The Director, National Institute for Cultural Orientation (NICO), Lagos Liaison Office, Mr. Louis Eriomala, has advised participants of the ongoing Nigerian Indigenous Language Programme (NILP) of the Institute to take full advantage of the study programme and become proficient in their language of study.
He gave the advice while declaring open the 10th Edition of the Nigerian Indigenous Language Programme (NILP), NICO Lagos Office on behalf of the Executive Secretary, Assoc. Professor Barclays Foubiri Ayakoroma, on Wednesday, 10th August, 2016, at the Institute’s complex, National Theatre Annex, Iganmu-Lagos.
In his opening remarks, Eriomala said the language programme was conceptualised following observations by the Institute of the inability of most Nigerian children to speak their mother tongue was attributable to parents’ failure to communicate with their children in their mother tongue, which some see as being primitive.
According to him, the increase in inter-ethnic marriages creates confusion in such homes, as the children do not know the language to learn or speak, adding that it was against this backdrop that the NILP was conceptualized in 2007, as a long vacation programme to teach Nigerian children their mother tongue.
However, since the programme started, adults have always outnumbered the children in attendance and that this development could be attributed to the long vacation coaching and adults want to learn the language of their area of abode.
Eriomala advised the participants to be interactive in the class and not just take notes, but discuss with those who are more proficient in the language after the day’s teaching, because language proficiency is attained by constant practice.
He opined that language is the vehicle in which our culture rides and that if every Nigerian learns a Nigerian language other than theirs, it will go a long way in uniting us as a people.
In concluding, the Director informed that attendance will be taken daily as Certificates of Participation will be issued based on attendance and class performance.
This year, the Lagos Office is teaching Hausa, Igbo and Yoruba languages as registration in other Nigerian indigenous languages like Urhobo and Efik have not been encouraging.
Present at the opening ceremony were participants from National Institute for Cultural Orientation (NICO), Advertising Practitioners’ Council of Nigeria (APCON), National Council for Arts and Culture (NCAC), and Nigerian Copyright Commission (NCC), among others.
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NICO, Lagos Office