April 15, (THEWILL) – A University of Calabar scholar and professor of Linguistics and Nigerian Languages, Bassey Okon, has made a case for the implementation of an indigenous languages policy in the country.
Prof Okon posited that a conscious approach at implementing a national indigenous languages policy would help drive the nation’s corporate existence.
She made this known in Calabar during the University of Calabar’s 115th Inaugural Lecture themed, “Language, Culture and Communication: the Societal Triumvirate.”
She said that such a policy would make it mandatory for Nigeria’s mode of communication to be modelled in such a way that the indigenous languages would be used for training and constructing its social realities.
According to her, looking down on your relatives who speak your native language because you speak English was stupid because it was like being proud of borrowed clothes.
“Language provides the thread with which the fabric of society is woven; Therefore, the finer and enduring the language, the better for the society and the stronger the hold for its continued existence.
“Some linguists say that Hausa, Igbo and Yoruba languages are endangered in one way or the other, how much more the other Nigerian languages.
“This portends that the culture of the people will also go extinct since language is the vehicle for the transmission of culture,” she said.
Speaking further, Okon called on all Nigerians to contribute to the survival of Nigeria’s languages and cultures adding that it should not be left to linguists and the government alone.
