draw people’s attention to the issues indigenous people are going through and what the government and state actors should do.

The former MOSOP leader, who described women as the purveyors of the traditional knowledge systems, demanded the establishment of centres for the learning and promotion of traditional knowledge transmission.

He lamented that indigenous people were the poorest people in the world, even when they have the highest concentration of natural resources, as their resources are explored in such a way that it doesn’t benefit the indigenous people.

According to him, “Language is the greatest identity that anybody has. Without a language, there is no identity. Once a language is lost, an entire civilisation is lost because language is the vehicle of transmitting civilisation.

“If we want to promote our identity then we must preserve our indigenous language. There many things that are better expressed in the mothers tongue than with foreign language.

“Language protection and preservation is anchored on international knowledge systems. The government at all levels must be involved in the protection and preservation of our indigenous languages. Our indigenous language should be reintroduced in our primary and secondary schools as a subject.”

Pyagbara, who is also the convener of the Ogoni Democracy and Development Forum, also demanded free education for indigenous women, as well as promotion of indigenous knowledge.

He also called on the Hydrocarbon Pollution Remediation Project (HYPREP) to embark on a comprehensive livelihood and economic rehabilitation of the Ogoni women.

“Women are the most backward in terms of education in our society. Particularly, indigenous women are more disadvantaged, and the only way to encourage them is to give them free education,” he stated.