The former Vice Chancellor of Sokoto State University, Professor Nuhu Yaqub has said that teaching and learning of local languages at primary and secondary school level will encourage inclusivity in the country.
According to him in Kogi sate, teaching and learning local languages an Egbira child will be able to speak the Igala language and an Okun child can also speak the Egbira language.
Yaqub who also a former Vice Chancellor of University of Abuja, made the call while presenting a paper at a public lecture titled “Salvaging Egbira Values and Language from Extinction: What mist be done” organized by members of De Noble Club 10, Kogi Central held on Thursday in Okene, Kogi State.
He called on Kogi State government to introduce the study of languages of different ethnic group in the curriculum of primary and secondary schools in order to avoid the extinctions of the local dialects in the state.
“Through the language study programmes in schools in the State, cultural values of the various ethic groups, which must be integrated to sharpen ethnic brotherhood and sisterhood, should also be promoted” Yaqub said.
Earlier in his speech, the President of De Club 10 Kogi Central Leramoh Abdulrazaq Onivehu, said the idea of staging the public lecture titled ‘Salvaging Egbira Values and Language from Extinction: What must be done’, was borne out of the frustration observed by members of the club that, gradually Ebira language is going out of fashion among Ebira people.
Onivehu who lamented that these days parents and guardians concentrated more in speaking English language to their children instead of their native language, expressed concern that if nothing urgent is being done Ebira Children will grow up without understanding their mother tongue.
He therefore called on the state government to ensure that the federal government policy on education that said a child at basic level of education should be taught in their mother’s tongue should be revisit and established in primary and junior secondary school levels within Ebiraland.
“Ebiraland constitutes five local government areas, if Ebira is taught in primary school up to junior secondary school level, we will be sure that our children will come out with a good understanding of the language.
“Parents need to do their own parts while government will also implement the policy they have established to ensure that these children can speak in their mother’s tongue fluently in line with a research that indicated that children learn faster and comprehend better when they were taught in their mother’s tongue,” he stated.
The Chairman of the occasion Alhaji Isah Ozi-Salami commended De club 10 for the public lecture and the choice of the topic ,saying there is no better time other than now to create the awareness on the gradual extinction of Ebira language among it’s people.
He charged parents to prioritize the speaking of the Ebiraland language to their children to enable them to speak and sing in their mother’s tongue.
Engr. Shuaibu Salami, the founder president of the club while giving brief history of the club, said in 1976 ten young students between the age of 20 to 27 years resolved to embark on a social union then called Club 10 Okengwe as a vehicle for peace, unity, socialization and information dissemination.
He pointed out that in line with the motto of the club ‘Awareness’ they were able to invest heavily in sensitisation programmes to address contemporary issues affecting Kogi central and the entire Kogi state, aside from scholarship offered to indigent students on annual basis.
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