Nigeria does not need special university for local languages
The proposal for the establishment of a University of Languages, being considered by the House of Representatives, is a misdirected way of addressing an existential problem of the rapid fading of local Nigerian languages. The fact that many Nigerian languages are on the verge of extinction due to several factors, including abandonment by the indigenous speakers, makes any move for the promotion and deepening of the mother tongues a welcome development any day. However, establishing a new academic institution of Nigerian Languages for that purpose is unnecessary, as it may compound the problems of inadequate funding of existing universities; as well as increase government’s bureaucracy and financial burden. The country does not have resources for it. Rather, there is a need for a more ingenious way of encouraging the sustainability of local languages, possibly making use of all educational institutions across the country. The proposal should be dropped.
There are more burning national issues and challenges such as escalating insecurity that has claimed thousands of lives of innocent citizens, unprecedented economic hardship, seemingly intractable corruption in high places, high cost of governance, gross underfunding of the university system, crude oil theft to which the nation has so far lost trillions of naira, perennial fall in the value of the local currency, and inability to provide stable and affordable electricity supply for socio-economic development. How to effectively tackle all these that are retarding national progress and threatening the corporate existence of the country should occupy the mind of the National Assembly members, not establishing new universities the goal of which can be achieved through the already existing ones.
Already, the country is notorious for poor funding of its universities, one of the reasons the institutions of learning have not been able to effectively deliver on their mandate, particularly in the area of providing solutions to socio-economic and political challenges. Besides the concern that the proposed university will suffer the same lamentable fate as the existing ones, many of which now operate groggily, its establishment will amount to undue proliferation of universities in the country. And in a society with over 200 indigenous languages, how many of them will the new university be able to teach to students? If there should be anything to do about reviving and promoting local languages, it should be to boost the capacity of the many existing universities and colleges of education, particularly those that are not specialised in operation, to offer courses or more courses in as many of the mother tongues as possible.
A bill sponsored by the Deputy Speaker, Benjamin Kalu, and eight others, aimed at establishing a university for the promotion of the learning of Nigerian languages has recently been passed for first reading by the House of Representatives. The institution has even been given a name: Bola Ahmed Tinubu Federal University of Nigerian Languages.
Section II part I of the bill, as published in the media, provides that the university when established, shall: “Encourage the advancement of learning and hold out to all persons without distinction of race, creed, sex or political conviction, the opportunity of acquiring a higher education in Nigerian languages and cultures.” It also aims to develop and offer academic and professional programmes leading to the award of diplomas, first degrees, postgraduate research and higher degrees with emphasis on planning, adaptive, developmental and productive skills in the field of Nigerian languages and cultures.
According to Kalu and other sponsors of the bill, the goal is to produce socially mature persons with the capacity to communicate, understand and use Nigerian languages for national development. The bill is expected to be listed for a second reading in the weeks ahead in preparation for a public hearing to garner stakeholders’ input.
Language endangerment and extinction is a global challenge. It is on record that out of the world’s 7,168 living languages, 3,078 are classified as endangered. According to experts, what mainly drives the extinction of mother tongues is what they described as a language switch, which is the case when speakers switch from a native, typically indigenous tongue, to another, particularly the one that is generally spoken where they sojourn or are resident outside their traditional communities. A language can also die out quickly when small communities of speakers are wiped out by disaster or war. For instance, in Salvador, speakers of the indigenous Lenca and Cacaopera were said to abandon their languages to avoid being identified as Indians after a massacre in 1932 in which Salvadoran troops killed thousands of mostly indigenous peasants to suppress an uprising, according to a report by Noah Tesch- published in Britannica.
In Nigeria, like many other colonised African countries, some people have argued that the worst legacy the colonial masters left is their language, which is ignorantly considered the best because they have helped Nigerians to understand themselves, especially people whose languages are different. Since then, Nigerians have allowed local languages to die gradually, to the detriment of the inherent benefits of speaking the mother tongue, not just for the speakers but the nation.
The idea of preventing Nigerian languages from dying is indeed a good one, but there is no need for a special university to be established for that purpose. The country does not have the resources to do that, judging by the inability of the same government to adequately fund the existing universities. Even the National Universities Commission (NUC) has craved the urgent need to improve budgetary allocations and subventions to address the chronic underfunding of the universities. The Deputy Executive Secretary in charge of Academics, Dr Noel Biodun Saliu, in a paper titled ‘The Nigeria University System and its many challenges: The way forward’ which he delivered at the 7th Annual Registry Lecture of the Elizade University, Ilara-Mokin, Ondo State, stressed that insufficient funding remained a critical barrier to the effective growth and development of the nation’s higher educational system.
The point is that the objectives of the proposed university can be achieved more widely and effectively through the existing universities if they are adequately funded. The way to go is to strengthen the universities that are already teaching or offering courses in the local languages to expand and admit more students for the courses. Other than the patently specialised universities and colleges of education, every other university can be directed to establish or expand their departments or faculties of local languages. The private universities in the country can also be encouraged to start offering courses in local languages in the national interest of saving the mother tongues. Lawmakers should address the more critical issue of employing teeming young graduates, including those of Nigerian languages. The proliferation of universities should stop.
Related
Latest
Get the latest news delivered straight to your inbox every day of the week. Stay informed with the Guardian’s leading coverage of Nigerian and world news, business, technology and sports.
0 Comments
We will review and take appropriate action.