It is a known fact that fluency in English language is not a measure of intelligence. There are native English speakers who do not know where the country of Nigeria is located or that Africa is a continent and not a country!
A language that you have never been annoyed in, never been joyful in, never had sex in, never slept and had dreams in, never told lies in or spread rumours in, a language that is only for school or job is no language in which to develop the critical thinking and innovative mind! The language you think in is the language of your soul.
The main impediment to the dissemination of adroitness and knowledge in Yorubaland is the imposition of a foreign language as the main medium of communication. This has not only stifled our technological advancement but also the social and and economic well-being of our people.
The rate at which the usage of Yoruba language is declining among the Yoruba middle class in alarming! It is even a taboo in some homes to speak Yoruba! It is a fact that 80% of Yoruba people will never leave the shores of Yorubaland and emigrate abroad. Majority will never go near Murtala Muhammed International Airport!
Apart from big cities like Lagos, Ibadan, Abeokuta etc most of our people leave in the rural heartland of the Yoruba country (urban population of Nigeria is 47%).
How do these rural dwellers communicate and carry on their daily lives? They surely don't rely on the Queen's English to carry on the real business of life in their towns, villages and markets.
How do these rural dwellers communicate and carry on their daily lives? They surely don't rely on the Queen's English to carry on the real business of life in their towns, villages and markets.
The Chinese, Germans, Japanese, Russians, Koreans, French etc carry on their daily activities (include scientific research and development) in their own language. The first man (Yuri Gagarin) to go to outer space never spoke a word of English! He was a russian. Nobel prizes in Medicine, Physics, Chemistry, Economics etc have been won by Koreans, Swedes, Germans, Norwegians, Russians, Polish etc doing research in their native languages.
Imparting knowledge and skills in English is one of the main reasons why we are still languishing in our state of underdevelopment today. When you have to translate your thoughts back and forth between your native tongue and your adopted language, you have to work twice as much as a native speaker of that foreign language.
Below are some of the main merits of using the mother tongue as a medium of disseminating knowledge:
It gives a child free reins of his/her thoughts thereby fostering creativity.
It disallows the few elite from monopolising knowledge in a foreign language to the disadvantage of the majority.
It decentralises information by making it free for everyone.
It offers a level playing field and equal opportunities for everyone.
It makes you proud of your heritage and history.
According to Jerome Bruner, "Man has the capability to receive and translate knowledge in a linguistic form. This permits man to convert knowledge into a form that renders it highly transformable. Language not only permits an enormous condensation of knowledge, but permits us to turn the knowledge into hypothetical forms so that we may consider alternatives without having to act them in the form of trial and error."
This is not an unknown terrain for us. Between 1970 and 1978, the late Professor Babs Fafunwa demonstrated this through a study titled: "Education in Mother Tongue: The Ife Primary Education Research Project (1970-1978)" to make the case for the mother tongue as the medium of education in Nigeria.
In the study, some students were taught all their subjects in Yoruba and only English was taught in English language for obvious reasons.
In the study, some students were taught all their subjects in Yoruba and only English was taught in English language for obvious reasons.
At the end of the study, the students taught only in Yoruba outperformed their classmates who were taught only in English when they sat for their final exams.
Sadly, the Government of the day at that time refused to implement the proposal put forward by Professor Fafunwa!
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