{"id":268,"date":"2017-05-15T17:21:24","date_gmt":"2017-05-15T17:21:24","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/madhousenaija.com\/?p=268"},"modified":"2017-05-15T17:21:24","modified_gmt":"2017-05-15T17:21:24","slug":"indigenous-languages-endangered-may-go-extinction-fg","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/theblogonline.com\/?p=268","title":{"rendered":"Indigenous Languages Endangered, May Go Into Extinction – FG"},"content":{"rendered":"
The Minister of Information and Culture, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, has said\u00a0<\/span>the country’s indigenous languages are endangered and could go into\u00a0extinction in no distant future if urgent steps are not taken to\u00a0reverse the trend.<\/strong><\/div>\n
\u00a0<\/span><\/div>\n
In his address at the 2017 Annual Round Table on Cultural Orientation,\u00a0<\/span>jointly organized by the Federal Ministry of Information and Culture\u00a0and the National Institute for Cultural Orientation (NICO) in Kaduna\u00a0on Monday, the Minister said situation reports shows ”there is a\u00a0remarkable decline in the usage of our indigenous languages by our\u00a0children and youths; many of them cannot read or write in their mother\u00a0tongue.”<\/div>\n
\u00a0<\/span><\/div>\n
He said indigenous language newspapers have a vital role to play in\u00a0<\/span>reviving the fortunes of the nation’s endangered languages, if their\u00a0potentials are maximized.<\/div>\n
\u00a0<\/span><\/div>\n
”It has been my desire since I assumed duties as Honourable Minister\u00a0<\/span>to convene a strategic stakeholders’ meeting to underscore the\u00a0relevance of the indigenous language newspapers and to engineer a road\u00a0map for their sustenance in the face of formidable challenges. This\u00a0explains why one of my first assignments in office was to visit\u00a0identifiable indigenous newspapers like Alaroye, Iroyin Owuro, Rariya,\u00a0Aminiya and Leadership Hausa,” Alhaji Mohammed said.<\/div>\n
\u00a0<\/span><\/div>\n
He said concrete measures must be taken to preserve indigenous\u00a0<\/span>languages, including the need for parents to ensure that their\u00a0children are taught their indigenous languages; implementing the\u00a0teaching and learning of Nigerian indigenous languages as contained in\u00a0the National Policy on Education as well as supporting and sustaining\u00a0various platforms, such as the indigenous language newspapers, which\u00a0promote the use of indigenous languages.<\/div>\n
\u00a0<\/span><\/div>\n
Other measures listed by the Minister are the translation of the\u00a0<\/span>country’s treasure trove of literature, such as The Lion and the\u00a0Jewel, The Passport of Mallam Illia and Things fall apart, into\u00a0indigenous languages; adapting those classics into comics, graphic\u00a0novels, TV shows as well as animated and live action feature films,\u00a0leveraging on the role of the electronic media in disseminating,\u00a0aggregating and curating indigenous languages and deploying digital\u00a0tools in ensuring the survival of Nigeria’s indigenous languages.<\/div>\n
\u00a0<\/span><\/div>\n
”Today, Social Media, YouTube, SMS and specially-developed\u00a0<\/span>applications for use on mobile devices are being used to attract young\u00a0people to learn \u2018endangered languages\u2019. There are also websites and\u00a0online forums where people can interact and optimize their knowledge\u00a0of those languages. Those solutions are worth exploring seriously,”\u00a0he said.<\/div>\n
\u00a0<\/span><\/div>\n
Alhaji Mohammed charged participants at the two-day Round Table, which\u00a0<\/span>has the theme ‘Indigenous Language Newspapers and National\u00a0Development’, ”to painstakingly deliberate on these issues and come\u00a0up with far-reaching recommendations that will guide government\u2019s\u00a0policy and action plan”.<\/div>\n
\u00a0<\/span><\/div>\n
In his presentation, the Chairman of the Leadership Group, Mr. Sam\u00a0<\/span>Nda-Isaiah, said indigenous language newspapers are key to any\u00a0strategy at national development hence they should not be\u00a0under-estimated.<\/div>\n
\u00a0<\/span><\/div>\n
Mr. Nda-Isaiah, who gave the keynote address, however, said that for\u00a0<\/span>the indigenous language newspapers to be relevant, the high rate of\u00a0collapse of such papers must be checked by running them as a business,\u00a0like any other newspaper.<\/div>\n
\u00a0<\/span><\/div>\n
In his address of welcome, NICO Executive Secretary Barclays Ayakoroma\u00a0<\/span>said the Annual Round Table is aimed at enhancing the potentials of\u00a0indigenous language newspapers to serve as catalyst for cultural\u00a0renaissance and grassroots mobilisation.<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Minister of Information and Culture, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, has said\u00a0the country’s indigenous languages are endangered and could go into\u00a0extinction in no distant future if urgent steps are not taken to\u00a0reverse the trend. \u00a0 In his address at the 2017 Annual Round Table on Cultural Orientation,\u00a0jointly organized by the Federal Ministry of Information and Culture\u00a0and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":270,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[321,317,319,318,320,316,322],"class_list":["post-268","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-metro","tag-alhaji-lai-mohamme","tag-dr-barclays-ayakoroma","tag-governor","tag-kaduna-state","tag-mr-muyiwa-adekeye","tag-nico","tag-sam-nda-isaiah"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/theblogonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/268"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/theblogonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/theblogonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theblogonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theblogonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=268"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/theblogonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/268\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":271,"href":"https:\/\/theblogonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/268\/revisions\/271"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theblogonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/270"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/theblogonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=268"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theblogonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=268"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theblogonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=268"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}