The very few times we heard the first lady speak in PUBLIC left very embarrassing and SHAMEFUL moments in our memories and the times we hear the President speak with or without his scripts are the most UNINSPIRING moments in the history of this nation.

I am not one of those who think the president is gentle or PLACID rather, I believe Mr. President hasn’t found an accommodating ENVIRONMENT in his own country to express himself the way he would have loved to and this is the bitter situation with most of our LEADERS in every arm of government.

Many representatives in the legislative arm keep MUTE throughout sittings every year while their more enlightened counterparts feel like KINGS, not because they (‘non-speakers’) wish to be ‘effigies’ but because like the PEOPLE they represent, it is certain they’ll flop on the very SLIPPERY floor of a strange language. For example, the leader of the house of representatives in Oyo state rarely speak a single sentence in English language without ‘heavy’ grammatical errors------ this is our shame and it STINKS to the highest heavens. If it stinks so badly, why can’t anyone smell it? If they can, why can’t the ‘Policy makers’ do anything about it?

The language of the people is a great UNIFYING factor. It is like the grease harmonizing and ensuring SMOOTHNESS in the activities of a society and ultimately easing the development of such society. If language is this IMPORTANT, should Nigeria take hers for granted? If a language is given recognition and preference by law because of the number of people speaking it, should Hausa, Yoruba and Igbo languages that have several MILLIONS of people on their list be this NEGLECTED by any government?

The population of the YORUBA people for example is far more than that of many countries in the world including that of South Africa that has her ELEVEN local languages legalized by law; to be used officially in every form and at any level of communication. A greater percentage of Nigerians can’t COMMUNICATE orally and otherwise in English language and this to an extent explains the GAP between the leaders and the followers, it also explains reason we have a ‘snail speed’ inter-cultural development rate. Even the so-called learned don’t have a tight grasp of ‘the master’s language’ neither do they really UNDERSTAND the local languages that has been tagged TABOO in our various secondary schools.

We have seen the extent of DAMAGE a language misunderstanding can cause when Gen. Buhari recently used a Hausa PROVERB before the elections in 2003. There are also GRAVE damages to individual self esteem of both young and old because of the inability to EXPRESS selves in English language.

Nigeria deserves CREATIVITY in her governance and Nigerians are demanding it; We DEMAND creative ways of infusing our culture especially our languages in the development of this nation and not just PROPAGANDA on these very important aspects of our society as we have seen in the PAST. Using just the NYSC as a tool in integrating a multicultural society like ours is like using a STRAND of broom in sweeping debris therefore there is an urgent need to make new policies and amend where necessary LAWS that will bring about the LEGAL usage of our languages at any level of communication.

Op,nice one....thank u! Our local languages are dying and we are pushing hard to keep our adopted language(english) alive. Among the successful nations, u can never find one among them who succeeded or got to where they are today using other people's language as their official language. Why is our own case different? No wonder patriotism is on the verge of extinction in this country cos the only thing we can identify as our national symbol is the national flag. The other national symbol na NTA......hmmmm....u dont wanna go there because na rawbish. For example, on NL, nobody will chide u for speaking ur language wrongly but they will castrate u for solecism. It is a sad one that we dont have something significant like language symbolising this country...smh..