Mother Tongue Policy: Why Nigeria Should Consider A Major Redesign
How ironic! The very crises that have led Nigeria to turn to STEM are not technical crises at all… not crises of insufficient engineering, inadequate mathematical modeling, insufficient laboratory science … They are humanistic and social crises of meaning, narrative, identity and moral community −.-G.S. Ibileye Vise Chancellor Federal University Lokoja.
In this era of Artificial Intelligence (AI), more than 6000 mother tongues in Africa needed to overwhelm extant epistemic process with that of Africans as Africans remain more humanistic and mindful of human interaction with seen and unseen realities than other sub-human races. There is only One Human Race and the knowledge processes emanating from humans must be inclusive and helpful for the existence of the race, not detrimental to it. Human languages possess unexplored knowledge processes and Nigeria with over 500 languages should map-out what it takes to harvest such knowledge contents to assuage current danger of looming human extinction caused by excessive, dehumanistic arsenals in the hands of the “wicked”. The exploration of the values of African languages is the harvesting of humanistic knowledge contents.
Neuroscientists agree that the human brain is working at barely 10% of its capacity and that every child is able to learn at least five languages at earlier stages of life, hence a solid foundation to allow for tolerance, creativity, openness to others, innovation and peaceful behavior for a better humanity. Stopping wars, insurgency, greed, insatiable political turbulence are challenges that are proactively nipped in the bud by a great dose of humanistic knowledge. Speaking and creating narratives in the languages of the weaker ones to woo them to accept terms of governance and social contract that make them give their best in nation building like it is done in Ethiopia and closer to Nigeria, Chad.
In its 28th Convocation, Induction of New Members and Investiture of Regular and Honorary Fellows, chaired by its President Prof. Andrew Haruna, in which 46 new members were inducted and 10 Fellows were crowned, and Honorary Fellow was bestowed on the El-Kanemi of Borno, HRH Shehu of Borno, Humanistic Practice Award to TundeKelani and Distinguished Life Fellow to Professor Emeritus Femi Osofisan, Nigerian Academy of Letters (NAL) appealed to the Federal Government of Nigeria not to abolish the Mother Tongue (MT) Policy but to re-design it and re-position it as “A SecondGeneration Mother Tongue Policy” so as to see it serve as “Path To Nation-Building” as it is seen in Ethiopia, Senegal, South Africa and Chad.
For Professor Imelda Udoh who anchored her presentation on “The First Pathway To Nation-Building” MT draws attention to the mooring infrastructure of a nation like stated by Prof. Ishaq Oloyede- cultural consciousness, linguistic heritage, functional literature consumption of the young ones from the homes where mother tongues are used, to ground them and induct into human beings distinct from animals. Like mother tongue like mother suckling – very humanistic and resourceful; and leads to human optimization pathway in the maze of pathways.
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for Professor Vicky Sylvester, whose presentation centered on “Policy and Practice Mismatch”, Federal Government was ignoring the fulcrum of mother tongue practice as enunciated by UNESCO in 1953 − not as cultural idealism but as an intellectual boost for the young ones who must still face the colonial languages as well as the Nigerian pidgin. Hence, the need to fund it so as to gratify the self-esteem of the Nigerian child into well-rounded adult. If mother tongue practice is well planned, developing contents in this age of AI could be very original and greatly universalisable. That is where Professor Yinusa Salami brings in what he calls epistemic order and pluriversalism− that is, no matter the number of mother tongues in Nigeria or Africa, their epistemic values and contents must be isolated and uploaded into a universal data base. That requires research, and producing good curricula. It should not be a simple translation from European languages to the mother tongue or vice-versa. Here linguists will tell you that the semantic unit of African proverbs or expressions cannot be translated word by word.
Universalization could also produce epistemic order semantic units specific to mother tongues, model. Just like Prof. Muhammed Sulaiman Audu writes in his paper regarding Twi and Ga in Ghana. Two languages well developed by the Ghanaians to upload their own knowledge process despite the official English in Ghana and the official French in Togo. Ga has contributed to the fostering of harmony between Ghanaians and Togolese, though as manifest in Aflao border. This seems not attainable in Nigeria, Cameroon and Chad borders–Fulfude, Kanuri and Hausa seem on centrifugal drive. It is humanistic and social; how to reconcile them for centripetal purposes beckon. While speaking at the induction ceremony, The EL-Kanemi mentioned the 1500 years of existence, museum and unconquered state and it should matter in nationhood building.
Ethiopian languages are the official languages in Ethiopia with one dominant language called Amharic. It is expected that each of the official languages take care of its region of origin and educate its citizen along the local needs of Ethiopia, and that expectation to work at federal level must be the knowledge of Amharic – not federal character quota basis. Just like in Canada where you have to speak and write French and English to become a confederal employee in Ottawa, most people in British Columbia, Prince Edward Island, Newfoundland, Labrador, and Alberta do not care about speaking French and prefer to stay and work in their provinces, thus localizing their development drive and keeping the provinces relevant and active. Unlike in Nigeria where people flock to the center Abuja, Lagos, Kaduna, Port Harcourt, neglecting or leaving the rural areas to non-state actors.
In Ghana or Senegal, the notion of Town and Krom (it is a town, it is my ancestral home) make Twi and Wolof very relevant in the development of the rural areas, slow it may be though, it is not left to insurgents or Boko Haram-type of activities.
Africa, nay Nigeria, needs a healthy dose of humanistic education that can upload the epistemic pathways embedded in mother tongues that drive Ubuntu philosophy – I am because you are.
As G.S. Ibileye has said, Africa’s problem now and in the coming years is more about people and the cohesion of their environment than deep science and technology. “What does a camera see that a historian cannot name and what does a drone detect that a linguist cannot read… if the spokesperson of the armed forces’ life could not be preserved (Major General Rabe Abubakar) what exactly are we asking five thousand cameras to do?” he said.
So, effectively, for a nation building process where inclusiveness and brotherhood counts and where insurgents are banished, re-design mother tongue policy to look like what obtains in Ethiopia or Senegal.
