When asked about the reason for excluding their children from conversation with them in their mother tongue, most parents replied that the children understand but cannot speak the language. This indeed raises a question as to the appropriateness of a Nigerian being unable to speak the language of his/her parents, the mother tongue.
Mother tongue is a language original to a human community usually bequeathed to future generations by parents as a heritage. Speaking such a language goes a long way to show that an individual is a true descendant of the grandparents. Paradoxically, many Nigerians have been seen to abandon the use of these indigenous languages.
It is important to state that speaking native languages is in line with God’s plan for man, as shown in the Holy Bible during the events of the Pentecost day (Acts 2:1-11), as believers gathered in Jerusalem praising God in their various native languages. According to the same Holy Book, it was God that gave man the different languages during the Tower of Babel episode (Genesis 11:1-9), and so, using them will simply demonstrate man’s obedience to Him.
There are indeed great values in use of the mother tongue.
The indigenous language of any society in the world contains all the ingredients for understanding, interpreting, and harnessing the resources of that environment, and mastering it is fundamental for effective harnessing of those resources. This language potential is in fact what the technologically advanced and rich nations of the world benefited from when they maintained the use of their native languages for both official and private communications. In a message to the global community to mark the 2012 International Mother Tongue Day, Director General of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO), Ms Irina Bokova, emphasized the need for the global community to promote the use of mother tongues because they carry unique knowledge on biodiversity and management of ecosystem that can benefit the world community.
The mother tongue confers cultural identity to the speakers, with messages about tradition and customs which cannot easily be transferred through another language. Some of these messages are culturally packaged in form of proverbs, idioms, songs and music, dances, rhymes, myths, poetry etc.
Mother tongue equips the child better to master new concepts in the classroom.It boosts self-confidence and self-esteem, qualities required for better academic achievement.Italso enables people to interact and adjust well into their native communities.By speaking the mother tongue, children come to share the wisdom of their forefathers.
In all cultures, parents and guardians occupy a critical place in the transfer of traditional and cultural values to children especially during pre-school years. They are a priceless resource team for children. They are in the best position to teach young ones the native language, just as they teach them other things like choice of food, dressing, respect for elders, how to pray etc. But some parents and guardians tend to believe that since English is used as medium of instruction in Nigerian schools, it will be better to teach children the language early, to enable them achieve better results in school. This is quite erroneous because there is nothing to show that monolingual English speakers perform better than their counterparts in exams like SSCE, UME, degree exams and others. Others still see the use of English as accepted fashion and simply join the trend. But whatever the motive, parents should realize that teaching children to speak their mother tongue first is more beneficial since they will still learn English, which is supposed to be a second language for Nigerians.
Religious bodies in Nigeria and elsewhere play vital role in establishing families, who in turn strive to preserve both religious and societal values. The religious leaders should therefore play a major role in promoting the native languages which are valuable assets of the society. They can do this through their sermon, as well as celebrating religious activities in native languages where possible.
The corporate world is not to be left out in this effort. Measures can be introduced by the corporate world to stimulate interest in native languages as their own corporate social responsibility. One of the ways to create self-drive in young people about native languages might be to design job interviews to accommodate questions to be answered in applicant’s native language. Similarly, Nollywood actors should package their films in Nigerian indigenous languages to promote the country’s culture. Musicians should do likewise and so on.
Although section 55 of the 1999 Constitution of the Federal Republic Nigeria recognizes English, Hausa, Ibo and Yoruba as national languages, effort should be made to promote the use and development of other indigenous languages because therein lies the opportunity to achieve technological growth and sustainable development for the country. It is, of course, an uphill task for an individual to master his or her physical, biological and socio-cultural environments with a foreign language, yet it is the proper understanding of these that can open the door of technological advancement and sustainable development. Several African scholars such as Professor Ali Mazrui of Kenya, Gilbert Tarugarira of Zimbabwe and Bodomo Adams of Ghana have expressed the position that Africa’s own languages are central toAfrican develop-ment and ought to occupy an important place in deve-lopment discussions.
As a nation, therefore, we need not ignore this opportunity of using our mother tongues to raise the science and technological status of our dear country. If we continue to neglect the mother tongues, we might be doing so at our own peril.
Barth is based in Abuja and can be
reached at: [email protected]
