The United Nations has scheduled every December 16 as the WALD, with the event in Kano the maiden edition in Nigeria. The global celebration commenced last year.
Speaking at the occasion, Deputy Director of the institute Iliyasu Aliyu Abubakar stated that the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO) established the WALD in 2010 with the aim of celebrating multi-lingualism and cultural diversity, as well as promoting equal use of all UNs’ six official working languages. The UN General Assembly approved Arabic as an official UN language on December 18, 1973.
A renowned Kano-based Islamic scholar, Sheikh Aminuddeen Abubakar, who also spoke at the occasion espoused that “by celebrating the Arabic language day, we are also acknowledging the tremendous contributions of its writers, scientists and artists to universal culture.”
These intellectual minds, Abubakar added, were the Arabic language authors who enabled the transmission of Greek knowledge to the Latin of medieval Europe, weaving indissoluble ties between cultures through time to what we have today.
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