Soludo’s Stupidity

I was speaking with an Indian workmate of mine when she said, she had to learn the English language upon migrating from India. Astonished, I pressed for more enlightenment, given her fluency in the language and the status of the English language in the Indian society. Whereupon, she told me, she studied in the Hindu language up to Masters level due to financial constraints. Academical institutions run in the English language in India, she said, are more expensive than those run in Hindu. The one aspect that impressed me was the fact that she studied in the Hindu language up to post-graduate level. To her, the language was a living organism. A sad contrast is found in Nigeria. Nigerians are largely a people infested by a diffident linguistical constitution. Language shapes the sublunary existence of a people.


I have often fantasized about the idea of establishing a university in Nigeria run in local languages. The idea would run through series of mental oppositions. To many a Nigerian, the use of local languages is anathema - consigned to primitivism. Our languages should be encouraged. The demeaning attitude towards our languages must cease. Everyone has a stake in it. People grow out of their homes with a poor view of their languages, unfortunately, instilled in them by their parents .Constitutionally, only three languages are allowed for communication in our National Assembly which is sad.

Central Bank governor, Professor Charles Soludo missed a golden opportunity to reaffirm the equality of all Nigerians . By limiting the language inscriptions on the new Naira notes to the Hausa, Yoruba and Igbo languages, he stoked up pent up emotions. This act calls, absolutely for our deprecation. While the country puts on a wooden overcoat, while the susurrus of divisions creep up our alley, this decision comes like an inexperienced prey grazing in the full glare of predators. A tenebrous future hangs in the air.

Embracing our language is a way of founding an identity.

History would record this decision as a most insensitive decision - one that did not take into recognition the ethnic plurality of the nation. This decision may be hailed as finally enshrining national languages into our system but not at the expense of other ethnicities. This was a wonderful opportunity to incorporate justice and show that Nigeria is capable of fair-play but o la la the same narrow injections were foisted on us.

In the wake of the 2006 census, I watched a man on a television show ask, with subtle hints of sarcasm ‘why can’t we do anything properly?’ against the background of lack of census materials and ill-trained census officials.


I grew up in an atmosphere where the Hausa language was spoken with great pride. The Hausa language is a creole language. A Kafanchan, friend - who spoke Hausa and English - of mine once told me she couldn’t speak her native Kaduna language. Across the region the story is the same. People surrender their linguistical sovereignty to the Hausa language. The Hausa language is seen as a lingua franca , perhaps because of the perceived access to leadership by the speakers and the imagined advantages that come with speaking the language .There are more than five extinct languages in Nigeria. Economic consideration might be the driving factor to language relinquishment but all languages convey a message.

Children are taught at an early age that English is the only language to self-determination – others should be avoided. People , therefore inherently view their languages with great scorn. Until we underscore the importance of languages in our polity, a sense of nationhood would be a forlorn dream. Language is part and parcel of human make-up. That’s why slaves were made to relinquish their languages. I have curiously asked Jamaicans without success if they at least retain an atom of African languages.

To found a sense of nationhood a linguistical cohesion must be built. We must consolidate our knowledge of the English language which has a worldwide appeal and the Hausa language which enjoys a considerable generality.

This act of government must immediately be revoked in the interest of justice. Language may be dismissed as an inconsequential trivia but one needs to look at the debate the Arabic inscriptions on our notes stirred - the emotions .The non-Muslims might find English more appealing to them than a Muslim inclined to the Arabic language. CBN’s Deputy Governor, Economic Policy, Dr Obadiah Mailafia said the Arabic inscription had been introduced in the colonial era to describe currencies in the Hausa language because people then could not understand the Roman alphabet ( Source:Britain Nigeria Business Council, news reports, February 2007). People are anxious to beam an accurate picture to outside world. They fear the Arabic inscriptions portray Nigeria, as an Islamic country.

I wrote an article sometime ago titled Ethnic Minorities, Justice and Languages; in the article, I exhorted the need to embrace all languages. I argued that people might be drawn to armed struggle if their languages are not recognized, because stripping people of their language steals a part of their humanity. Limping can never qualify as walking, so every component of a man must be recognized.


When I was a kid, I used hear people extol the virtues of accommodation around me. It was said that a house is where peace is found against the turbulent tides of the outside world - so decorum must always be maintained within. The troubles of the outside world cease on entering your house. Soludo should have known the role houses and land play in Igbo cosmology. He must have known the average Igbo man’s desire to own a house because it confers a sense of fulfillment in the Igbo understanding. In the average Igbo man’s psyche ownership of house instills a sense of sanity and fulfillment. A man is not a man until he builds or buys a house. He can have all the money in the world but if he doesn’t own a house he calls home, he is disrespected . He could ride the best cars in the world; he would still be treated with scorn. Land is a very important asset to the Igbo – it could be seen in Nigerian movies. Any attempt to strip an Igbo man of his land naturally registers vengeance because you accuse him of impotence. The thinking behind this belief is that property ownership ensures the fulfillment of humanhood. It gives a soothing completion to existence. Hence every Igbo man retires home from work to the raving reception of his wife and children.

He has chosen to deny or be a party to denying people that sense of belonging and homecoming. That sense of ownership pride. Pity…