Deputy Speaker, House of Representatives, Benjamin Okezie Kalu, has clarified that the University of Nigerian Languages, Aba (Establishment, etc) Bill, 2024, is only seeking to upgrade the existing National Institute for Nigerian Languages (NINLAN), Aba, Abia State, to a University of Nigerian Languages.
Speaking when the members of the Governing Board of NINLAN led by their chairman, Professor Victor Ukaogo, paid him a courtesy visit in Abuja, Kalu said that the Bill sponsored by him and eight others does not have the name of President Bola Tinubu attached to it.
He said: “To review the establishment Act of the NINLAN to change your status from not being funded by TETFUND to a level where you can be funded, enlarge your curriculum and give out more to the society is what the Bill is all about.
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“The Bill has nothing to do with President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s name. What was published in our journal says University of Nigerian Languages.
“This was what we submitted but the news we are getting outside is that they are attaching the name of Bola Ahmed Tinubu just to drag a President who is making concerted efforts to ensure that education in Nigeria is stronger than he met it.
“Election is over, people should leave the President out of petty issues. He doesn’t know about this, was never part of it. We are looking for how to lift the standard of the institution which the federal government is spending money on to go from where it is to where it ought to be and that we must do. This is not the first institution I am moving bills for their status to change and it’s not going to be the last.
“My interest is that we should not allow NINLAN to die. The issue of the school’s nomenclature is secondary, it’s a federal government establishment already. It has the potential to create more jobs, do more for our people.
“It’s not a new university. We want to upgrade you to where you can benefit from TETFUND and build capacity and train more people and be a reference point.
“As leaders who want to protect what our forefathers handed over to us, we must push for the element of our identity found in our Nigerian languages,” Kalu told the Governing Council members.
Kalu also emphasised the need to preserve Nigerian languages as a uniting element.
He mulled a possible plan of amending the Act establishing the Tertiary Education Trust Fund (TETFund) to accommodate the funding of specialised institutions of higher learning and inter-university centres in the country.
“I knew NINLAN when it came into place and one would have thought that by now, NINLAN would be better than it is. I want to thank the people of Ngwa land, the people of Aba who donated their land because they love education. If they don’t love education, they will not give over 300 hectares of land to improve the lives of Nigerians not only Aba people.
“There’s no institution in Nigeria that was set up to handle Nigerian languages. Rather outside this, what we have is an institution promoting a foreign language even when French as a language is sparsely used in our day-to-day life whereas Nigerian languages are put to use in our every day activities from the farm to the markets, schools to construction sites, community to worship centres. An average Nigerian child cannot go the market to negotiate in our local languages or worship using our local languages. So, it’s important we get it right now to avoid them going into extinction. Language has remained a uniting element in all the nations of the world. It is fundamental.
“It’s one of the elements that defines our identity. Once it’s eroded, people begin to question your identity. Our children struggle to speak the language of our identity, it ought not to be so. The teachers of languages are fading away because of lack of importance that’s attached to the identity element of our nation. Many people are not going into studying to teach the next generation. So, there is dearth of those who have the capacity to teach the Nigerian languages.
“You cannot talk about peace and unity and progress without our languages. If we are embracing the diversity that defines our nation, then language must be put on the priority list. It’s a fact, it’s not just about the academic aspect of it, it’s about the social development, integration aspect of it.
“So, you play a major role in uniting this nation. You play a major role in the peace of this nation. Peace should be communicated in the language that people will understand.
“What’s wrong if I’m Igbo and I go to school and learn how to speak Hausa? What’s wrong if I’m Hausa and I go to school and learn how to speak Yoruba?
“It’s unfortunate you’ve been abandoned the way you were abandoned but the renewed hope agenda of Mr. President is prioritising education as one of the strategic tools to drive away poverty, and yours will not be left behind.
“The intention of the legislature when we crafted the law governing TETFUND was to enhance education in its entirety, not for it to be discriminatory. So, it calls for a review. The fund that is used by TETFUND is to equip all citadels of learning to be empowered to achieve their mandate.
“It should be reviewed to incorporate all of you playing specialised functions in the education of our people. Language is specialised study,” the Deputy Speaker added.
Earlier, the chairman of NINLAN Governing Board, Professor Victor Ukaogo, told the Deputy Speaker that NINLAN needed urgent federal attention to tackle many of its challenges.
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