The call for the promotion of Nigeria’s indigenous languages has been on for decades. Knowing the importance of language and going by recent warnings about some Nigerian dialects going extinct, language experts and some other citizens have canvassed for measures towards ensuring that the culture and languages of the various ethnic groups in the country do not die. Recent local and international reports had revealed that most Nigerian indigenous languages would be extinct in the next three decades, while about 90 per cent of them were projected to be replaced by dominant languages. The reports further disclosed that the percentage of children that speak local dialects is thinning down and may result in loss of identity, culture, moral values and heritage of many communities in the country. So, the recent disclosure of the federal government’s approval of a new National Language Policy which would make mother tongue a compulsory medium of instruction for public primary school pupils was well received by many people.
According to the Minister of Education, Adamu Adamu, who made the plan known, mother tongue will be used exclusively for the first six years of education, while it will be combined with English Language from Junior Secondary School. He said that the mother tongue to be used in each school will be the dominant language spoken by the community where it is located, assuring of the government’s preparedness to protect the over 600 local languages in the country. Government must be commended for this initiative which if well implemented and sustained, will make a great difference in the preservation and promotion of indigenous languages in the country. Researches have shown that native language deepens knowledge.  A great deal of research has confirmed that types of education based on the mother tongue significantly increase the chances of educational success and give better results.  I have not forgotten my experience as a youth corps member in a school in Numan, Adamawa State. Some of the students would hardly understand what they were taught in English language but when the same topic was taught or interpreted in their local language, they would grab it.
However, this policy needs to be thoroughly interrogated. In the first place, why should the use of the mother tongue for teaching be made compulsory only in public schools? What about the millions of children in private schools?  Is the Minister telling us that only the children in public primary schools are good enough to be taught in their mother tongue? Or, the children in private schools are too sophisticated or civilized to learn their mother tongues? Again, did the government take into the consideration the huge financial cost of producing the instructional materials and training of teachers.  Do we have teachers that can teach in all the over 600 languages we have in Nigeria.? Are there plans to train more teachers on these languages? How many teachers can communicate effectively in their mother tongue? A teacher -friend of mine told me that the policy could be the government’s plan of sacking teachers because a good number of teachers are deficient in mother tongue proficiency. Wouldn’t this education policy compound the numerous problems in the education sector where there is no adequate fund to fix infrastructures, pay teachers, provide instructional material for the pupils and many more?
The greatest fear is about continuity. Ours is a country where incumbent political office holders hardly continue  projects or policies initiated by their predecessors. Anyone that comes into power will introduce new policies, new projects, jettisoning the ones he inherited from the person before him. So, what is the assurance that the person that will occupy Aso Rock Villa in May 2023 and the subsequent administrations will deem it fit to carry on with the policy?  Nigeria is a country with about 600 languages. Some states like Kaduna have about 57 languages, Rivers State 28 languages not to talk of Taraba State that is made up of 40 tribes and about 73 languages.  We will be deceiving ourselves if we claim that we can instruct the pupils in all these languages. Even choosing the predominant language in every locality might pose a great challenge and may lead to serious problems if not well handled.
Surely, this is a good initiative but it requires long-term planning.  Let us not be in a hurry to start what we cannot sustain. Already the 6-3-3-4 system of education which was started in 1982 with the aim of ensuring that secondary school students acquire skills through vocational training that would enable them to be self-reliant upon graduation is not yielding the expected result primarily because of the issue of funding, lack of infrastructure and inadequate instructional facilities and other.  So, rather than plunge into the teaching in mother tongue head long, why not choose some schools (pilot/model schools) kind of, one or two in each state, see how successful the policy will be in those schools, note the challenges and work on them and ascertain the possibility of its continuity before taking it to the entire country. At that point, it might be necessary to back the policy with legislation. Such a law should make instruction in mother tongue compulsory in primary schools in Nigeria rather than public schools only.
There is the need to adopt practicable measures in the quest to promote our local languages. An important step is to end the attitude of making the speaking of local languages or vernacular as it is mostly called in schools, a punishable offence. Students and pupils should be encouraged to freely communicate in their dialects within the school. A credit in any Nigerian language should be a prerequisite for gaining admission into any tertiary institution in Nigeria just like English Language and Mathematics. This way, both students, parents and schools will take the study of Nigerian languages more seriously. Essay and quiz competitions in Nigerian languages should be encouraged and supported by the government, organisations and individuals.Most importantly, parents should form the habit of communicating with their children in their native languages. Observations show that many people no longer speak their dialects. Many parents, especially the educated ones, do not communicate with their children in their dialects and really don’t care if their children speak their language or not.
All they want is for their children to speak English and other foreign languages. Parents of different ethnic groups most times decide to speak a neutral language, especially to their children, thereby denying them the identities of their parents.The truth is that the English and other foreign languages we promote can never be our language. No matter how proficient you are in English and speak it with the English accent, you are not an English man or woman. You remain a Nigerian. Many parents spend thousands of naira to hire English and French teachers for their children, (which is not bad), how much do we spend to teach them their native languages which is their identity? The responsibility of rejuvenating our native languages, culture and tradition is not that of government alone. Parents, adults, schools and organisations have big roles to play. Our culture and traditions are our unique identity, we must not lose it.  The policy on teaching in mother tongue is most desirable as it will encourage young Nigerians to learn their mother tongue  but If practical steps are not taken by the authorities and all concerned to make it realistic, the idea, like a big elephant will definitely not fly.

By: Calista Ezeaku