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Igbo have been urged not to forget the use of their mother tongue wherever they reside as it the most accepted means of their identification.
Founder of the Indigenous Language and Culture Initiative (ILCI), Mazi John Chukwu stated this during the celebration of the United Nations Mother Tongue Day in Lagos.
“Today many Igbo are more interested in teaching their children English Language and even paying huge sums of money to learn Chinese and losing sight of their mother tongue – Igbo. The result is the decline of Igbo value system and culture said to be a people’s way of life. This is a dangerous trend because a people without language won’t exist.
“The threat of the decline of many indigenous languages and mother tongue, including Igbo language, is very real and needs drastic action to preserve it. We cannot continue to wait until the UNESCO prediction of the extinction of Igbo language is made real,” he said.
Chukwu enumerated all what his group had been doing to stem the dangerous tide: “We have created academic and cultural oriented programmes in different schools in Lagos. We organised and created Igbo Language fan clubs where pupils and students are encouraged to speak Igbo in drama presentations, quiz competitions and more. Again we continue to present Ekwe kuo Ama Agba, the popular Igbo language programme on radio stations as motivation to the preservation of Igbo language since 2014.”
