The Chairman of the Governing Council, National Institute for Nigerian Languages, Aba, Abia State, Prof Francis Egbokhare, has described the over 500 languages in the country as an asset that should be used to strengthen the country’s diversity.
Speaking recently in Aba during the 27th regular meeting of the council, Egbokhare, a linguist, stressed the council’s interest in seeing that the institute exercised its statutory mandate of awarding degrees. He also reiterated the institute’s call on the Tertiary Education Trust Fund to support it with intervention funds.
A statement on Thursday by the Head, Information, Protocol and Public Relations at NINLAN, Chris Nwankwor, quoted Egbokhare as saying, “Language is an asset and what we need to know is how to use that diversity to our advantage. So, language is not the problem. It is the management of it, the politics and the political process. It is the policy framework that makes diversity an asset or a problem. For us as Nigerians, I think we have to take advantage of this diversity.”
Egbokhare, who is a former president of the Nigerian Academy of Letters, regretted that Nigerians had for long focused on the negative side of multilingualism.
He added, “We are redirecting energy to look at the potential and benefits of language. We are moving towards a new logic of looking at the country’s needs and seeing exactly how language can integrate with business, safety and security as well as catalyse development.”
On NINLAN’s quest to be funded by TETFUND, he said, “What we need to do is find a creative partnership that will enable us to get some funding from TETFund and we are working on it.”
The statement added that during the meeting, three academics were elevated to the rank of full professors, bringing to four the number of full professors appointed by the institute. Two senior deputy registrars, two senior lecturers, two deputy registrars and one principal assistant registrar were also promoted.
