How to save your 'Mother Language' make e no die

Dis year, United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation UNESCO dey mark di 70th anniversary of di Universal Declaration of Human Rights wey say: 'make dem no discriminate against anybody sake of im language' and dem don translate dis statement for 500 languages.

Dis celebration dey important because UNESCO don identify many languages around di world wey dey die because people no dey again wey dey speak am while for others, e remain small make di language die if di native people no do anything about am.

Di curator for National Museum for Port Harcourt Fadamijo Omolayo say make parents speak dia language with dia children to teach dem. Im say as plenty people dey live for township, dem no dey like to speak dia native language again because dem wan feel among and as many people from different ethnic group dey marry, dem dey always speak English with dia children and all dis dey make native language to dey die.

One language like dat for Nigeria na Ibani language wey be di native language of Bonny and Opobo people for Rivers State, south-south Nigeria.

Why di Ibani language dey die?

Di reason start from when dem bin dey trade before colonial time. Na Igbo language dem dey use trade, so e come become common language and dem come dey speak with dia children for house. Today na Igbo language dem dey speak and for dia 34 communities, na only four still dey speak Ibani for dia. Na im make di natives don dey organise class wey go dey teach people di language.

'Your language na your identity'

Mrs. Victoria Ala Amadi say na her grandpapa wey make sure say she sabi di Ibani language well well because, "im no want make di Ibani loss, say make I no let dis language die because from me, many people go know dis language." Dis na im make her dey do lesson to teach people Ibani songs, language and tradition.

Dr. Bara Kabaka Brown na Bonny man wey dey teach Ibani for Facebook. Im don write book and get audio CD to teach people and now dem wan develop Ibani language App but need sponsors to assist. Im say government suppose make am compulsory for schools to teach di native language to children for dia area as, 'your language na your identity.'

Wetin government suppose do to help?

Lagos State government don make am compulsory to dey teach Yoruba language for primary and secondary schools.

Dr. Tony Enyia of Rivers Readers Project say government need to implement di national policy on education wey say make teachers dey teach children from primary 1 to 4 for dia native language. Im say di Rivers Readers Project don produce readers for 17 languages for Rivers State and dem don succeed to print di first complete Ikwerre bible last year. All dis na to document di language.

Enyia say di way forward na for federal government to encourage more orthography development, dat na for people wey sabi to write book for dia language, design school work for native language as curriculum development, get authors wey go write book for di native languages from primary 1 to basic 3 according to school curriculum. Train language teachers wey go teach am and also deploy dis teachers to use di books teach di children.