What Fashola and other leaders in Nigeria and Africa should be doing is thinking MORE long-term than immediate.

Why think small when we are big?

Why can we not for instance adopt a single AFRICAN LANGUAGE? Take the least-commonly spoken language on the continent and make it the AFRICAN tongue, destroying all potential disagreements and conflict among the major languages.

This same Chinese we're scrambling to adopt, China was once like Africa, divided by many languages and ethnicities, before the elite made Mandarin the national language, engendering unity among disparate peoples, and creating a superpower-class nation and political/economic juggernaut of 2 billion souls.

Why can't we do the same? The African population is 1.2 billion. There's no reason we shouldn't have a common African language.

I mean, if that happens, alongside some form of continental political/economic unification, the whole world would be scrambling to speak AFRICAN - such is our collective power and resource endowment.

But because we have made ourselves small, and think we're small, we're settling for second best, scrambling to adopt the language of every ''next big economy'' in Europe and Asia.

When do we stand up?

That's the question.

The question now should be.. Would china allow either yoruba, hausa or igbo to be taught in their public school?

Eze Promoe: Isn't that madness, entitling school children to learning a language which is totally alien to your country.

At least, we'll no longer need subtitles to watch chinese films, and oh, what about those electronic manuals!

Clemzy16: The question now should be.. Would china allow either yoruba, hausa or igbo to be taught in their public school?

No they won't because the economic payback from speaking those languages is not worth the effort.

They would only learn your language if enough of the African people spoke it to make it worth their while, or if the economy of the speakers of the language is worth trillions.

perez019: Ask obamas wife to speak Ibo too.. U are just so myopic with your slavery mentality.. Can u speak english better than a british? You went to school to learn how to speak english, So how official is English language to us.

if english isn't the official language in this nation, what is then? Do u communicate with ur coworkers in ur dialect? When d president addresses the nation, what language does he speak? Mugu.
Where in my comment did i imply she has to communicate better in english than a brit?
Don't just start typing when u wanna comment next time, think first.

Developed countries understand that in order to outdo their competitors, they have to be able to speak their language. That is just common sense. Why do you think Americans study German, Chinese, Japanese, Chinese and Russian languages(etc) and vice versa?? I don't see how our local languages can help us compete on international levels. Don't get me wrong, i'm not saying our local languages are useless or anything like that, all i'm saying is you can't go to China for business and then speak Igbo, Yoruba or Hausa to them, neither can you go to any other African country and do so. Everybody knows China is the next big thing, its only wise to start thinking like them in order to be like or even greater than them. How can you think like them if you can't speak their language

Rubbish.senseless lawmakers.

nifemi01: In a nation where d first lady can barely communicate in the official language (english) and we are already thinking of adding chinese to the curriculum.
How about we just stick with english for now and ensure it is being taught properly in all our schools.

I think the govt of lagos have gone gaga crazy on this one. I am trying to tie development of a society to the ability to speak the language of a superpower. This will not add value to us. French lannguage that is more important because of our african neighbours has not made much progress since it was made compulsory in our schools at least up to jss. Instead of making subjects that will bring out the entreprenaurship spirit in our youth so that they can develop within their environment they are talking about chineese language, I wonder why most of other asian countries have not "adopted" chineese. this is total waste of time and resources. Tell the lawmakers to fling the stupid idea into the dutbin. We have soooo many issues to deal with not one silly chineese language.

I think the govt of lagos have gone gaga crazy on this one. I am trying to tie development of a society to the ability to speak the language of a superpower. This will not add value to us. French language that is more important because of our african neighbours has not made much progress since it was made compulsory in our schools at least up to jss. Instead of making subjects that will bring out the entreprenaurship spirit in our youth so that they can develop within their environment they are talking about chineese language, I wonder why most of other asian countries have not "adopted" chineese. this is total waste of time and resources. Tell the lawmakers to fling the stupid idea into the dustbin. We have soooo many issues to deal with not one silly chineese language.

From my stay in uniport, I realise that most of my course mates fail exams not because they are not smart, but because they do not fully understand the language of learning. There is no way a nigerian in nigeria will ever attain native speaker competence of English language. Talk less of French, which we were forced to learn For nothing, because as it stands now all the french I learnt in my pretertiary years has gone with the winds. Now you want to force Chinese(Mandarin/ Cantonese) on innocent kids, and after you wonder why the rate of failure in waec is high. Do you think if India, china, honkkong e.t.c had made their language(s) subservient to English, they would be as technologically developed as they are today. #usefthinkam

I really wish we could think things through before replying sometimes. I'm currently on Technical Training with Dangotes Cement Plant in Obajana, Kogi. About half the current production capacity of this plant was built by the chinese and same applies to 70% of Nigerias' current industrial projects. Transfer of technical know-how between the manufacturer (chinese) and the end user (Nigerian) is quite poor due to the language barrier. Introducing the foreign language (chinese) in NOT WRONG. And besides, there was absolutely no mention of Chinese language being compulsory. It's an optional subject. My dad worked with the lagos ministry of education and i passed through the Lagos state educational system so this are FACTS, not speculations.
Cheers.

And NO, there wasn't any talk of ''adopting'' chinese, it's optional...

So this issue is still lingering...am highly disappointed!

Who is this mrs lola...so we shuld lick chinese a.ss bc they are the second best economy...

Chie!,seriously,nigeria! I hail thee o!

Wat abt 2morow when these kids will b opportuned 2 get a job in China but no chinese lang. comm. We Nigerians are gud in electronics, textiles etc. We could use their population 4 our success. Have u not heard of chinese resturants killin Nigerians because of our ignorance. Have u 4goten how some chinese love eating black pple. Learn it b4 they(Chinese) sell u in ur presence

Rossikk: What Fashola and other leaders in Nigeria and Africa should be doing is thinking MORE long-term than immediate.

Why think small when we are big?

Why can we not for instance adopt a single AFRICAN LANGUAGE? Take the least-commonly spoken language on the continent and make it the AFRICAN tongue, destroying all potential disagreements and conflict among the major languages.

This same Chinese we're scrambling to adopt, China was once like Africa, divided by many languages and ethnicities, before the elite made Mandarin the national language, engendering unity among disparate peoples, and creating a superpower-class nation and political/economic juggernaut of 2 billion souls.

Why can't we do the same? The African population is 1.2 billion. There's no reason we shouldn't have a common African language.

I mean, if that happens, alongside some form of continental political/economic unification, the whole world would be scrambling to speak AFRICAN - such is our collective power and resource endowment.

But because we have made ourselves small, and think we're small, we're settling for second best, scrambling to adopt the language of every ''next big economy'' in Europe and Asia.

When do we stand up?

That's the question.

This is where I stand also.
Let's channel some resources into creating a Pan-African language first.

This is a no brainer. I refuse to comment.

eGuerrilla:

This is where I stand also.
Let's channel some resources into creating a Pan-African language first.

Thank you my brother. You see when you go around these African countries, it's really instructive the way the continent is shaped out. In this country it's English, in the next it's French. In the one after it's Portuguese, and in the one following that, they speak German, or Dutch.

As Africans, is this a situation we expect to maintain indefinitely going forward?


Surely not??

We speak everything but an African language. We need to have a pan African language in Africa besides Chinese French or English.

Hey my dear Nigerians,i see no doubt or argument concerning this learning Chinese language even starting from primary school is or far better it can never not to learn his or her mother tongue or local language,believe me China is the second world power in technology,they have every thing,they can make every thing,i wasn't in this forum before searching for something then get into it,i read and see what Nigerians are saying,i mean when would Nigerian open their eyes,eyes,someone wrote US is is the world best technology so why Spain,Germany,France and other developed countries have lesser amount of people that can speak English,I have been in China for five years and see the speed and effort of Chinese people putting in learning English.Been five years i still find some words that are very difficult for me to pronounce EARLIER THE BETTER.Chinese is not such an easy language you will just learn like French,Pronunciation isn't so easy like[zhi,shi,zi,zhe,che,zhou,zhong,chong,xian,xiang,er,don,dong,chu,chuan,chuang,]and so on.Is not English you may pronounce incorrectly may be still understand your meaning;Chinese you must pronounce it correctly other wise they will not understand you so i love the idea of leaning Chinese language is better even in kinda-gating,it can never prevent a child from leaning other language he or she wants,University level for me is too old to be start learning language.Fashiola i love your opinion make sure you boost it on.FOREIGN LANGUAGE IS VERY IMPORTANT.

You know i sometimes wonder why Nigeria formal language not stronger mean our Pigeon English[BROKEN ENGLISH]Believe me that is our mother language concerning ethnicity apart from Britain English we are learning in school,In China no-matter how much faster or eager have in learning English they will never forget that their formal language (central language)[PU DONG HUA]Cause they also have man local languages as we Nigerian has but they still maintain their central language even if two Chinese can speak English you can never hear English from their mouth all is Chinese but we Nigerians always English for getting we have our own mother English[Pigeon]even when guys they speak broken you go see some crazy mugu them go say,waiting you de speak you no go school self you no fit speak correct English but na wa own language we in de speak no be so.you no see i no fit write broken English,isn't it disgusting.Government have to look into this is important.I LOVE AFRICAN LANGUAGE I LOVE BROKEN ENGLISH I LOVE NEGRO.