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From Femi Folaranmi, Yenagoa
Governor of Bayelsa State, Senator Douye Diri, has pledged his administration’s support for the newly developed Ijaw Language App code-named Dayama Demo.
Senator Diri made the commitment on Monday at the Ijaw Language Awareness Summit with the theme: “Reviving the Izon Language: Heritage, Our Identity, Our Future,” at the DSP Alamieyeseigha Memorial Banquet Hall in Yenagoa, as part of activities marking the 30th anniversary of the state’s creation.
Governor Diri, who expressed concern that the language was gradually becoming extinct, urged his kinsmen and all Bayelsans to make a conscious effort to revive it to preserve their identity as a people for the younger generation.
While commending the popular Ijaw music act, Asu Ekiye, for convening the summit and for being a true ambassador of the Ijaw nation, he announced that the summit would henceforth be an annual event in the state.
He called on private organisations and individuals to join the government in supporting the creative talents that have been at the forefront of promoting the language.
The state’s helmsman urged the Ijaw National Congress (INC) to work with government on the Ijaw revival project as well as reactivate the Prof. Kay Williamson Centre at Kaiama in Kolokuma/Opokuma Local Government Area.
He directed the Commissioner for Education to ensure that quizzes and debates in Ijaw language were organised in primary and secondary schools in the state.
The governor explained that the move to resuscitate Ijaw language was started by his predecessor, Senator Seriake Dickson, in 2018 when Kolokuma dialect was adopted as the official language in the state.
His words: “My predecessor started the move to revive the language when he sent a bill to the House of Assembly, and on February 25, 2018, Kolokuma dialect was adopted as the central language, and 200 teachers were recruited to teach the language in every public school.
“This celebration will not end today. It is going to be an annual Izon Language Awareness Day, and it will be anchored in the Ministry of Culture and Ijaw National Affairs.
“Next year, we will have this Ijaw Awareness Day in an open field at the sports complex where all our families, all our mothers and fathers will converge.
“What we are doing today is about the preservation of our language, mode of dressing, as well as the cuisine that make up the total of our culture and tradition as Ijaws.”
In his keynote address, Dr. Felix Tuodolo identified challenges affecting the survival of the Ijaw language, noting that parents no longer communicate with their children in their mother tongue.
He also identified the preference for other indigenous languages to the detriment of their mother tongue and the removal of the Izon language by the Federal Government as one of the official languages in the country.
Also, the convener of the summit, Asu Ekiye, said the survival of the language rests on the choices and actions of the people.
He stated that the Ijaw language stands at a critical threshold where its everyday usage was declining at an alarming rate, particularly among the younger generation, and that the time to act was now.
Ekiye appealed to the state government to make immediate actionable interventions for the formal recognition of the Ijaw Language Resuscitation Initiative and appointment of a state focal unit.
