Abstract
Policies related to language in
Nigeria, which are otherwise known as language policies were introduced from
the outset by the colonial government. These policies favored English Language
thereby leveling The Indigenous languages as substrate. After independence, Nigeria
still maintains these policies as they were being designed by the colonial
masters posing a minute doubts whether or not Nigeria is still under British
colonialism's. Some concerned citizens however laid down significant series of
criticisms about the ineffectiveness of Nigeria's language policies as to call
for the revisit and revision of all the language-related policies so that, perhaps,
one or more indigenous language(s) will emerge as the National language (s). This
write-up therefore, casts a look at the National language policy and the quest
for a common language. It concludes with a clarion call for all and sundry to
consider that National language question is not exclusive reserve for linguists
but a collective task upon everybody.
Keywords: Language, Policy, Language Policy,
National Language, Common Language
Nigeria is described as a multi-dimensional,
multi-ethnic as well as multi-religious nation-state (Ashafa, 2016). These
disparities are what makes it quite different from other African nations. Recently,
researches show that no country on earth has such differences as Nigeria; thus,
in culture, religion, language, geography, etc (Nwobia, 2015). Scholars, for
example, put the number of languages spoken in Nigeria from 250, 400, 450, 500,
to 515 (minus 3 dead languages). These languages are not mutually intelligible
for in some part of South-South in every kilometer there is another language (Ethnologue,
2009, Alobo, 2009, Grimes, 2010, NOUN, 2013). Therefore, the need to have a
common language with which the over 180 000 000 Nigerians communicate without one language feel
dominated, the need to have a national language that brings about unity among
the Nigerians, the need to have a language that set us aside from other
countries all arose. Hence, the silent approval and tacit adoption of English
as the national or official language by the federal government has made the need a national question (Banjo, 1991). The
question remains that, is it the Nigeria's hetero-languages that brought about the
silent adoption of English as the official language or because of colonialism
as in the case of several commonwealth countries known as Anglophones (those
who use English as official language)? However, no matter the gravity of the
arguments, the point is that, Constitution of the Federal Government of Nigeria
(1999) deliberately declares English as the language of the National Assembly:
The business of the National Assembly, shall
be conducted in English and in Hausa, Ibo and Yoruba when adequate
arrangements have been made thereof (Emphasis mine). Federal Republic of
Nigeria (1979, 1999)
However, the section
91 of the same document reads as follows:
The business of a House of Assembly shall be
conducted in English, but the House may in addition to English conduct
the business of the House in one or more other languages spoken in the state as
the House may by resolution approve (emphasis mine). Federal Republic of
Nigeria (1979, 1999)
A critical look at these policy statements tacit or otherwise emphases
have been given to English language over the indigenous languages. Perhaps, for
the former gives condition with regard to the use of the indigenous languages
only on the basis when proper arrangements have been made thereof to their use
(Argungu, 2016).
Conceptualization of
Terms
Language Policy: Language is the primary and most
highly elaborated form of human symbolic
activity made up of symbols made by sounds produced by the vocal apparatus (Hill in Alo, 1995). Language policies of
any country are always part of the language planning to develop and adopt a
language or group of languages for use in a country (Oyetade, 2010). Language
policy is a systematic attempt to resolve the communication problems of a
community by studying the various dialects it uses and developing a viable
policy concerning the collection and the use of different languages (Crystal in
Danladi, 2013). Spolsky, in Danladi (2013) holds that, the language policy of a
speech community might reveal in its practices, its beliefs, or in
straightforward language management.
National Language: A national language refers to
language which has the authority of
the government conferred on it as the language of a number of ethnic groups in a given geo-socio-political area
(Akindele & Adegbite 1999). It is a language (or language variant, e.g. dialect) that
has some connection with a people and the territory they occupy (Sclient, ND).
National Language Policy
There have been debates over the years with regard to language policy.
Scholar and researchers such as; Adekunle (1972), Bamgbose (1992), Akinnaso
(1992), Banjo (1995), Oyetade (2003) Aito
(2005), Bamgbose (2005) and Morakinyo
(2015), among other, have theorized and debated through different lenses under language policy. Yet, they have
taken different contentious and contestable positions on this polemics.
Moreover, as a country with rich linguistic resources,
policies related to language(s) should be part and parcel of all we do. Nevertheless,
Nigeria possesses no distinct language policy. This may be connected with what
Banjo, (1996) asserted that language and all what constitutes it is never concern
of a Nigeria's Government. Also, this marked the reason (why) all we refer to
as language policies are merged in the broad educational policies as well as
the provisions under constitution (NTI, 2000; Argungu, 2016 ).
However, these policies as contained in the constitution and broad
educational policies, favor the use of English both at schools and National
Assembly, thus taking the indigenous languages as substrates. More so, these
policies traced back to the pre-independence Nigeria during which the
Missionaries aimed solely to produce people that could read Bible so as to
acquire more and more converts, strengthened the emphasis given to English
language (Fafunwa, 1974). That is why Nigerian language policy is a foreign
child that has been adapted, adopted and retained by the citizens.
No doubt, all the language policies favored
English so that even after independence, English
may continue colonizing the indigenous languages after being colonized by the
native speakers (the white men). One question normally people ask is; why
should Nigeria continuo with policy favoring foreign language? The language of
the people who have taken our resources, calling us names, abuse our cultures, religions, women and most importantly taken our
indigenous languages to the backdrop?
Language policies fall under three camps namely:
1. Official language policy
2. Educational language policy
3. General language policy (Noss, in Danladi, 2013)
The official language policy stressed
emphasis on the use of English to run the business of the
National Assembly while the three major
indigenous languages to be used "only and only" when
proper arrangements have been made
thereof to their used. The 1922 constitution and the 1945 Richard constitution
recommended the use of English as official language in the West and East while
Hausa would be used in the North (NTI, 2000).
Also, the 19th national policy on
education stated that, students at junior secondary schools shall study English
and two Nigerian languages while the senior secondary school's students shall
study English and one Nigerian language. In section 1 paragraph 8 of the National
Policy on Education, it is stated that:
In addition to appreciating the
importance of language in the educational process, and as a means of preserving the people's
culture, the Government considers it to be the interest of
national unity that each child should be
encouraged to learn one of the major languages other than his own mother tongue.
In this connection, the Government considers the three major languages in
Nigeria to be Hausa, Igbo and Yoruba.
Considering the aforementioned
policies, it is pertinent to note that the emphasis largely rest upon English
language (Adejimola, 2010) .
The Quest for a Common Language
Nigeria is among the lucky and
unlucky countries that uses English as a second language. African and some
Asian countries such as Tanzania, Uganda, Kenya, India, Singapore, Zambia, Ghana
uses English as the second language (Adedimeji, 2007). Foreign language, by
whatever name is a language of domination and imperialism. Therefore, no matter
what, it cannot adequately capture the ideas, concepts and richness of the
African countries (Ngugi, 2005; Obiwali,
2006; Alobo, 2013). More so, any country that depends on foreign language is in
trouble and no secret or security for that nation or country that transact
daily business with another country’s language (Obe, 2006). Owing to these
topical and controversial problems, linguists and some concerned Nigerians
resort to pose the following:
- Should English continue to be
the official language of Nigeria?
- If not, which indigenous Nigerian
language should replace it?
- Is it necessary to have only one
official language?
- If not, how many and which ones?
(Banjo, 1996).
Later on, linguists agreed that
Nigeria should no longer continue with a foreign language as a national
language. Thus, sooner or later, no matter how long however, Nigeria will have
to adopt and adapt one or more of multifarious Nigerian languages as national
language(s). Heretofore, several criteria were set forth by several people (most
importantly the scholars concerned), regarding the choice of national language.
Banjo (1999) for example said that there are certain objective criteria for
consideration for any language to be chosen as national language, which are as
follows:
- For any language to emerge as a
national language of Nigeria, the number of the population already
speaking the proposed language should be considered. That presumably
determines the amount of effort to be expended on the adoption of the
language.
- The current rate of the
expansion of the language should be considered. That would provide an
indication of the need that is already felt for the particular language
nationally.
- The current state of development
of the language, this is for any language to take over from English must
ideally have developed to the same extent as English, all the registers of
the language-necessary for the conduct of national business.
- The current image of the
language, that is, it should be a language which everyone is happy to learn
study or acquire.
Perhaps, the criteria above are
partly right and partly wrong. According to this research any indigenous
language is a right candidate in as much as Nigerians so decide. However for
any language in Nigeria to fulfill all the above listed criteria is something
close to impossibility, except Hausa language. Hausa meets up all the criteria
only that none of the linguistic group would like to give up its own language
in favor of Hausa (or any other linguistic group) in the interest of the
country (Banjo, 1996). Every linguistic group wants its own language to be
chosen as the national language and if that is not done, then no other language
must be chosen except a foreign one (Olagoake, 1979).
Since however, choosing one of the
three major indigenous languages such as Hausa, Yoruba or Igbo is not helping
matters, several proposals were given starting from 1977 during the second International
Festival of Arts and Culture (FESTAC) held in Nigeria (Jowitt, 1995). During
the festival, Soyinka suggested that Nigeria adopt Swahili as its national language
since according to him, Swahili is an African language and/also already a
national language of three African States namely; Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda.
Although some few scholars supported him, the move was rejected by
preponderance number of people owing to fact that Swahili is not a Nigerian
language and for any language to emerge as a national language it should have a
Nigerian origin (Elugbe & Omamor 1991).
Another view was based on the choice
of the artificial language. The proponents
of this take asserted that since the struggles by ethnic nationality for the
recognition of their languages have already appeared to be a war-like struggle,
neutral language should be formed (Ogbonna, 2013). The example of these artificial
languages include; WAZOBIA, which is a coinage from the major indigenous
languages; wa 'come' in Yoruba, zo
in Hausa and bia in Igbo language
respectively. Another Artificial language was Guosa, fashioned out by Guosa Igbineweka who declared that Guosa
comprises 22 minor and major Nigerian languages. He presented some copies to
the national assembly for proceedings. Many linguists like Bamgbose (2005) and
Elugbe, (1990) among others rejected these artificial languages. They pointed
out that Guosa was a creation of a single person's imagination imposed upon the
entire Nigerians. However, they considered it unwise for a country to have a
national language, which has no native speakers within the country in question.
There also linguists that suggested
the endoglosic option, that is, one of the minor languages
should be "adopted so that the speakers of all the three major languages
would be at equal disadvantage" (Banjo, 1996: 30). For that, Joseph, (1989)
and Sofunke (1990) chose Afrike and Igala respectively. According to Joseph
'Afrike' is a language of those living at the Cross-River state and it has
about 3, 500 speakers (Ojo, in). Sofunke (1990) on the other hand, suggested
that Igala is minor language, yet the language has rich vocabulary as well as
grammar. In addition, the language serves as panacea to Islamic North and
Christian South misunderstanding. All in all, these two minority languages were
discarded by the majority scholars. Notwithstanding, the vast majority of
people including some Yoruba and Igbo agreed that Hausa can serve all the required
services of a national language. It has vast volumes of speakers as well as
preponderance non-native speakers more than any other languages in Nigeria (Jowitt,
1995). The proponents of Hausa also made mention of higher number of Hausa
social media such as Hausa based magazines, newspapers as well as radio
stations like BBC Hausa and VOA Hausa etc.
Scholars and many well-meaning
Nigerians up to this time when this research is conducted ad libitum giving
proposals which language should emerge as Nigeria's national language. This
research is of the view that, since the choice of one national language is (not)
tenable and as Banjo (1996: 30) posits: "choosing one of them (Hausa, Yoruba
and Igbo) cannot be expected to be an easy
matter.” The assumption is that the winner (i. e the one chosen) would come to
occupy an excessive advantageous position in the national scheme of things.
They would be first-class citizens (ibid). Nigeria should therefore, according
to such scholars, adopt more than one national language; for instance, Hausa, Yoruba
and Igbo should serve as national languages, since some minorities languages
fall under either of the three major languages. More so, many countries adopted
more than one language as their national languages.
The Table 1: below shows some African states and their
national languages:
|
Country |
No. of Languages |
National Language(s) |
|
Angola |
1 |
1, Setswana (spoken
by 90% of the population ) |
|
Botswana |
25
|
1, Setswana (spoken by 90%
of the population ) |
|
Kenya |
18 |
1, Kiswahili (spoken by 65% of the population ) |
|
Malawi |
12 (above) |
1, Chichewa (spoken by 80% of the population ) |
|
South Africa |
25-80 |
11, official languages with no designated national
languages |
|
Tanzania |
135-150 |
1, Kiswahili |
|
Zambia |
80 |
4, major indigenous languages |
|
Zimbabwe |
8 (plus) |
2, chishona and Isindebele |
Adopted from Viv,
& Kembo-Sure, (2000: 46)
The Table shows that, some sister
African countries adopted more than one national language. Thus, Nigeria should
follow suit as that may serve as the only panacea for 'occasional' calls for a
referendum to decide the choice as in the case of India (Banjo, 1996)
Table 2: shows some
developed countries of the world that use indigenous languages as their
national languages:
|
Country |
National language
(s) |
|
England |
English |
|
France |
French |
|
USA |
English |
|
Germany |
German |
|
Portugal |
Portuguese |
|
Denmark |
Danish |
|
China |
Chinese |
|
Sweden |
Swedish |
|
Thailand |
Thai |
|
Netherland |
Dutch |
|
Cambodia |
Khmer |
|
Malaysia |
Malaysian |
|
Norway |
Norwegian, Nynorsh, Bokmal |
|
Spain |
Spanish |
|
Russian |
Russia |
|
Belgium |
Dutch, French, German |
Adopted from: Owolabi (2013:5-32)
Why Nigeria Needs a National Language
It is difficult, if not impossible,
for a country to develop while it uses foreign language as a national language.
The educational sector almost defines and determines the developmental status
of a country. This is, no country could develop beyond its quality of
education. However, English as the language of instruction has been encumbering
the smooth flow of educational activities in the country. In schools, the
language of instruction has always been a problem for the achievement of
objectives. In fact, statistics shows that students keep on failing English as
a course. This obviously shows its inappropriateness as language of instruction
in schools. Below is a table showing the performance of students in English
ranging from 1995 to 2000 during SSCE examinations:
|
Year |
No.
of candidate |
Credit
& above |
Ordinary
pass Fail Absent |
Ordinary
pass Fail Absent |
Ordinary
pass Fail Absent |
|
1995 |
464.270 |
12.4 |
27.7 |
59.9 |
0.6 |
|
1996 |
576.196 |
11.33 |
24.03 |
64.62 |
0.6 |
|
1997 |
618.139 |
6.54 |
26.77 |
66.67 |
0.7 |
|
1998 |
636.777 |
8.5 |
21.5 |
65.53 |
0.6 |
|
1999 |
752.233 |
9.7 |
22.6 |
64.91 |
0.5 |
|
2000 |
784.129 |
9.8 |
21.4 |
65.9 |
0.6 |
Adopted
from: Osisanwo (2006: 5)
The table above shows that, there is
generally poor performance in English language. This however proves it
inappropriate to be the language of instruction in schools. However, worth of
indigenous language as a common language could be seen under the following:
i.
Social
and Political: When the native language is not maintained, important links to
family and other community members might be lost. By encouraging native
language use, parents can prepare the child to interact with the native
language community. More so, language is not always serving just referential
functions. There are times when
language is used as a code to hide something from the public eyes. Such
languages are often special languages meant for only a few persons who have
access to the meaning of the code. It is the abnatural function of language.
However, for a country to use foreign language as official languages, it is
indirectly denying itself such advantage of language use (IDRA, 2000; Oyetade, 2010).
ii.
Intellectual:
Students need uninterrupted intellectual development. When students who are not
yet fluent in English switch to using only English, they are functioning at an
intellectual level below their age. Interrupting intellectual development in
this manner is likely to result in academic failure. However, when parents and
children speak the language they know best with one another, they are both
working at their actual level of intellectual maturity (IDRA, 2000).
iii.
Educational:
Teaching and learning using native language yield higher
academic achievement. This is due to the difficulty in administering teaching
and learning activities using a foreign language as medium of instruction.
iv.
Economic:
Nigeria has not yet
attained the statues of
a fully developed nation. Rather, it is at the verge of doing so. There is,
however, the need to foster the
paddle of our national development in a more rational and scientific manner through a
better understanding of our critical thinking process through the avenue of effective
language as medium of instruction, the language of construction and implementation of
our national development efforts (Oyetade,
2010).
v.
Personal:
The child's first language is critical to his or her identity. Maintaining this
language helps the child value his or her culture and heritage, which
contributes to a positive self-concept (IDRA, 2000). Olagoke in Oyetade,
(2010) affirmed that there are
many Nigerians who feel strongly that the country needs a lingua franca other
than English, not only to foster national unity but also to facilitate self-discovery
and pride.
Summary and Conclusion
The use of indigenous language(s) as
national language(s) of any country remains sine qua non to its development. However,
language policies of whatever kinds should be democratic, accommodative and
diversified enough. More so, the feeling of pride for foreign language would
not lead us to a promised land. We earn no respect from the eyes of the
international world. However, none of the developed countries of the world uses
foreign language(s) as national language(s). This is to say, the level of
development of any nation has born on earnest use of indigenous languages(s) as
national language(s). this is because, the ability to plan sustainable
development, promote effective citizen empowerment, combat marginalization
through active participation in social and public life and encouragement of
dialogues between people is in large measure dependent on language.
Following the above, Nigerians will
never cease writing and stressing the needs to have a national as far as we are
concerned until the final and or terminal resolution is reached. However, no
one derives the role English language plays in the international world today.
The use of it as a national language while taking the major indigenous
languages as substrates is what well-meaning Nigerians detested. This paper therefore,
urges the policy makers and language planners to have a revisit of the official
language policy in Nigeria. However, and come up with sustainable policy that
would upgrade our indigenous languages to emerge as our national language(s)
like other African countries such as South-Africa (who uses 11 official
languages) Zambia (with 4 national languages) and Zimbabwe (with 2 national
languages) as well as other foreign countries such as Canada and Switzerland.
As a point of departure, before final dismissing of English as a Nigeria’s national language, there must be perio campaigns for the development of the three major languages in various domains of national life such as education, hospitals, market places, National Assembly and State House of Assembly. However, what should not be forgotten is, it would cost a lot and time would be taken in training disproportionate Nigerians the three major languages and translating our documents.
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