Naija, àyà mi ò já!

God bless Nigeria! A state blessed with cultural values, great histories, abundant resources, and tribes of great powers. Nigeria is not just a nation, but a nation of empires; and our president is not just a president, he is the president of emperors. Some of the greatest Empires in Africa's history are in Nigeria today: the Kanuri empire of Borno, Benin kingdom, Ọ̀yọ́ empire, Sokoto caliphate, are part of the empires found in Nigeria today. Nigeria is not call the giant of Africa for nothing; in fact, in Africa, Nigeria is capital. Nigeria is the archive of Africa's greatness, every cultural values, and the originality of Africa is deeply innate in the Nigerian people today.

The unity of Nigeria was bound to happen to showcase the black heritage to the world in a large degree. Powerful empires united to create the Niger area (Nigeria), to make it the seat of power and greatness for the continent. Judging from our differences, some believed our union lacks genuineness, since it was by amalgamation; but trust me, it is one of the best things that will ever happen to this nation, our differences is what beautify us as citizens of a great nation.

Just after our amalgamation, nobles began to see tribalism as a potential problem. The diversify nature of our nation (which should be a gift) was seen as a problem?  To curb this, our heroes past thought on how we can birth a Nigerian children, and not a Yorùbá, or Igbo, or Hausa children. They thought of how we can raise citizens, and not indigenes. With this, they adopted English language as our official language to start with immediately after independence. The idea was to bring about a language that will aid mutual communication and unite us as one people. The solution was never seen a problem to our indigenous languages at first, due to the strong ties we all have with our origins. This approach adopted by our heroes past to solve our problem ended up adding to our problems. Though the English language helped clinch a flow in international relation, strengthen us commercially, gives our citizens a flair to relate with the westerners and the rest of the world. This create a lot of juicy opportunities for Nigerians, aiding our development as a civilised state. For this reasons, English should be a language every Nigerian want to learn again!

This immense language became a problem when we began to see it as a bridge to success. The language that was introduced with the sole aim to unite us, begin to serve as a guage for our standards, creating another form of stereotype among us. Now, English language is what distinct a literate from an illiterate, and not education; if you can't speak good English, people have the impression that, you just passed through school, school did not pass through you. The venomous part of it is, this language is now being used to measure intelligence, and fulfillment in Nigeria. To get a job, you have to be fluent in English. It is now serving as a standard and a determiner of progress. Now, people (most especially parents) in pursuit of fluency in this language detest our very own languages because their tonal denied them the momentum to flow in English language. As a result, most schools now prohibit our indigenous languages, just to create enough space for English. In fact, before you can say you are outspoken or gain some social respect, you must be very fluent in English.

Despite all the sacrifices, English language has failed this nation on every level. The language was adopted as a pill to cure our illness (tribalism), but today, it is toxic to the structure of our society. Communication remain a key problem, even after going as far as sweeping our indigenous languages under the carpet, prohibiting our own tongue in schools, and all official institutions, just to make English language meet it initial target of uniting Nigerians. English has failed totally as a language of bringing Nigerians together, and serving as a torture on every Nigerian.

It is fine if you are not seeing this as a problem, but what about the danger it poses on our indigenous languages? If the British people never worked their language up to that level, we won't be striving to be so fluent in it today. We can't afford to be useless, let's do something. If at all we can't make one of our indigenous languages our official language in Nigeria, atleast let's get a language that will carry all our indigenous languages along. Though English is a goal here, because it actually carries our indigenous languages along. For example: in a rap song by M.I Abaga where he says: "I am happy my son is taller doesn't mean you won't dọ̀bálẹ̀ kalẹ̀". The dọ̀bálẹ̀ kalẹ̀ is a Yorùbá word, thus, English still works effectively with our various indigenous languages. But the problem we will be facing here is, our people lacks fluency in English language, a large proportion of our population are not fluent in expressing themselves in English; though we stereotype this deficiency to tribes like Hausa and Yorùbá, but deep down, even the Igbos' are not doing so well in the language, just vibes and inshallah. The Igbos in Lagos (southwest Nigeria) boost of their fluency in English language; don't be fooled, go to their region and hear their people speak English, you would be disgusted just like we Nigerians feel when we perceive an ill-formed statement in English language. The inefficiency of Nigerians in the usage of the English language is denying Inter tribal relationship, and also, hindering the exchange or expression of ideas that can take the nation to a greater height. Nigerians are very intelligent people, if you want to know, speak to us in our indigenous languages, and you would be shocked seeing us in all facet of intellectuality.

To take an insight into this, it makes no sense to deny a man the right to express himself through his language. By doing so, you just claimed his life by taking his life. Language is life, and you're nothing but evil if you deny a man the chance to live in his art, worth, originality, and inheritance. Nigeria is the second nation with the highest number of languages in the world, putting this huge wealth of mankind to a waste will be an error of the greatest magnitude. With our carelessness, some of these languages are running on extinction already. We do not have a long way to go into greatness, we just have a lot to do. We shouldn't wait for our greatness to come, it is the strength of our ideas, and a conscious mind towards our nativeness that will make it happen. If we can't figure this out, we are not going anywhere as a nation.

Knowing what is at stake now, it is high time we put in our best efforts, skills, and professions for the betterment of this nation. Also, no matter how ridiculed a profession could be, the life of our people depend on it, therefore, it is our responsibility to be proficient in it. Let the educated sleep no more, as we owe the ignorant all that we can do for them. Let the linguists sleep no more, as we owe our people a language suitable for them; a language suitable to unite us, a language suitable to ignite us. As a matter of fact, linguistics should be the biggest course of study in Nigeria right now, only extreme apathetic act will make you see linguistics irrelevant to our social issues today. With no mistake, if Nigeria should break up, it is as a result of language diversities, and not tribalism; because different tribes can be united as one regardless of their differences, and the Yorùbá race is a good example of this. Under the Yorùbá tribe, the people we regarded as a particular clan are way too broad and diverse to be called a clan. Ẹ̀gbá is a tribe, Ìjẹ̀bú is a tribe, Ọ̀yọ́ is a tribe, and many more. But we really do not see them as different tribes or people because they are united under one tongue. Therefore, our attention is diverted to the wrong channel; tribalism is not our problem in Nigeria, it is multilingualism. It is just commonsensical to react when you are being denied of what belongs to you, so if different tribes clamor for secession, the sole aim is to liberate themselves by presenting their originality in their language. Thus, if Nigeria should break, linguists should be held responsible for it.

Why not adopt pidgin (Nigerian English) as our official language. If we are searching for a language that can bring Nigerians together, Pidgin is the best bait. Every Nigerian will attest to this fact, while speaking Pidgin, there is this bond, there is this oneness it create among us regardless of our different tribes and regions. It is working in WARFI (an area in Delta, Nigeria), where in church, a pastor gives sermon in English, and it is being translated into pidgin by the interpreter. One good thing about pidgin is this, you don't need to learn before you understand, It can be spoken freely and fluently. The good favor pidgin would do to Nigeria at large is that, pidgin carries our indigenous languages along. This will not only bring about national unity through fluency in communications, it will as well serve as an archive for our indigenous languages. We can make pidgin a hybrid language in such a way that, while speaking, a Yorùbá man will subconsciously make use of words in Koro, Ibibio, Nupe, and many more. With this, we don't get to sweep our languages under the carpet, and Unity in Nigeria will be a reality.

Happy independence once again!