A Principal Assistant Registrar at the Federal University of Agriculture, Abeokuta (FUNAAB), Ogun State, Mrs. Olubukola Olokode, has given the value of speaking the mother tongue as a way of promoting indigenous culture, warning that some Nigerian languages are currently going into extinction and should be prevented. Mrs. Olokode made this assertion while featuring on the Federal University of Agriculture, Abeokuta (FUNAAB) Ogun State radio station, FUNAAB Radio 89.5FM live interactive programme, Boiling Point in commemoration of the year 2022 International Mother language Day with the theme, “Using Technology for Multilingual Learning: Challenges and Opportunities. According to her, the elites do not seem to want their children communicate in their mother tongue and that “Nigeria languages are going into extinction, particularly the Yoruba language, which is going faster into extinction than other major languages we have in Nigeria and this requires urgent attention to preserve it”.
Mrs. Olokode disclosed that the International Mother Language Day is the worldwide observance of a particular day, which is February 21st of every year since 2001, to promote an awareness of cultural diversity and multilingualism. “The day is to promote diverse languages and culture, to prevent them from going into extinction in human history, pointing out that no language is superior to another. Language is culture; once language dies, culture dies as well”, she noted. Mrs. Olokode, however, called on Nigerians to help develop all local languages by speaking them consciously to encourage others, stressing that local languages should be used more often in Nigerian schools and that, the government should look into the existing educational policies to promote the use of local languages. “Mother tongue is the parents’ tongue, which is the first language a child will speak and will help them play the roles assigned them by their parents”, she stated further.