Nigeria’s national language question: A case for the English language

Abstract

This paper examines the national language  question in Nigeria. The paper establishes that language is the vehicle with which the cultural ethos of a society are transmitted while in return, society nurtures language through its socio-political, economic and cultural groups. Language is  a means of communication by means of which human beings share and impart information to one another. The bottomline is that the English Language in Nigeria, more than any other other indegenous language, has for decades being a mobilizer of linguistic, political, technological, economic, cultural and religious potentials toward the creation of wealth, freedom, responsibility and common togetherness for the individual and for the nation. It is this function of the English Language that makes it a veritable tool for national development in Nigeria. The paper found out that some Nigerians are pushing for the adoption of an indigenous Nigerian language as against the continued use of the English Language as national language. The paper concludes that in the present situation in Nigeria, it is difficult to see how a local lingua franca can be adopted except by a process of gradualism. It is suggested that state governments should give serious thought to the inclusion of a major Nigerian language (other than the major language of the state) as compulsory subjects in the secondary school curriculum and by so doing continue to encourage our local languages, continue to research into them and make them as virile as possible while Nigeria for the time being concentrates more on matters of national development and the wellbeing of her citizenry.