The Yerima of Gombe, Alhaji Abdulkadir Abubakar Usman, who doubles as the District Head of Gombe, the Gombe State capital, has pledged to partner and support all the programmes of NICO Gombe State Office, for the development of the culture sector and Nigeria at large.

Alhaji Usman stated this in his office, located near the Palace of the Emir of Gombe, when the State Co-ordinator, NICO Gombe State Office, Mr. Yahaya Mohammed Sanda, paid him a courtesy call to brief him on the programmes of the Institute, which are all geared toward moving the culture sector and Nigeria forward.

The Yerima of Gombe, who personally received the NICO team, expressed his appreciation for the visit and lauded the Institute’s objectives of harnessing Nigeria’s cultural resources to meet the challenges of social integration, unity, peace and national development.

The traditional ruler, who hinted that the relative peace being enjoyed by people in Gombe was because of the fact that indigenes all see themselves as one irrespective of the heterogeneous nature of the State, implored NICO Gombe State office to ensure equal representation of all the languages in its programmes and consolidate on the successes recorded at the 2013 Nigeria Indigenous Languages programme as, according to him, he heard from reliable sources that the turnout for the maiden edition of the Nigerian Indigenous Language Programme (NILP) in Gombe was impressive.

He said that in Gombe, “there are Fulani, Tangale, Tula, Jukun, Bolewa, Tera, Waja, Kanuri, and so on; but if the Tangale people aren’t happy, the Fulani people won’t be happy as well and vice versa. This unity has been in place, practiced since the reign of our ancestors and has helped the state to grow in unity. Our culture is what defines us;” adding that it was due to this unity and co-operation that prompted the colonial masters to introduce indirect rule in the North and advised that NICO should endeavour to include all the indigenous languages in subsequent programmes.

Responding, the State Co-ordinator, NICO Gombe State office, Mr. Yahaya Mohammed Sanda, thanked the Yerima of Gombe, for the fatherly love and affection shown to the Institute and her programmes and promised to make use of the knowledge and wisdom acquired during the visit.

While presenting copies of NICO newsletter to the Yerima, the NICO State Co-ordinator informed him of the Institute’s Weekend Indigenous Languages Programme scheduled to commence on Saturday, the 23rd of November, 2013 in Gombe and all NICO offices nationwide.

Thomas Anongu
NICO Gombe State Office