By Chika Abanobi
His name is Juwon Olorunsaiye, of Yoruba parentage from Ondo State, he was born and bred in Lagos. But the 11-year-old boy made news, and history, recently when he scored the highest mark in his school’s second term exam paper on the Igbo language.
By doing so, the boy who scored 94 per cent, inclusive of class continuous assessment tests, to clinch the position, not only topped his class but also beat his classmates, many of them of Igbo parentage.
His name, an abridged version of its fuller part, Oluwajuwonlo, when translated into English, means, “The Lord is greater than them all.” And his surname, Olorunsaiye, means, “God rules the world.” A primary six pupil of Verifort Academy, Ijeshatedo, Lagos, his Igbo teacher, Maazi Moses Ogu, confessed that he was surprised at the ease with which he answered questions on areas like Igbo numerology, reaching up to hundreds and thousands, names of traditional Igbo market days, Igbo greetings on various occasions, different circumstances and times of the day, and stuffs like that. Not only did he know them by heart, he could also write them correctly.
‘Boy’s performance, not so surprising’
School’s proprietress, Mrs Ndidiamaka Oyeleye, an Igbo woman married to a Yoruba man; the school’s Headmistress/Head Teacher, Mrs Fadekemi Meduoye, expressed similar surprise as did the school’s Igbo teacher. Oyeleye said she was so surprised by his performance that she went to his class to challenge other pupils, especially the Igbo among them, to put more effort into the learning of the language. Meduoye believed that the boy studied very well for the exam, an observation that Juwon, the Assistant Head Boy of the school, agrees with.
But if Oyeleye and Meduoye were surprised by his performance, not so his mum, Mrs Blossom Olorunsaiye, a beautician, and Mr James Alabi, his class teacher, a graduate of Economics. “Of course, he is a Yoruba boy who has not travelled out of Lagos before to Igbo land but he is a fast learner,” his mother said. “He is very inquisitive; he wants to know everything. Character-wise, he is gentle. I call him a gentleman. Academically, he is doing excellently well. His English name is Divine, and I am proud of him.”
He is good not only in Igbo but also in other school subjects, Alabi revealed: “The advice that I want to give his parents is, that they should give him time to explore himself, to focus on his studies, and to advance his knowledge. They should give him chance to meet with other people so that he can be challenged to reach his utmost heights.”
How he got interested in Igbo
Juwon, the boy at the centre of the whole drama, confessed that his interest in the language was kindled by two major factors. They are one, his grandmother who learnt it in Jos, Plateau State where she used to live. She did so by mingling with the Igbo community over there, he explained. Thereafter, she began to speak it to him and his siblings.
And secondly, his friendship with many Igbo at Verifort. This was another factor that contributed to his showing more than a passing interest in the learning of the language. He told Daily Sun that he has a natural flair for languages and like learning about other people’s languages. On his advice to parents, he said would want them not to limit their children’s learning to only their language. Rather, they should encourage them to learn other languages as well, as it will make for “national social integration.”
Challenge to all parents
Oyeleye and Meduoye have similar counsel for parents and other pupils. “We, Igbo parents, neglect our duty to our children: to teach them our language,” Oyeleye pointed out. “I don’t think we are doing enough. My advice, not only to Igbo parents but to all parents is, let them begin immediately to teach their children how to speak and write their languages, at home. No matter how intelligent a child is, the English language should not be allowed to supplant the local language.” “My advice to other students is to study more to be like him (Juwon),” Meduoye added.
Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, Nigeria’s internationally acclaimed writer, and Akachi Adimora-Ezeigbo, professor of English, and current Chair of the Advisory Board of Nigerian Liquefied Natural Gas (NLNG)’s the $100,000 Nigeria Literature Prize, have had cause, in the past to give parents similar admonition.
“When I had my daughter, I decided to speak only Igbo to her,” Adichie said at the seventh Annual International Igbo Conference held at the University of London. “Right now, she speaks Igbo fluently at a relatively young age. Even when we are back in Nigeria, her relatives in Nigeria don’t speak Igbo.
“I know my daughter will learn both languages when she is older. I’m struck sometimes by Igbo people in particular and I’m shocked when they realize that my child speaks Igbo. Why? I grew up speaking both languages fluently.
“There are Igbo parents who when they are asked why their children don’t speak Igbo, say it will confuse them. But they go on to sign these kids for French lessons. So it is not a question of the second language confusing the child; it is a question of how much value we give our Igbo language and by extension our history, our culture, and our identity.
“When did our language become something to be ashamed of? Some people have said that the Igbo language has no global power or as one parent put it to me, “o nwero ebe e ji Igbo eje” (we are going nowhere with the learning of the Igbo language). This is not true. Igbo speaking opens you to a new way of seeing the world because language and world view are closely intertwined.”
“We should continue to speak our local languages,” Ezeigbo enjoined parents. “Every Nigerian child must have a Nigerian language he or she speaks. If you are Yoruba, teach your children Yoruba. Do not deprive your children the knowledge of their language. It is their identity.
“We may not understand these things but we have an identity to protect and to project. And, if you don’t have an identity, life cannot be normal for you. These English people you speak their language have an identity: their language. How then can we in Nigeria not speak our mother tongues? I think it is one of the things that will destroy our children in the future if we are not careful.”
Driving her message home, she revealed that she and her family speak Igbo at home: “When my husband and I were courting, we took a decision that we would not speak English to our children until they are three years old. We still speak Igbo as the language of communication. Many parents don’t know this. Proficiency in English depends not just on speaking alone but on reading good books. That’s where you learn the language. And, many parents do not understand that a child can speak more than one language fluently at the same time.
“Many parents think if a child speaks their language they will not be able to speak good English. That’s not true. If you look at the law of the nature of language acquisition, a child can learn more than two languages fluently before the age of 12. And, I know that this is true because my children speak English, Igbo and Yoruba fluently.”