The National Institute for Cultural Orientation NICO has restated its commitment to ensure the use of indigenous Nigerian languages as a strategic tool to sustain and cultivate national integration and peaceful co existence among Nigerians, with focus on the military, Police and paramilitary personals living in barracks.
This is in view of the fact that barracks remain an effective national security architecture of the country.
Speaking at an inaugural training held at Police college, Ikeja Lagos , the newly appointed Executive Secretary of NICO , Mr Ado Muhammed Yahuza said that Nigeria’s over 400 hundred indigenous languages are being threatened and may go into exctintion if concerted efforts are not put in place brace up the use of indigenous languages as a means of communication.
Mr Yahuza explained that time has come for serious practical application and use of Nigerian indigenous languages in every day activities, hence the effort by NICO to target national security barracks all over the country as training grounds for the program.
According to Mr Yahuza, the program was designed to address critical issues of language dislocation and its serious implications for Culture and national development pointing out that the barracks as mini Nigeria, would benefit from the language training program which will Foster peace, unity and social integration.
The NICO boss said there are fears raised in socio linguistics circles that over 90% of the world’s 7,000 languages may go into exctintion by the next century and most worrisome is that indigenous languages such as Igbo and Yoruba may not survive the next fifty years if urgent measures are put in place to reverse the trend.
He noted that the Nico indigenous languages revival strategy first edition, captured students during long vacation, usually held in August ever year while the second edition was tailored for the working class during weekends and ongoing edition, third in the series, captures use of indigenous languages in the barracks with an online edition as the fourth outing still in the pipeline.
In a remark the Commandant and Commissioner of police (CP), police college, Ajani Olasupo, appreciated the effort by NICO and called on the officers to take the program very serious as it would help them settle down in areas of primary assignment and in information gathering.