As the 2016 edition of the Indigenous Language Programme of the National Institute for Cultural Orientation (NICO) kicks off in the North-East zone, the Zonal Coordinator of the Institute, Mr. Oladosun Adeniji, has called on Nigerians to embrace cross-cultural communication, saying the indigenous language programme is designed to sensitize the public on the need to live together in peace using language as an important aspect of culture.
Speaking at the opening ceremony of the programme in Yola, the Adamawa State capital, on Monday, 1st August, 2016, Adeniyi who said cross-cultural communication has the capacity to harmonize relations between ethnic groups urged participants to take the learning of languages other than their own serious for the role it can play in uniting the nation.
According to him, NICO has over the years realized that one of the best ways re-orienting Nigerians culturally is to ensure we go back to our one-time cherished cultural values, which can be achieved through the use of our indigenous languages; hence, the Institute’s resolve not to relent in organizing the indigenous language programme across the country irrespective of the ongoing security challenges in some parts of the country.
Stressing the Institute’s primary responsibility of harnessing cultural resources to meet the challenges of social integration, peace, unity and national development, Adeniyi charged participants against engaging in forms of social vices as a result of the dwindling economy but rather brace each other, using the NICO indigenous language platform.
This year, the language programme in the North-East zone is featuring five languages, namely, Hausa, Fulfulde, Bwatiye, Igbo and Yoruba.
Corporate Affairs Unit
North-East Zonal Office
Yola, Adamawa State