As the National Institute for Cultural Orientation (NICO) commence the free indigenous language training for youth corps members across the federation, the Institute has received commendations from University lecturers and stakeholders, saying the training will go a long way to help the corps members to further integrate functionally with their host community.
Mr. Abdulahi Shuaibu, a lecturer with the department of languages at the College of Education, Zuba who is one of the resource persons engaged by NICO for the language training said the Institute has done well to come up with such a programme to give corps members a basic linguistic guide to the languages that are spoken around their immediate environment.
In his words “NICO has done noble to come up with this programme with the ultimate aim of teaching our indigenous languages to the corps members in order to give them a snap shot of the basic vocabulary and expressions needed by the Corps members to integrate functionally in the community”.
“Most of our youths today are shying away from speaking our indigenous languages but if you understand the language of the people that you are staying with, you will be loved by them and be safe from any evil act that may arise in the course of your stay with them. If you don’t understand their language, they may plan against you”.
He therefore called on government to support the Institute by way of increased budgetary allocations to be able to sustain the language programme while charging the Corps members to take the language training seriously.
On his part, Mr. Isaac Alonge who is also from the Language Department of the College of Education, Zuba said the more languages the corps members are able to understand, the more qualified they will be to interact with their environment, stressing that languages have multi-dimensional purposes be it politically, economically, religiously, culturally or otherwise.
He disclosed that of the three major languages to be taught as well as the language of the immediate environment which is Gbagyi, the corps members will have the opportunity to learn alphabets in these languages, learn word formations, as well as learn the different greetings patterns.
“We are going to teach you about greetings that are used when somebody is sick, celebrating marriages, naming ceremonies and many others. Apart from your language, we shall teach you names of the different parts of your body. Since some of you cannot count beyond your language, we are also going to teach you about all that”.
“At the end of the training, it is expected that when you find yourself outside your environment where you want to buy something, interact with people at the market place and shopping malls in your community, you will be able to interact without any problem”.
Earlier speaking on behalf of the Executive Secretary of NICO, Otunba Biodun Ajiboye, the Head of Cultural Affairs Unit, Hajiya Basirat Muse-Ajumobi emphasized the aim of the language training for corps members which is to create awareness on the need for them to know the languages around them to be able to protect yourselves within their immediate environment.
She maintained that the knowledge of our indigenous languages will go a long way to make them independent and help them to value and promote the positive cultural values we have in Nigeria.
Some of the Corps members expressed enthusiasm in learning the languages, saying it is an opportunity for them to learn languages that are not their mother tongue. A few of them who said they were ready to learn the languages had these to say “I am going to learn Yoruba and Hausa because I don’t understand the languages at all”, “I want to learn Gbagyi language so that when I go to the market, I will be able to buy things cheap”.
Caleb Nor
Media Asst.-ES
NICO, Abuja
