The closing ceremony of the 3rd edition of the Nigerian Indigenous Language Programme (NILP), organised by the Institute’s North East Zonal Office, held on Tuesday, 18th September, 2012, at the Arts Council Hall, Mohammed Ribadu Square, Yola, with the Executive Secretary, Dr. Barclays Foubiri Ayakoroma, saying the programme has created a unique opportunity for the people in the Zone, particularly the Youth, to embrace Nigeria’s rich culture through the learning and speaking of indigenous languages other than their mother tongues, a gesture, the Institute believed, will help to enhance the presentation of our cultural heritage.
The ES, who was represented by the Deputy Director /Special Assistant to the ES, Hon. Nelson Campbell, urged the people of the Zone, to take pride in speaking their mother tongue and other Nigerian indigenous languages, so as to promote unity and create peaceful co-existence among different ethnic groups in the Zone.
He further urged the States’ Ministries of Education, with
in the North East Zone, to make the study of Nigerian Indigenous Languages compulsory, especially, at the primary and secondary school levels, and to also assist the Institute in promoting the language programme, by providing technical assistance in the area of resource persons.
According to Dr. Ayakoroma, their support in this regard would facilitate successful the launching of the weekend study programme, which would in turn make it convenient for the introduction of other minority languages within the Zone, adding that parents/guardians should encourage their children to appreciate Nigeria’s culture by teaching them to speak our indigenous languages, a measure which will serve as vanguard in the promotion of our cherished cultural norms and values.
The ES also commended the resource persons for their dedication and competence, without which the participants would not have learnt much, and appreciated the Director, Adamawa State Council for Arts & Culture, Alhaji Umar B. Michika and the Curator, National Commission for Museums and Monuments (NCMM), Adamawa State Office, Alhaji Inuwa Babatata, for their contributions and support to the Institute.
Aroh Smart Chinecherem
Corporate Affairs Unit
North East Zone, Yola