The Gombe State Office of the National Institute for Cultural Orientation (NICO) has also kick started the 2017 edition of the Nigerian Indigenous Languages Programme (NILP), being the 5th in the series, since the creation of the State office.
In his welcome address at the opening ceremony of the programme, the NICO State Coordinator, Malam Mohammed Yahaya Sanda, highlighted the objectives and importance of the Institute, emphasising its mandate of harnessing culture for national development.
He further reiterated the importance of the NILP, which, he maintained, was an effort towards safeguarding our indigenous languages, being the medium through which culture is transmitted from one generation to the other, as a way of protecting them (our indigenous languages) from going into extinction.
He therefore thanked the participants and urged them to pay serious attention to all the teachings they will be receiving for the next one month and put all the knowledge they acquire in the course of the programme into constant practice.
The programme, which started in earnest on Wednesday, 2nd August, 2017 in Gombe, had a large turn-out as participants who registered for the one-month long language programme cut across sister federal agencies in the state including, Federal Road Safety Corps (FRSC), Nigerian Security and Civil Defence Corps (NSCDC), Ministry of Local Government and Community Development and other well-meaning Nigerians.
The NILP in Gombe this year features three languages, namely, Hausa, Yoruba and Fulfulde, and runs concurrently with all other offices of the Institute across the country with various indigenous languages from August 1st-31st, 2017.
Comfort Onoja
Cooperate Affairs Unit
NICO, Gombe State