PATRICK ABANG, Calabar –
Offiong Ani Offiong, a professor of Linguistics and Communication at The University of Calabar has urged the Federal Government to initiate and articulate coherent and comprehensive national language policy.
Professor Offiong said the policy should be pluralistic so that every language in Nigeria and particularly Cross River State can be accommodated in the plan of things.
He said the over five hundred and fifty five language spoken in Nigeria require and deserve harnessing and efficient management in the same way other kinds of resources are manage.
The university don disclosed this at the 100th Inuagural lecture series of the University of Calabar with the topic: For the love of language: What Is The Word Called In Your Language”, held at the International Conference Centre, University of Calabar.
According to him, Cross River State with fifty six languages and dialects should benefit from the policy
“If any language is left out, then the saying that language is the bedrock of human existence will be eluding some members of the society”.
“It is a big problem that minority languages are dying all the world and more especially in Nigeria”
The Vice Chancellor of the University of Calabar, Professor Florence Obi, in her remarks charged stakeholders in the education system to take the lecture seriously and see no reason why a language like Efik should not be adopted as a general language in Cross River State.
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