“If the élite could imagine how it would be like to be without Yorùbá as their rightful mother tongue in the next few decades, their emotional state will be stared. This is largely due to the fact that
language is the most valuable single possession of the human race. The
more hostile the attitude of the Yorùbá élites to the use of the
language, the more it is devalued”.
The number of students enrolling for the Yoruba language as a discipline
in tertiary institutions is dwindling annually.
The fact still remains that even those students studying the language presently in some higher institutions reluctantly decided to offer it since such
students cannot be admitted for the “real courses” of their choice.
They will keep on struggling for their chosen courses and eventually
jettison Yorùbá as a discipline.
So, does the Yoruba language have any future?
The Yorùbá language expresses identity, it is a repository of history, it talks about the nation’s ancestry, lineages or descents.
Commenting on the worrisome trend, late Oba Lamido Olayiwola Adeyemi 111, explained that Yoruba Language contributes to the sum of knowledge of any Yorùbá man or woman, adding that all these would be gone and totally lost since the language is progressively dying out and steadily being supplanted by other languages, most especially the English language.
Said he: “If the élite could imagine how it would be like to be without
Yorùbá as their rightful mother tongue in the next few decades, their
emotional state will be stared. This is largely due to the fact that
language is the most valuable single possession of the human race. The
more hostile the attitude of the Yorùbá élites to the use of the
language, the more it is devalued’’.
“The mind-set of the élite, against colonisation and neo-colonisation,
the royal father pointed out, matters, as without this, there will be
no sense of belonging””.
On the élite’s argument that their attitudes to the Yorùbá language
could not lead to its loss, and that they are only maintaining a phenomenon called language shift, Alaafin pointed out that as plausible as this notion, it must be noted, however, that language shift, a process by which a community more or less gradually abandons its original language and adopts another, eventually leads to the total extinction of the abandoned language.
According to him, “there are numerous advanced economies in the world today
such as Japan and China where their mother tongues are still thriving”.
Alaafin further observed that the Nigerian language policies are
pointers to the decline of the indigenous languages, Yorùbá is no
exception.
“Several language policies have been made, but they are left to rot
at the implementation level. The Nigeria’s national education policy
promulgated in 1977 provided for children to be taught in their mother
tongue or the language of their immediate community in the first three
years of the primary school system. This has never been implemented in
the country, but rather enormous prestige is associated with English
as Nigeria’s official language’’
He asserted, that ‘’in addition, in the Nigerian Constitution Hausa, Igbo
and Yorùbá languages are stipulated to be used in the National
Assembly after adequate arrangements. This has never seen the light of
the day. It is axiomatic that the best medium for teaching a child is
his mother tongue. Psychologically, it is the system of meaningful
signs that in his mind works automatically for expression and
understanding. Educationally, he learns more quickly through it than
through an unfamiliar linguistic medium””.
Conclusively, Oba Adeyemi postulated that since English has captured
the Nigerian nation, implementing any educational policies on mother
tongue like that of UNESCO, will continue to be an exercise in
futility.
“”This will lead to endangerment, then to moribund and finally
to total extinction. Until this happens to Yorùbá and other indigenous
African languages, the suppressive tasks before the English language
and her few allies, would not be completed. As of today, a good
percentage of the products of the Nigerian educational system are
neither competent in the use of English nor in their mother tongue”.
