Group urges parents to spearhead speaking of mother language

Mon, Feb 24, 2020
By publisher
3 MIN READ

Judiciary

AN Abuja based NGO, Save Our Heritage Initiative (SOHI) on Monday urged parents both at home and diaspora to spearhead their various languages, for the future advantage of their children.

Chief Executive Officer (CEO), Ms. May Ikokwu, of the Initiative made the call in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Abuja.

Ikokwu said that the consequences of suppression of vernacular, in the long run, might eventually lead to the loss of the dialect and the culture too.

“Many Nigerian languages are embellished with proverbs. The Igbo people, for example, believe that proverb is the oil used for eating words.

“Can you now understand how much of the culture that will be lost when the vernacular is lost?” she said.

She advised parents to always lead their children and wards to the fundamentals of their mother tongue, it not only enhances domestic communication but integrates the child into his or her basis.

Ikokwu, also the Secretary-General, Coalition of Societies for the Rights of Older People in Nigeria said that some people in the diaspora suppressed their native tongue to gain acceptability in foreign lands.

According to her, they chose to make their children speak the foreign language flawlessly, with the expectation that those children would be more employable.

She explained that mother language was paramount in asserting identities of personalities irrespective of global cohabitation.

“Presence of domestic workers can also be a good or a bad influence, for instance, in a home where they do not speak native tongue in the household.

“Parents end up making English language means of communication, thereby making the children end up not speaking their native tongue.

“Mother tongue plays a very important role in everyone’s life, because it truly identifies or introduces a person and as such imbues pride in him or her,” she said.

The SOHI boss reiterated the need for parents to lay linguistic foundations for their children that would clearly carve a niche for them especially in defining the cultural perspective.

Ikokwu, however, commended some parents for doing `the needful,’ and noted that there was no shame in speaking the native tongue.

She urged schools that forbade the use of vernacular to desist from such practices; rather, they should give their students solid foundations to be able to speak native languages.

NAN reports that Feb. 21 of every year the World Mother Language Day, which is primarily designed to promote vernacular. (NAN)

– Feb. 24, 2020 @ 18:19 GMT |

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