Don advocates use of indigenous languages to address challenges

Former presidential candidate of Mass Action Joint Alliance (MAJA), Prof. Mercy Olufunmilayo Adesanya, has urged Nigerian leaders to ensure that citizens enjoy their rights and protections as enshrined in the Constitution and harness the power of indigenous languages in addressing challenges.

Adesanya, who is of the Department of English and Communication Arts, Faculty of Humanities, spoke during the 57th inaugural lecture of Ignatius Ajuru University of Education (IAUE), Port Harcourt, Rivers State.

She also stressed the need to end the vices plaguing the country and identified some of the societal ills as corruption, insecurity, terrorism, banditry, which, she noted, had been leading to retrogression, lack of peace, unity and progress in the country.

According to her, Bishop Ajayi Crowther was the pioneer and father of linguistics in Nigeria and Africa, saying that the bishop was responsible for creating the Yoruba alphabets from English alphabets, compiling a Yoruba dictionary and writing many books, including, “A brief history of the Yoruba.”

Adesanya said: “Languages, especially the Nigerian indigenous languages, have the transformative potential to address societal challenges.

“Nigerian indigenous languages are vital to the country’s cultural, social, economic, and political development. Their preservation and promotion are essential for maintaining cultural diversity, improving education, building communities, promoting economic growth and fostering national pride.”

“I hereby present the Audio Bible in Nigerian indigenous languages as having the transformative potential to solve Nigeria’s societal challenges.”

She, however, propounded Artificial Intelligence Linguistics (AIL) as a new branch of Applied Linguistics, saying: “AI Linguistics, as a subfield of Applied Linguistics, would be rich and would focus on the interaction between computers and human language. It would involve the development of algorithms and statistical models that would enable computers to process, understand, and generate natural language data.”

Vice Chancellor of IAUE, Prof. Ugochukwu Onuchuku, presided over the lecture, titled: “Leveraging the Transformative Potential of Language on Nigeria’s Societal Challenges: A Case Study of Audio Bible.”