THE General Secretary of The Bible Society of Nigeria (BSN), Pastor Samuel Sanusi, has commended the Federal Government’s directive that the mother tongue should be the compulsory language of instruction in primary schools.
Sanusi said in a statement issued by its Manager, Media & PR, Benjamin Mordi, “this policy, which is a step in the right direction, will help to preserve our languages and cultures, as the death of a language is the death of a culture. He said there are over 500 languages in Nigeria, but many of them have gone into extinction because they were not in use.”
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He added that we have been an advocate of the use of our local languages both in the schools and at home; we are delighted the government has taken a position on this, making the mother tongue a compulsory medium of instruction for primary schools.
“As a people, we should be proud of our languages and cultures. At The Bible Society of Nigeria, we translate the Bible into Nigerian languages, and this has been helping to preserve the languages and cultures of the speakers of those languages. The Bibles can also serve as resource materials for instruction in those languages”.
“So far, we have translated the Bible into 27 Nigerian languages, while work is ongoing in 10 languages, including Nigerian Sign Language,” he said.