MINORITY LANGUAGES IN THE MILLENIUM

DEVELOPMENT GOALS IN NIGERIA: A

SOCIOLINGUISTIC DIMENSION.

BY

SIMON ITINE ABOCHOL

DEPARTMENT OF ENGLISH AND LITERARY STUDIES,
UNIVERSITY OF ABUJA, ABUJA.

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 ABSTRACT

The absence of minority languages in the Millennium Development Goals

(MDGS) in Nigeria has been an issue of concern. This is because “minority”, as
the name implies, is a disadvantaged group and so national issues do not place
concern on minority except majority. For language, the matter is worst since
English and the few majority languages in Nigeria have already gained ground
in the polity. This paper, therefore, articulates that the government should
include minority languages development in its much talked about “millennium
development goals”. The suggestion for the inclusion of minority languages in
the MDGS is as a result of the introduction of the national policy on education
which states that the federal government of Nigeria has adopted education as
an instrument par excellence for national development. The paper explains that
development is also tied to language. It cites some countries whose
developments have partly been tied to language and makes a case for the
inclusion of minority languages in the MDGS for an all round national
development.

simonabochol@yahoo.co.uk

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1.0 INTRODUCTION

Most usages of minority refer to group(s) or collection of people who are not

adequately represented in the mainstream of socio-cultural, economic and

political life of their society. It, therefore, conveys some measure of

disadvantage manifest or latent. The statuses of minority and majority are

contextual and sometimes historical. Furthermore, the concepts, minority and

majority have quantitative, economic, social and cultural dimensions. For

example, a majority may refer to a group with small numerical population

relative to another or other groups. But it sometimes conveys power-relation,

and therefore refers to a group or groups relative to more powerful groups in

society. The concept of minority is also used in some contexts, for example, in

Europe and North America’s reference to immigrant populations that have

settled in host societies and constitute significant population. In the United

States, the term minority is also used to refer to both the numerical population

of groups as well as representations in institutions of society. Invariably, the

two usages tend to be correlated. The concept, minority, may, therefore, refer

to linguistic, religious, political and social groups, and women, based on their

relative number or representation of power in society. In this paper therefore,

the concept of minority is linguistic in nature.

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2.0 MINORITY LANGUAGES IN NIGERIA AND THEIR DEVELOPMENT

According to Bleambo (1), “minor languages are those Nigerian languages that

are not major. The major languages are two groups; the foremost are Hausa,

Igbo and Yoruba and closely following are; Edo, Efik, Fulfulde, Igala, Izom,

Kanuri, Nupe and Tiv ”. Emenanjo (88) adds that “The major group comprises

the developed and developing”. The developed have the following features:

well established orthographies, standard written varieties, long traditions of

writing, large and varied corpora of written literature, sophisticated and

dynamic metalanguage.

The term minority language is used here to incorporate the underdeveloped

category. These are languages that have no standardized orthographies (if they

do have orthographies at all), standard varieties, written literature and

metalanguages. In this group, there exists languages that are spoken by small

number of people; some of them located in few villages. Some of these

minority languages, in random, include: Alago, Ikpeshi, Kiong, Muja, Okamgeri,

Pero, Turkwan, Ubaghara, Zarma, etc. The common refrain is that the future of

minor languages remains significantly in the hands of the speakers. As

Williamson (42) states:

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 For a minority language to establish itself effectively as a
written language, there has to be cooperation between the
speakers, who alone have the emotional commitment to
develop their language, and various agencies who can help
them.

Similarly, Emenanjo (97) states as follows:

…language engineering requires cooperation between the

speakers of the language on the one hand, and linguists and
educationists on the other hand. Bamgbose (29) records this
sentiment when he stated thus: when all is said and done, the
fate of an endangered language may well lie in the hands of
the owners of the language themselves and in their will to
make it survive.
However, reliance on native speakers’ cooperation is not the ultimate. It is the

duty of linguists to enlighten native speakers, even of smaller languages, about

the capabilities of their languages. Bleambo (8) explains that “There is no

recorded evidence of how American Indians spear-headed the research on

their languages. If the linguists had waited for that opportunity, the

endangered languages would have died”. Olaofe (59) succinctly handles the

issue when he remarks as follows:

…linguistics should be used to develop as many minority

languages as possible. Minority languages should have a
place in all of the departments of Languages and
Nigerian/African languages; more of these departments
should be established in many universities of science and
technology.

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 In spite of the foregoing, NEEDS and the Millennium Development Goals do

not have an overt place for minority languages development in Nigeria. The

highlights of NEEDS and the MDGS below will testify to the above claim that

there is nothing clearly defined about minority languages development in their

plan.

3.0 NEEDS AND THE MILLENIUM DEVELOPMENT GOALS

According to a document on needs (2004) by the National Planning

Commission, “NEEDS specifically addresses the international development

targets (IDTS) which were set in 1996 to improve economic well-being, social

and human development and ensure environmental sustainability and

regeneration. In September 2000, 149 world leaders adopted the United

Nation’s declaration, which listed a series of millennium development goals

(MDGS). These embrace most of the IDTS and add poverty concerns related to

hunger, water, disease, AIDS, orphans and urban poverty”. The declaration

commits UN member states to achieving the following millennium

development goals (MDGS) by 2015.

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1. TO HELP THE PROPORTION OF PEOPLE WHOSE INCOME IS LESS THAN ONE

DOLLAR IN A DAY AND WHO SUFFER FROM HUNGER. NEEDS THRUST:

 6 percent annual growth of GDP as a result of widespread reforms.

 Develop public-private partnerships to stimulate rapid infrastructural

development, including the provision of water for domestic and

commercial use.

 Draw up a social charter or contract between government and electorate

to ensure the voices of the poor are heard and their concerns addressed.

2. ACHIEVE UNIVERSAL PRIMARY EDUCATION. NEEDS THRUST:

 Reduce number of unqualified primary school teachers by 80%.

 Mobilize community and private sector involvement in education.

 Completion of universal basic education programme.

2. REDUCE MATERNAL MORTALITY BY THREE-QUARTERS AND UNDER-FIVE

CHILD MORTALITY BY TWO-THIRDS.

Halt and begin to reverse the spread of HIV/AIDS, Malaria and other major

diseases. Provide special assistance to children orphaned by HIV/AIDS.

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 NEEDS THRUST:

 Setting up of comprehensive health centres.

 Government immunization and inoculation programme.

 Introduction of new health insurance scheme based on personal

contribution.

 Reduce the disease burden attributable to priority diseases and health

problems including; tuberculosis, HIV/AIDS and reproductive health.

4. SIGNIFICANTLY IMPROVE THE LIVES OF AT LEAST 100 MILLION SLUM

DWELLERS BY 2020.

NEEDS THRUST:

 Provision of affordable housing, water and sanitation.

 Programmes to build skills and entrepreneurial development.

 Improve access to credit.

 Improve access to adult education and offer scholarships.

This paper suggests the inclusion of minority languages development in Nigeria

by capturing the NEEDS and MDGS highlight number two (2) which states thus:

Achieve Universal Primary Education. The reason for this inclusion of minority
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languages development through the NEEDS and MDGS highlight number two

(2) is simply that the introduction of the national policy on education (NPE,5)

states that “the Federal Government of Nigeria has adopted education as an

instrument par excellence for national development”. Development is a

common parlance usually defined within the premise of social science or

economics to mean improvement in the quality of life. In the words of

Akpakpan (4):

Most economists and social scientists in general now see

development as having economic, social, political and other
dimensions. They define quantitatively as a process of
improvement in the general welfare of the society, usually
manifested in the various aspects of the life of the society.

In the context of the above definition, then, we may ask ourselves, what has

language got to do with development? It is axiomatic that language is the

vehicle of thought. This has been empirically proved right from the onset of the

Sapir-Whorfian hypothesis. As it is true that language is the vehicle of thought,

it therefore follows that development is somewhat tied to language. There is a

heated debate on the issues arising from various language policy statements

from the NPE. Examples of such statements are: section 1 paragraph 8 that

makes it mandatory “that each child should learn one of the three languages

other than his own mother tongue”. Section 2 paragraph 11:3 on pre-primary
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education states that: “that medium of Instruction will be principally the

mother tongue or the language of the immediate community”, and section 3

paragraph 15:4 prescribes that “government will see to it that the medium of

instruction in primary school is initially the mother tongue or the language of

the immediate community and, at a later stage English”. Section 4, paragraph

19:4 stipulates that two Nigerian languages are to be studied as core subjects

throughout the junior secondary school. The policy specifies that: in selecting

two Nigerian languages, students study the languages of their own area in

addition to any of the three main Nigeria languages: Hausa, Igbo and Yoruba,

subject to the availability of teachers. At the senior secondary school, one

Nigerian language shall be taken as one of the six required core courses

(section 4, paragraph 19:4b). One thing that stands out clearly in the language

policy of the NPE is that indigenous Nigerian languages are given secondary

roles to play; they are to play transitional roles for English to take over at a

later stage right from primary school to the highest level of education. As a

matter of policy, indigenous Nigerian languages cease to be medium of

instruction as from the upper primary school. Even where they are taught, they

are taught as subjects on the curriculum.

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 The English language and the so-called majority languages (Hausa, Igbo and

Yoruba) have not brought about obvious development in Nigeria yet the

languages are more upheld than the so-called minority languages. In fact, the

Millennium Development Goals have not included the development of minor

languages in their agenda. However, the way forward to sustainable

development in Nigeria could be the development of minority languages.

4.0 LANGUAGES DEVELOPMENT OPTION.

According to Matemilola (94), “language is the vehicle of man’s thought for

the purpose of development”. But the worries of many people including

linguists and non-linguists as noted by Aziza (1996) are the relevance of

indigenous Nigerian languages to national development, particularly in the

present age of science and technology. Though, in this paper, the emphasis is

on minor languages, since the major Nigerian languages have been developed

except for the statuses of officialdom and nationaldom which the three (Hausa,

Igbo and Yoruba) have not attained. Nigeria seems to forget some developed

countries of the world whose development has been dependent on active

development and use of their indigenous national and minor languages. The

example of the former Soviet Union readily comes to mind. The former USSR

ranks high among the world powers in terms of advanced science and
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technology. The secret behind the highly technological development of Russia

is the development and use of her languages to the exclusion of foreign

languages though there are special schools in which instruction is conducted in

foreign languages for special or foreign reasons (Novost Press Agency: 49). The

country has developed most of her languages by investing so much on them

with high commitment which was responsible for the country’s development.

For instance, Novost Press Agency (50) reports that:

In Uzbekistan, which has a population of 18.8 million (less

than the population of Oyo, Ogun, Osun, Ondo and Ekiti
states that are essentially monolingual), there are
representatives of about 100 nationalities. Instruction at
schools is conducted in seven languages according to a
student’s choice in Uzbek, Russian, Tajik, Kirghiz, Turkmen,
Karakalpak and Kazakh. At schools where there are pupils of
Dungan, Virgur, Korean and other minority nationalities, the
Curricula include native language studies. There are
textbooks, books on art, science and radio broadcasts in
these languages.

Former Russia was a multilingual country but she developed most of her

languages to an extent that education is received in them (the languages) up to

the university level. And despite the fact that exponents of English as the

world’s foremost language of science and technology and communication,

Russia developed without English, yet she is a world power to reckon with,

technologically. One can continue with examples from other countries such as
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Switzerland, Japan, Germany and China that developed through the use of their

indigenous languages for the attainment of their technological development.

Also, the report of the UNESCO (1953) research that education in the mother

tongue is the best is incontestable. The result of the Ife six-year Yoruba project

(SYYP, 1970-76) has also corroborated UNESCO’s findings. What is suggested

for Nigeria is language engineering and political will-power. Language

engineering has been well discussed by Capo (1). Language engineering

according to him:

…is that domain of applied linguistics concerned with the

design and implementation of strategies (i.e. the conscious
and deliberate stages) toward the rehabilitation and optimal
utilization of individual languages. In fact, it is a mechanism
of language planning that recognizes problems and proceeds
to engineer solutions to such problems.

One of the major objections to the indigenous (minority) languages in

education for technological development is that these languages lack written

materials on technical terms to cope with modern technology. This objection in

the words of Chumbow (1990) is an objectionable objection. The rise of the

objective is better established by pointing out a few of the efforts already made

in producing technical terms in some Nigerian indigenous languages. The

efforts have been towards the development of Nigerian languages including

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the minority ones. A few of such examples on the efforts by some indigenous

researchers that have worked on technical terms include:

Afolayan et al (eds) (1990), A Vocabulary of Primary Science and Mathematics

in Nine Nigerian Languages I (Fulfulde, Izon, Yoruba), NERDC/Fourth

Dimension Publishers.

----(1990), A Vocabulary of Primary Science and Mathematics in Nine Nigerian

Languages II (Edo, Igbo, Kanuri), NERDC/Fourth Dimension Publishers.

Emenanjo E. N. et al (eds) (1990), Igbo Metalanguage, 1. University Press Ltd.

Mohammed D. (ed) (1990) Hausa Metalanguge, 1. NERDC, University Press

Ltd.

Apart from the few materials listed above, a lot of efforts are being made to

produce more materials in modern technology, socio-economic, political

developments, etc in indigenous Nigerian languages. The examples above have

more of the so-called majority languages involvement in indigenous Nigerian

languages development simply because the Millennium Development Goals

(MDGs) do not have a place for the indigenous minority languages

development. The neglect of the minor languages ought to have attracted the

MDGs’ attention. Our sure way of attaining the desired development is a

meaningful realistic development of our indigenous, particularly, the minority

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languages for the purpose of all round development. Part of the neglect of the

minority languages development even by the MDGs stems from the fact that

for three decades of linguistic studies in Nigeria, no one can give the exact

number of languages spoken in the country. The estimated number given

ranges between 50 and 500 (see Omamor, 1994; Awoniyi, 1982 and Omolewa,

1975). Going back to the Russian example, NOVOST Press Agency (49) affirms

that:

The Soviet Union stands out among the world’s multilingual

countries. The languages spoken in the country include 36
Iberian-Canadian languages, 25 Turkish languages, 24
European, 22 Mongolic and Tungusic-Manchurian languages
and 20 Finno-Ugric languages.

According to the agency, all of these languages (127) are well developed. As a

matter of fact, given the right will-power, the Soviet Union example is possible

in Nigeria. For instance, Yoloye (16) reports that “six manuals in 30 (Nigerian)

Languages had already been produced”. Given that there are 400 languages in

Nigeria, Yoloye makes a case for efforts by the government:

In a country with 400 languages, 30 seem like a small

number. However, it should be pointed out that these are the
most widely spoken languages. Hausa, Igbo and Yoruba
alone cover 56% of the population. With the addition of the
next 9 major languages, we have probably covered up to 99%
of the population.
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 He is, however, quick to add that “this is of course no reason to ignore the

other 70 languages”. The suggestion here, as common to languages planning,

is that we need to start somewhere.

5.0 MDGs INCLUSION OF MINORITY LANGUAGES DEVELOPMENT ON HER AGENDA.

The transformation of the Nigerian nation into a technologically advanced

country through the development and use of her minority languages is

achievable given the right political will and climate in the words of Emenanjo

(9). The overwhelming success of the Primary Education Improvement Project

(PEIP) run by the institute of Education of Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria

(1970-76) and the Ife Six-Year Yoruba Project (SYYP) of 1970 is well known. But

to show the present political will-power or non-commitment, Bamgbose (5)

rightly notes that “in spite of the encouraging results from Ife experiment,

none of the state governments in Yoruba speaking area thought it fit to

adopt the system as a general policy”. It is not that the minority languages

development cannot work, but that the right political will and climate should

be given it to work.

6.0 CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATIONS.

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Having examined the issue of minority languages development in Nigeria as a

panacea for an all round development in the nation, this paper faults the

Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) for not including the minority

languages development in Nigeria as part of their goals. Therefore, this paper

concludes with the following recommendations:

i. The political subjugation of the linguistic groups by the so-called

majority language groups should not be extended to language so

that minority languages can be developed without unnecessary

political hitches.

ii. The Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) should include minority

languages development in their agenda.

iii. Government at all levels should strongly and genuinely commit to

the development of minority languages in Nigeria. Reference should

be made to efforts of the then Western Region Minister of

Education in setting up two Committees on Grammatical and

Scientific Terminologies, the metalanguage project sponsored by

the then Nigerian Educational Research Council (NERDC) and

executed by the various indigenous languages’ Associations of

Nigeria should be aggressively pursued and advanced further to

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 meet the present day scientific, technological and computer

challenges.

iv. The successful Ife Six-Year Yoruba Project (SYYP) and the ABU, Zaria

Primary Education Improvement Project (PEIP) should be replicated

at regional levels with dispatch.

v. The Nigerian Language (NL) policy of the NPE should be fully

implemented.

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at the 2nd Annual National Conference/Workshop of Nigerian Languages’
teachers (ANLAT), Federal University of Technology, Akure. 9th-13th September,
1996. Print.

Bamgbose, Ayo Deprived Endangered and Dying Languages. Diogenes 161 Vol.
41/1,1993. Print.

Bleambo, P. K. Languages in Adamawa State in Language Endangerment and

Empowerment in Nigeria: Theory and Reality. Vol. 1. Aba: NINLAN, 1999. Print.

Capo, H. B. C. Comparative Linguistics and Language Engineering in Africa, in

Emenanjo E. N. (ed) (1990) Multilingualism, Minority Languages and Language
Policy in Nigeria, Agbor, Central Books Ltd in Collaboration
with the Linguistics Association of Nigeria, 1990. Print.
17
Emenanjo, E. N. and O. Ndimele Issues in African Languages and Linguistics:
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NEEDS NIGERIA Meeting Everyone’s Needs Abuja: National Planning

Commission, 2004. Print.

Novost Press Agency, The Soviet Union: Facts, Problems Appraisal 2 Moscow
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Matemilola, P. A. Language and Development: A Case for Indigenous Languages

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Olaofe, I. A. Language and Development, The Role of English in a Result

Oriented University Education, Bulletin, Vol. xii, No. 2 and 3, Harare: University of
Zimbabwe, pp, 4-23, 1986. Print.

Williams Kay Development of Minority Languages: Publishing Problems and

Prospects in: Emenanjo, E.N. (ed), (1990), Multilingualism, Minority Languages
and Language Policy in Nigeria. Agbor: Central Books Ltd, 1990. Print.

Yoloye, E. A. Vision and Mission of Education in Nigeria: Matters Arising and the
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