A Cry For Help: Stakeholder Task Federal and State Governments To Make Indigenous Language Development National Issue In Nigeria

Josiah Chijindu Egbilika

A Linguist and indigenous language advocate, Mr. Josiah Egbilika has called on the Federal and State Governments to prioritize indigenous language development as a national problem in Nigeria.

Mr. Egbilika lamented on the continuous neglect towards language development from both national and States' budgets. According to him, there is no way the about 527 languages in Nigeria can be truly developed and properly documented without money.

The Indigenous Language Advocate pointed out regrettably that the Twenty-Eight point Seven Trillion Naira (N28.7 trillion) budget passed by the Tinubu led administration did not cover the development of indigenous languages in Nigeria and the main reason for this continuous neglect is because government after government has not seen the need to make language development a national issue.

Unfortunately, the rate at which Nigerian languages are going into extinction is alarming. According to the Linguist, no language in Nigeria is spared from being extinct if serious and drastic measures are not taken.

He pointed out that if our languages go into extinction, the nation will loose all its cultural heritages and the identity that makes Nigeria unique.

He called on the Federal and State Governments to take it as a necessity to prioritize indigenous language development as a form of preserving culture and the people they have sworn to lead.

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