Stakeholders at the 2017
Annual Roundtable on Cultural Orientation have lamented that indigenous
languages have become endangered and warning they may sooner go into
extinction, reports ITRealms.
Leading speakers at the
roundtable in Kaduna, Monday, the Minister of Information and Culture, Alhaji
Lai Mohammed, said the country's indigenous languages are endangered and
could go into extinction in no distant future if urgent steps are not
taken to reverse the trend.
The event jointly
organized by the Federal Ministry of Information and
Culture and the National Institute
for Cultural Orientation (NICO) in Kaduna, saw the Minister also saying that
situation reports showed ''there is a remarkable decline in the usage of
our indigenous languages by our children and youths; many of them cannot
read or write in their mother tongue.''
He pointed out that indigenous
language newspapers, for instance, have vital roles to play in reviving
the fortunes of the nation's endangered languages, if their potentials are
maximized.
''It has been my desire
since I assumed duties as Honourable Minister to convene a strategic
stakeholders' meeting to underscore the relevance of the indigenous
language newspapers and to engineer a road map for their sustenance in the
face of formidable challenges. This explains why one of my first
assignments in office was to visit identifiable indigenous newspapers like
Alaroye, Iroyin Owuro, Rariya, Aminiya and Leadership Hausa,'' Mohammed
said.
He said concrete
measures must be taken to preserve indigenous languages, including the
need for parents to ensure that their children are taught their indigenous
languages; implementing the teaching and learning of Nigerian indigenous
languages as contained in the National Policy on Education as well as
supporting and sustaining various platforms, such as the indigenous language
newspapers, which promote the use of indigenous languages.
Other measures listed by
the Minister are the translation of the country's treasure trove of
literature, such as The Lion and the Jewel, The Passport of Mallam Illia
and Things Fall Apart, into indigenous languages; adapting those classics
into comics, graphic novels, TV shows as well as animated and live action
feature films, leveraging on the role of the electronic media in
disseminating, aggregating and curating indigenous languages and deploying
digital tools in ensuring the survival of Nigeria's indigenous languages.
''Today, Social Media,
YouTube, SMS and specially-developed applications for use on mobile
devices are being used to attract young people to learn ‘endangered
languages’. There are also websites and online forums where people can
interact and optimize their knowledge of those languages. Those solutions
are worth exploring seriously,'' he said.
Mohammed further charged
participants at the two-day event with the theme 'Indigenous Language Newspapers
and National Development' to painstakingly deliberate on these issues and
come up with far-reaching recommendations that will guide government’s policy
and action plan.
The keynote speaker and
chairman, Leadership Group, Mr. Sam Nda-Isaiah, said indigenous language
newspapers are key to any strategy at national development hence they
should not be under-estimated.
He equally said that
for the indigenous language newspapers to be relevant, the high rate
of collapse of such papers must be checked by running them as a
business, like any other newspaper.
Earlier in his welcome
address, NICO Executive Secretary, Barclays Ayakoroma said the annual event
is aimed at enhancing the potentials of indigenous language newspapers to
serve as catalyst for cultural renaissance and grassroots mobilisation.
Uboshe Uboshe/GEE
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