OVERCOMING CHALLENGES TO SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT IN NIGERIA THROUGH INDIGENOUS LANGUAGES

Abstract

This paper discusses overcoming challenges to sustainable development in Nigeria through indigenous languages. Globalization is mostly about communication and the acquisition of knowledge, which abound in books, the worldwide web, and the internet and in the print and electronic media. Knowledge and communication are generally conveyed through language. Governments are aware of the power of language and so intervene in the use of language in their countries through the provision of a language policy. Such policy states the languages to be taught in schools, those to be used as official language and those to be used as medium of instruction. Governments equally recognize the need for people to speak language(s) other than their mother tongue. This paper sees a correlation between the use of indigenous language in educating the child both formally and informally and the futuristic powers of the child in the areas of self-unfolding and self-actualization. The future of the child is largely shaped in the present by different means, one of which is language, his/her mother tongue. Sustainability is one great factor in development. The findings of this paper include the neglect of indigenous languages by a great number in the upbringing of the child and the celebration of foreign languages as evidences of literacy and civilization. The paper therefore calls for the use of indigenous languages in the home, in the schools, in the church and mosque, in the market, in the parliament and everywhere as a tool for conveying our moral culture, expressing our thought patterns, celebrating our identities and sustaining development.