Nigeria’s Diverse Languages, Asset for National Devt, Says Expert

Emmanuel Ugwu-Nwogo in Umuahia

A language expert has said the over 500 languages spoken in Nigeria are potentially a huge asset for national development, and should be harnessed for that purpose.

A renowned professor of linguistics and Chairman of the Governing Council of the National Institute for Nigerian Languages (NINLAN), Francis Egbokhare, who is a expressed this view at the 27th regular meeting of the council in Aba, Abia State.

He said it was wrong for people to regard Nigeria’s multiplicity of languages as a liability.

According to him, “The truth is that language is an asset; what you have to know is how to use its diversity to your advantage. It is not language that is the problem, it is the management of language; it is the politics-the political process that is the problem.

“It is the policy framework that makes diversity an asset or a problem. For us as Nigerians, I think we have to take advantage of this diversity.”

According to the University of Ibadan linguist and immediate-past president of the Nigerian Academy of Letters (NAL), Nigerians had hitherto focused on the negative side of multilingualism, hence the perception.

He, therefore, advised Nigerians to start looking at the potential of language itself and see it as a vehicle through which all things hold together.

The NINLAN Governing Council chairman said the indigenous languages institute was determined to live up to its mandate of developing the indigenous languages and applying them to nation-building and economic growth.

“We are redirecting our energy to look at the potential and benefits of language. We are moving away from the old logic, and we are moving toward a new logic of language and development by integrating and interweaving language with every aspect of human life,” he said.

Egbokhare added that NINLAN would apply language to specific needs of the country and determine “exactly how language can integrate with business, safety and security, and expose the wide potential of Nigerian languages in catalysing development.”

He reaffirmed the council’s interest in having NINLAN exercise its statutory mandate to award degrees, saying: ”We are approaching it strategically.”

On the Institute’s long-standing quest to access funding from the Tertiary Education Trust Fund (TETFund), Prof. Egbokhare said there must be a window of opportunity for TETFund to provide some interventionist funding to NINLAN.