An accent is a distinctive genuine way of pronouncing a language; it is a means of identification and no accent is more superior than the other.
As Nigerians, we pride ourselves like one with rich culture and heritage, but nowadays, educated or not, those who schooled in private and public schools, in our villages and cities have all adopted American/ British accents in communication.
And unfortunately, many jobs( presenting, acting, communication firms/agencies etc) are awarded / given to people who have American/British accents at the expense of others even when the chosen public/market/ target, are Nigerians.
Our local airlines aren't left out, where a local crew on a local trip give directives and announcement with foreign accent even when the targeted travelers are locals, whereas in countries like France, Germany, Spain, their local airlines have their announcements on board in their native languages. My question is, “if the targeted public have Nigerian ears, why then are the adopted foreign tongues chosen?
I read one time where, Ebuka Obi- Uchendu of BBN once said he was denied a presenting job because of his Nigerian accent, but now, look how far he's come with his rejected Nigerian accent.
Our accepted National lingual franca is Queens English and not the regular street British/American accent that we succumb to. Why would one prefer to say " I wanna come to you so we gonna go to the Movies”, when you can simply say "I will come to you, so we can go to the movies. This racism of accent need to be controlled so that our rich Nigerian culture/ accent can be felt and adopted around the world just like our “Afropop”, “Afrobeat” and all the Nigerian music genres are making sway in all the nooks and crannies of the world. Recently, I have been seeing music videos of American super stars dancing and singing to songs made by Nigerian Artists, with Nigerian beats, accents and even our local languages. This is how far we can go if we uphold our heritage, our culture and our accent.
A Nigerian accent isn’t a taboo after all .