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The publisher of an indigenous Yoruba weekly magazine, Yoruba Tooto, Pastor Kunle Babarinde, has urged President Bola Tinubu to restore the three major indigenous languages to the current school curriculum.
Babarinde made the appeal at a press conference held yesterday at Iyana Odo, Meiran, headquarters of the Newspapers, in Lagos.
He said it was sad that he had to call a press conference to appeal to President Tinubu to restore the three indigenous languages to the current school curriculum.
According to him, he had written letters to President Bola Tinubu, Senate President Godswill Akpabio, Speaker of the House of Representatives, Tajudeen Abbas and all governors in the South-West, as well as the co-chairman of the National Council of Traditional Rulers of Nigeria (NCTRN), Alhaji Muhammad Sa’ad Abubakar III, the Ooni of Ife, Oba Adeyeye Enitan Ogunwusi (Ojaja II) and other prominent Obas in Yorubaland.
Babarinde noted that he had only received a response from the Sultan of Sokoto while others were yet to respond.
The publisher highlighted the importance of using indigenous languages as tools for cultural identity and promotion of values.
He described language as a living creature that dies when it is not used.
“As a stakeholder and publisher of a Yoruba weekly magazine, I am not fighting for the restoration of only Yoruba language, but also for all three languages, including Yoruba, Hausa and Igbo, to the school curriculum.
“All three languages have been removed from the current school curriculum both in primary and secondary schools and what that portends is that the Minister of Education, Prof. Tunji Alausa, has decided to return us to slavery.
“A people’s language is the totality of their being and once the language dies, then every other thing, including culture, tradition and values, is gone.
“Therefore, I am not only seeking the restoration of the three major languages to the school curriculum alone, I am also using this opportunity to appeal to President Bola Tinubu to make the languages compulsory for admission into tertiary institutions,” he said.
He also explained that teachers teaching indigenous languages in Nigeria are not happy with the proposed plan of the Federal Government to remove the languages from the curriculum, a development they said could make them redundant.
Former chairman, Egbe Akomolede Yoruba, Lagos State chapter, Mrs Olaitan Zainab Olaide, also urged all Yoruba Obas to raise their voices against the proposal.
Olaide said Yoruba Obas are custodians of culture and tradition, pointing out that it is part of their roles to ensure that Yoruba language does not go into extinction.
“Our language remains the only heritage that gives us the identity and respect we have as a race. So, our traditional rulers in Yoruba land must rise and raise their voices against removal of Yoruba language from the current school curriculum,” she said.
Other members of the Yoruba Tooto Multipurpose Cooperative Society present at the conference included the Lagos State chairman, Olabode Oyeniyi, Mrs Bunmi Adegoke and Mrs Bosede Ariyo, among others.
