Ohanaeze seeks to promote Igbo language in Lagos

According to Ohanaeze Secretary, Chief Everest Ozonwek, the organisation had set up a committee on the promotion of Igbo language

The leadership of Ohanaeze Ndigbo, Lagos branch has set machinery in motion to ensure that Igbo children born outside Igboland not only speak their native language fluently but also write them as those born and bred in the South East.

Revealing this in Lagos yesterday, during a courtesy visit to the corporate headquarters of The Sun by a delegation of Ohanaeze Ndigbo, Lagos branch led by its president, Chief Solomon Ogbonna, the pan-Igbo socio-cultural organisation said the action became necessary as Igbo children born outside their villages are finding it difficult to speak and understand Igbo language.

According to Ohanaeze Secretary, Chief Everest Ozonweke, who read an address on behalf of the delegation, the organisation had set up a committee on the promotion of Igbo language.

He said Ohanaeze wants Igbo children, irrespective of where they are born, to speak Igbo language as they speak English and other languages they learn.

He urged Igbo parents to not only speak Igbo language to their children at home but also to go out of their way to teach them language no matter where they are born.

Listing the achievement of Ohanaeze Ndigbo leadership in Lagos, he said the current executive has opened a secretariat, wherein all activities of the organisation are coordinated from. He said the executives had succeeded in resolving the protracted Eze Ndigbo squabble in Lagos by bring all the contending elements together for the common purpose of promoting the culture and tradition of the Igbo nation as well as the uplift of the Igbo race.

He said Ohanaeze was mobilising and sensitising Igbo in Lagos to obtain their permanent voters cards (PVCs) in preparation for next year’s elections, revealing that the organisation wants Igbo to have a say in choice of those who govern them at various levels of government
http://sunnewsonline.com/ohanaeze-seeks-to-promote-igbo-language-in-lagos/

Hmmn

Lol

Well, Ohanaeze has a right to promote the Igbo language anywhere in Nigeria they feel there is a need to. but is anyone forcing Igbos in Lagos not to speak Igbo? Language apathy or vigor (on the flip side) goes beyond mere attempts to "promote the language".... It is in the very fabric of a people and their general world view.

Garri no get advert yet e dey sell pass shawarma.

scholes0:
Well, Ohanaeze has a right to promote the Igbo language anywhere in Nigeria they feel there is a need to. but is anyone forcing Igbos in Lagos not to speak Igbo? Language apathy or vigor (on the flip side) goes beyond mere attempts to "promote the language".... It is in the very fabric of a people and their general world view.

Garri no get advert yet e dey sell pass shawarma.

It's mostly the faults of the parents. Over 95% of Igbos born in Lagos/outside Igboland before the civil war all spoke Igbo fluently or as first language, rather. Just as Hausa kids of today born outside Igboland speak Hausa fluently. They are our parents/grandparents now, because their parents raised them up with the language at home and they acquired English at school. Many of our Igbo actors and actresses were all born outside Igboland or abroad and they speak Igbo fluently. The modern issue of not speaking Igbo growing up in Lagos became prominent after the civil war and it is one of the emotional or psychological effects, rather, that the civil war left on us as a people. Igbo parents outside Igboland are not doing enough to teach their children Igbo. They speak English to these kids in their formative years (home is their only sure place of picking up the language early) and growing up in a multi-cultural city like Lagos where Igbo is not the common language of usage does not help their language problem. If parents speak Igbo to the child during their first 3 to 5 years, they would pick it up before learning English at school or at home. However know that many of these people born outside Igboland later pick up the language on their own as adults, while some do not show concern.

However, the pre-1967 Igbo consciousness or awareness of is fast returning and the language problem is being worked on. It only takes one generation to correct a language problem and the previous generations with any language defects will phase out gradually.