400 Nigerian languages face extinction- FG

More than 400 indigenous languages are endangered and efforts must be made to protect them from extinction, the Director, Industries and Heritage of  the Federal Ministry of Information and Culture, Mr. SeyiWomiloju, has said. Womiloju said this at a forum tagged “Nigeria Endangered Languages” organized by the Ministry of Information and Culture in Abuja. Womiloju […]

More than 400 indigenous languages are endangered and efforts must be made to protect them from extinction, the Director, Industries and Heritage of  the Federal Ministry of Information and Culture, Mr. SeyiWomiloju, has said.
Womiloju said this at a forum tagged “Nigeria Endangered Languages” organized by the Ministry of Information and Culture in Abuja.
Womiloju said the endangered indigenous languages  should be of great concerns to Nigerians with a call  on parents to  train their children in their mother tongues.
He said that mapping and documentation of these endangered languages was conducted by the ministry across the country’s six-Geo-Political zones and the outcome was published in a book entitled ‘Pilot Survey on Endangered Languages and Cultures of Nigeria.’
He urged Nigerians to hold their languages with high esteem, describing languages as the bedrock of our cultures inherited from our fore-fathers and should not be left to extinction.
 Earlier, the Minister of Information and Culture,  Alhaji Lai Mohammed represented by Mr. Adebola  Kayode,  Director of Human Resources at  the ministry said  that  80 percent of Nigerian youths, especially  those between the age bracket  of 2-18  years, either  find it difficult to speak their mother tongue fluently or do not speak them at all.
He stressed that languages hold the key to the processes that lead to national and global integration and harmony among peoples.