Language is a means of communication between two or more people for the purpose of hearing, understanding and creating a mutual relationship. Language is also a binding force that brings family, community, ethnic group tribe and the society at large together. Language is very powerful to the extent that it fosters love and unity among the people. It promotes cultural values and norms of a particular society. It gives safety, security, comfort and confidence to go extra mile with someone you speak the same language with.
Our mother language is an agreed language by the tribe you originated from as their means of communication. This Language or dialect gives you a sense of belonging as a family, friend or somebody who is from your tribe. Having highlighted the benefits of mother language, it is pertinent to call our attention to the fact that our dialect is speedily going into extinction as a result of civilization, importation of western culture and adoption of foreign language as our lingua franca.
Adopting English language as our universal means of communication is not a wrong idea as multilingual country but there should be a balance measure that will not allow English language to override our dialect. Hence, the family, various ethnic groups and the government have a pivotal role to play.
Parents must endeavor to speak their language with their children; each ethnic group should have different forum, symposium, debate, essay writing in their indigenous languages with fascinating reward attached to it. The various tribes should have a scholarship scheme for student who excels in the subject of a particular language they took from primary to secondary school level.
Fully funded scholarship should be provided by communities and government for those studying indigenous languages at the tertiary institutions and higher percentage of job opportunities made available to them after graduation in our schools so that they can replicate what they have learnt. Some of them should also be engaged in our media houses where they can present programmes that will sensitize the people on the need to embrace their mother language.
Government should also have a policy that our indigenous languages must be taught in our schools from primary to secondary school level. Fund in form of soft loans or grants should be provided by government, well to do individual, corporate bodies to help entrepreneurs developing multimedia facilities like: computer applications, MP3/4, website where you can have tutors online to teach mother tongue, audio and video CD teaching our dialect.
As we celebrate International day of mother language today, it is a clarion call for all hands to be on deck to save our indigenous languages from going into extinction.