Sorry state of the National Institute for Nigerian Languages worries stakeholder

Emeka Ibemere

A concerned citizen and social commentator have decried the deplorable situations of the National Institute for Nigerian Languages (NINLAN), in Aba, Abia State, South East Nigeria.

The institution which was established by Decree 117 of December 30, 1993, now Act No. 50 of 2004 of the National Assembly, as amended, with Prof. E. N. Emenanjo as its pioneer Executive Director.

This tertiary research institute was set up for the implementation of the language provisions of the National Policy on Education, NPE, 1977 as revised in 1981, 1998, and 2004.

It was however established to serve as a degree awarding inter-university centre under the control of the National Universities Commission (NUC). The major objective of the institute is to serve as a part of Nigeria’s cultural heritage and to enhance national unity and cohesion.

The institution was initially designed to help Nigeria achieve the language objectives of the National Policy on Education by mass producing quality Level 2 teachers of various Nigerian Languages.

According to stakeholders, NINLAN shares common character and philosophy with other inter-university centres under the NUC. They include National French Language Village, Badagry, Lagos; the National Arabic Language Village, Ngala, Bornu State; the National Mathematical Centre, Abuja, FCT and the National Institute for Social and Economic Research (NISER), Ibadan, Oyo State.

“It is embarrassing as well as annoying that out of these inter-university centres only NINLAN is not being properly funded and, in fact, is being toyed with despite being backed by an extant law establishing it just like the other four inter-university centers,” Nnamdi Cos-Ukwuoma, a public affairs analyst stated.

“Sometime last year, while driving past the institute on my way to Calabar with some friends, the sorry state of this federal establishment led to a heated discussion on the possible reasons why it seemed neglected and abandoned”

Two of us had been privileged to be in some of the other four inter-university centres and were quite acquainted with the level of funding and activities in these other centres. It was almost a unanimous stand that the problem of the institute may be where it is located”.

Ukwuoma alludes that much as people could believe with that assertion that location of the institute was its problem, he finds it hard to believe.

“As a matter of fact, taking a critical look at the other centres, one may be compelled to accept this logical position by my friends, as it is expected that the same budget that provided for funds for the other inter-university centres ought to have also adequately provided for NINLAN”.

According to him, the only hope of developing and making the over 400 Nigerian Languages appealing to the younger generation is seemingly being highly politicized adding that the institution was starved of fund for reasons best known to the authorities responsible for this. He alleged that it is incontestable that NINLAN needs good funding and other logistical support that would make it able to fulfill its mandate and roles.

He further explained that there are strong and compelling points that exist which make the revitalization and funding of the institute to realize the objectives of its establishment an urgent need.

Ukwuoma listed these objectives to include- ability to mount Level 2 programmes which are obviously absent from the universities, ability to produce professional teachers in Nigerian Languages.

“It is obvious that most of our universities just produce linguists without knowledge in how to impart the knowledge in others while NINLAN will be offering B.A (Ed) Linguistics, Hausa, Igbo, Yoruba, etc.”

Also, that NINLAN is specialized to run programmes that can mass-produce teachers of Nigerian Languages in a way that the universities cannot, more so, when the institute’s physical and human resources are not shared with other disciplines. “NINLAN is straightly tailored to produce language teachers and experts,” he said.

“Level 1 products of the universities are neither professional teacher nor groomed to develop and sustain the languages as they do not want to teach, anyway. Level 1 products want to teach, if at all, only, in the areas where their languages are spoken. Therefore, we need non-Hausas to teach Hausa in non-Hausa areas, Non-Igbos to teach Igbo in non-Igbo areas, non-Yoruba people to teach Yoruba in non-Yoruba areas, non-Efik to teach Efik in non-Efik areas of the country, etc.”

According to him, it’s imperative to note that NCE Level 2 products are not good enough to teach at the secondary school level; hence they need a place where their knowledge could be upgraded to be better qualified to teach at the secondary school level.

“Of course, it is a fact that only NINLAN offers the opportunity for NCE L2 products to raise their qualification to degree level with both ease and special touch of expertise. Moreso, as it is currently, advancement to degree levels for NCE L2 products are blocked since they do not qualify for the universities’ L1 programmes.

“Recent enquiries and indication of interest in NINLAN programmes confirm the indispensability of this unique educational establishment which is expected to restore our national pride in respect of Nigeria’s cherished languages and cultures.”

According to the social Commentator and Public Affairs analyst, the imperative of Language Development and Advocacy by Professor, Ben Elugbe, NINLAN Executive Director, that “The challenge of advocating Nigerian Languages is best faced by an institute such as NINLAN”, is important advice.

 However, the need for a centralized co-coordinating body had been recognized. Thus a National Language Centre was created in the Federal Ministry of Education. The centre even had an Advisory Council at some point.

Professor, Ben Elugbe, NINLAN Executive Director, once said thus: “The Language Centre started language empowerment (i.e. the development of meta-languages) and orthography manuals projects. During the Second Republic, it got funding from the National Assembly to produce a quadrilingual dictionary of parliamentary terms. The activities of the National Language Centre were passed on to the Language Development Centre of the NERDC by a 1987 Decree. The same activities were transferred to NINLAN by a 1993 Decree (now an Act of the National Assembly). As a result, the NERDC no longer has a Language Development Centre.

“The growing quality of the academic staff of NINLAN means that it will have staff in superior numbers and quality to any Department of Linguistics and Nigerian/African Languages. It will therefore be in a position to be a leader in the research required to develop Nigerian Languages.”

According to Ukwuoma, it’s an incontrovertible fact that NINLAN is a great idea and an ideal concept borne out of the fact that it is invariably hailed by those who hear of it. He said that it’s unfortunate that most people also lament the fact that the institute is not well known because of the prolonged neglect.

“NINLAN is a world-friendly concept. It is an idea that UNESCO and other international educational bodies applaud. Indeed, it was expected that when the African Union declared 2006 the year of African Languages, Nigeria, whose President served as Chairman, should have drawn uncommon inspiration from it and fortified NINLAN to compete with similar institutes in other countries, while becoming a role model for Africa,” he added

“It is heart-rending to note here that no meaningful attention has been given to this innovative institute since inception in 1993. The institute is yet to get a takeoff grant, whereas other centres have all got the approved fund and very much more.  Over two decades after its establishment, this novel institute has remained undeveloped with only meager facilities. Rather, it has been an object of mindless politics and discriminatory treatment by our policy makers and budget preparation and implementation authorities.

“Worse still, Igbo leaders in the National Assembly and government have not shown interest in defending the cause of a significant federal government establishment in their zone, which has a very good potential of becoming a fully fledged university, providing jobs to their kins and improving the economic condition of the area where it is sited. Quite unfortunate!”

Ukwuoma stated that it is a funny affair that the Nigerian government has striven to promote foreign languages and fund centres for such languages with enormous resources while leaving the one established to promote Nigerian Languages to die.

 “It is equally frustrating to note that Nigeria leaders seem to treat anything ‘Nigerian’ with ignominious attitude while celebrating foreigners, their languages, cultures and products. This is an aberration and an unfortunate situation in our education sector and all other sectors. And I ask; “whither Nigeria?”