A Critique of WAZOBIA, Guosa, Swahili and Naija options along with their merits and demerits, why did they fail and a way forward

 

COURSE TITLE: LANGUAGE AND NATIONAL DEVELOPMENT

Topic: Criticize WAZOBIA, Guosa, Swahili and Naija options along with their merits and demerits, why did they fail and a way forward

 

An Assignment 

By NWAIWU FORTUNE

Submitted to the postgraduate school,

Department of English and Communication Arts

Ignatius Ajuru University of Education,

Remuolumeni PortHarcourt,

Rivers State. 

COURSE LECTURER: PROF. CHUKWUEGGU

 

1.0 INTRODUCTION

Language is the most important element of culture. It gives people a sense of belonging, identity, and may be used as a potent instrument of integration. The number of indigenous languages spoken in Nigeria is noteworthy. These multiple languages spoken by different people from different geo-political zones in Nigeria have made Nigeria to be desperately searching for an indigenous lingua franca that can integrate the large ethnic groups in the country. But given the historical circumstances in which Nigeria is made with different ethnic groups with a vast number of languages, does Nigeria necessarily need an indigenous lingua franca for integration? This paper is to examine four languages, WAZOBIA, Guosa, Swahili and Pidgin which many Nigerians have debated on to select one language out of the others for the national language. In each of the languages treated in this paper, we tried to discuss their merits and demerits, why they failed and then proffer a way forward at the end of discussions, encouraging our nation to choose Pidgin as our lingua franca because it is already a common language spoken in the nation but English should ever remain as our official language as it will continue to help for international purposes. 

2. WAZOBIA

The attempt to use WAZOBIA, the three major languages in Nigeria as a medium of instruction in our primary and secondary education is a welcome development which has made a lot of people especially the Vice Chancellor of Nigeria Army University to make WAZOBIA a course of study to foster peace, equity and oneness among the Nigerians and to help develop our indigenous languages such as Yoruba, Hausa and Igbo. And it is interesting to know that some television and radio stations feature WAZOBIA programmes to promote these our three major languages.  But despite the efforts put in place by the National House to carry out the business of the House in one of the majority languages, and the enactment of the use of Igbo, Yoruba and Hausa into our constitution with the aim of removing English as the national official language, it became futile. This is because making WAZOBIA as the national language will create disunity among the Nigerians. The users of the minority languages will feel cheated since this quest for language development in the nation does not encourage their languages. We all know that language is identity used to project people’s culture, and once their languages are being eliminated it means they’ve lost their identity and culture. This perhaps was one of the reasons that when it was debated in the National House to conduct the business of the House in Igbo, Yoruba or Hausa, the people of minority language walked away as a displeasure over the dominance of WAZOBIA.

WAZOBIA would have been accepted as the national language in Nigeria if only Nigeria is made up of three ethnic groups speaking only but such Yoruba, Igbo, and Hausa. No doubt, the adoption of WAZOBIA would be a working linguistic instrument to foster ethnic nationalism. But considering the fact that Nigeria is a multilingual nation where over 150 languages are spoken by different people from different ethnic groups and tribes, the policy to adopt WAZOBIA for national language will induce the resentment of minority language users who may see it as an attempt to impose on them a language that may gradually erase their identity and culture. That is why WAZOBIA failed because people of minority languages opposed it, and it was seen as an instrument for national disunity. Also, language experts did not favourably react over its adoption as a lingua franca in Nigeria.

Weaknesses

1. It does not recognise minority languages.

2. It lays more emphasis on only but three languages, Yoruba, Hausa, and Igbo.

3. The aim of adopting WAZOBIA which was to foster unity, and oneness has been defeated since the minority language users are never in support to adopt WAZOBIA for national language.

                                Strengths

1. It aims at fostering peace, unity, and oneness.

2. It has been accorded much popularity, and it’s learnt in some Nigerian Universities.

3. It serves as a medium of instructions in some Nigerian primary and secondary education.

4. Most of the words used in Nigerian Pidgins are from the lexical reservoir of WAZOBIA.

3. GUOSA

The proponent of Guosa language in Nigeria is Igbineweka. He defines Guosa language as “a scientific and artistic evolution of integration of all languages and dialects,”─ Idris (2019:p.1). This Guosa option attempts to favour some of the Nigerian languages, blending some words from each of the indigenous languages to form sentences. This attempt of adopting Guosa as the national language grew up to form a distinct language with no tribal and ethnic interests. It is noted that Guosa language has become a common indigenous Lingua Franca in the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) serving as a means of stability, culture, science and technology. Igbineweka claims that Guosa has been adopted by American Heritage University in Southern California as a course of study. He nevertheless suggests that Nigeria can adopt Guosa as the national language.

However, Guosa would have some merits in Nigeria as the national language because it attempts to integrate some of the Nigerian languages especially, Igbo, Yoruba, Hausa, Edo, and Efik to avoid the fear of tribalism and sectionalism which was on the basis that WAZOBIA was rejected. But since Guosa is not a rule governed language, and the advocate of it failed to recognise all the Nigerian languages except Igbo, Yoruba, Hausa, Edo and Efik, the idea of adopting Guosa became invalid. Also, adopting Guosa as the national language would require every Nigerian child to learn those five languages in order to be a fluent speaker of Guosa, and whoever that wants to speak Guosa must meet Igbineweka for a tutorial lesson on how to speak it. The question is, what if Igbineweka is no more? Does it mean Guosa will die along with him, or it will go into extinction since we have no native speakers of Guosa in the country? It is now obvious that adopting Guosa as the national language will not help to integrate Nigeria for peace, unity and equity. Instead, it will create immense problems to the nation, and Nigeria would be like a nation with no hope of survival since there is no creativity in the target language. Furthermore, learning of Guosa as a lingua franca in our country instead of English will isolate us from the rest of the world. In Asia especially China, their government is encouraging the study of English language because of its relevance in the economic sector. Therefore, Guosa will not solve the multiple problems of Nigeria because it is an artificial language, and that is why it failed to be adopted as a national language.

4. SWAHILI

Swahili is an African language, and is popularly known outside African continent. It was recently discovered that Swahili was a constructed language created by Arab and Persian merchants who visited the east coast of Africa since ancient time, (see South-World 2015). That is why most of the Swahili vocabulary is of Arabic origin. In reality, Swahili vocabulary is enriched by contacts with other cultures and their languages. Today, Swahili has gained ground in Africa. It has become the national language in Kenya, and Tanzania. It is also spoken in Uganda, Burundi, and Rwanda. It is now the lingua franca in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo, southern Somalia, and northern Mozambique. Swahili has grown to be a medium of instruction in schools. Brown and Attardo (2009:p. 153) states that Swahili is comparatively easy to learn, and it’s not the language of any one dominant group, so it could be seen as a compromise.

Some of the merits which Nigerians will benefit from adopting Swahili as their national language are first, learning of Swahili will prepare Nigerian Children to live and work elsewhere within the geographical regions of African continent, and add enormous values on their continent especially with a working knowledge of Swahili. Second, if Nigerians are enabled to speak a variety of languages from their own continent, they will be able to take part in building not only their own country but also in building Africa as a continent. The implication is that if Swahili is introduced in Nigeria’s classrooms, people will learn the language and it will help Africans living outside the continent to communicate with each other, sharing their identity as Africans, and by this it will help to address the problem of seeing African languages as inferior.

However, adopting Swahili as the national language is like imposing another language on the Nigerians which may make the problems of language use in Nigeria to be more complex. It will not help to foster the unity, equity, and oneness the Nigerians needed as an instrument for national integration. This is because if English is not able to solve the problems of tribalism, and sectionalism, will Swahili be able to solve our complex problems? Is Nigeria better than Ghana that has many indigenous languages? Rather than choosing one among the languages, the leaders of Ghana decided on English as a neutral language that would give an advantage to no one group, (see Brown and Attardo 2009:p. 122). In fact, this language option failed because it is alien to Nigeria both in culture and outlook, (Okechukwu, 2017:p.54), and it is not compatible with Nigeria’s policy of education with regard to the use of mother tongue in schools.

5. PIDGIN

Baptista (2019) defines Pidgins as “languages that emerge in settings where multiple languages come into contact with each other and speakers are under intense pressure to create a new mode of communication for trade and work purposes.” This definition is based on the context of the slave trade when Africans had contacts with Portuguese, and European explorers to communicate for trade and on the plantations. Related to this definition, Brown and Attardo (2009:p. 122) opine that Pidgin is a language that comes about as a result of contact between two groups who speak different languages and do not understand each other. Often the reason for this contact is trade where there is a need for a simplified language. Some years ago, many Nigerians saw Pidgin as a substandard English, and therefore vouched not to speak it so that it would not retard the use of their English. And they saw Pidgin as the language of illiterates. It was later that they realised that pidgin is a special language simplified for communication for a common purpose. Majority of Nigerians are in support to adopt Pidgin as the national language. Their reasons are Pidgin is very simple to speak and understand by both illiterate and educated Nigerians; it does not require anyone to spend money, time and energy to learn; and Pidgin is no one dominant group language. But one sad feeling towards adopting Pidgin as the national language is that Pidgin may acquire native speakers over time which may result to creole. This happens when a Pidgin becomes a useful lingua franca (Brown and Attardo 2009:p.126) of a nation like Nigeria. And over a period of time the creole will be decreolised through the process of relexification. Then where can we be found? Consequently, if nativization is not always a reliable criterion to determine the pidgin versus creole status of a language, then Nigeria’s attempts at retaining English as an official or international language will fail due to the needed source of linguistic input will be corrupted by the influence of Pidgin. Unless English is accorded much prestige and recognition in our socio-political and economic activities, our country will pass through three linguistic processes namely: Pidgin, creole and decreolization. 

6. A WAY FORWARD

It is obvious that for a multilingual nation like Nigeria to satisfy all the demands of every tribal dialect, either at the state or national level, choices have to be made at both these levels about a language to be adopted as the national language.

While English is our official language and cannot be easily replaced in the near future, I suggest that more rigorous efforts should be made to find an indigenous alternative for the national language. English should always assume a role as the first foreign language, with French as the second.

While it is very important to stress the need for some degree of linguistic homogeneity for the purpose of national development, it is not necessary to commit a linguistic genocide against the minority languages. If we cannot choose one language out of the multitude of languages spoken in the nation, we should then adopt pidgin, a language everyone both illiterate and educated ones can understand and feel more relaxed to share their ideas with each other. Since pidgin has no aim of political or tribal interests, it will always maintain people’s culture and identity since it has no native speakers. While Pidgin is used as the national language, English remains to serve as the international language that will help to connect with foreigners.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Steven Brown and Salvatore Attardo. Understanding Language Structure, Interaction, and   

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Ofoegbu Cyril Okechukwu. Issues in Language and National Development in Nigeria. Nigeria.  

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Shaba Abubakar Idris. 50 Uni-Abuja Students Undergo Guosa Language Training. City News 

       2019.https://www.dailytrust.com.ng/50-uniabuja-students-undergo-guosa-language- 

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