A cultural activist and convener of the Gbagede Ewaede Foundation, Princess Adejoke Somoye have ascribed the disregard for her mother tongue to the reoccurring societal decay which has stripped the nation of its noble identity.
Someone who disclosed this in an interview in Abeokuta in commemoration of International Mother Language Day explained that “the formation of character especially at teenage is rooted in the language of birth”.
Commending Federal Government for the recent approval to enable the exclusive usage of the mother tongue for the first six years of education, while it will be combined with the English Language from Junior Secondary School, she implored that issues surrounding the promotion of speaking the Yoruba language must be given priority by all stakeholders in the South Western States.
According to her, “it is obvious that a pupil who has not been taught about Yoruba rich culture nor the history of his linage concerning the virtues exhibited by his progenitors, will not accord any importance to the concept of Omoluabi, a summation of the Yoruba moral code of courage, hard work, humility, and respect.
“Such pupil is bound to be the bad egg that will pollute the minds of others to engage in social vices”
“We should not leave this collective responsibility to the hands of educational stakeholders alone; therefore, parents should equally re-orientate their children that the Yoruba language is not in any way inferior to other languages, but rather a comparative advantage.
“Little wonder, foreigners, are now moving en masse to learn Yoruba languages right within the shores of the nation. I hope they would not be the ones to train the real owners of the language in the nearest future”, Somoye concluded.
She admonished that all hands must be on deck to salvage the identity, history, and heritage which must be fully passed to the up-and-coming generations without any diminishing effects.
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