What a coincidence! The very crises that have brought Nigeria to STEM are not technical crises at all… not crises of not enough engineering, not enough mathematical modeling, not enough laboratory science … They are humanistic and social crises of meaning, narrative, identity and moral community −.–G.S. Ibileye, Vise Chancellor, Federal University Lokoja.
In this era of Artificial Intelligence (AI), more than 6000 mother tongues in Africa needed to overwhelm extant epistemic process with that of Africans as Africans remain more humanistic and mindful of human interaction with seen and unseen realities than other sub-human races. There is only One Human Race and the knowledge processes issuing forth from the humans should be inclusive and helpful for the existence of the race, not harmful to it. Human languages contain unexplored knowledge processes and Nigeria with over 500 languages should map-out what it takes to harvest such knowledge contents to assuage current danger of looming human extinction caused by excessive, dehumanistic arsenals in the hands of the “wicked”. Harvesting humanistic knowledge contents entails exploring the values of African languages.
Neuroscientists agree that the human brain is working at barely 10% of its capacity and that every child is able to learn at least five languages at earlier stages of life, hence a solid foundation to allow for tolerance, creativity, openness to others, innovation and peaceful behavior for a better humanity. The challenge of stopping wars, insurgency, greed, insatiable political turbulence are challenges that are proactively nipped in the bud by a great dose of humanistic knowledge. Speaking and creating narratives in the languages of the weaker ones to woo them to accept terms of governance and social contract that make them give their best in nation building like it is done in Ethiopia and closer to Nigeria, Chad.
In its 28th Convocation, Induction of New Members and Investiture of Regular and Honorary Fellows, chaired by its President Prof. Andrew Haruna, in which 46 new members were inducted and 10 Fellows were crowned, and Honorary Fellow was bestowed on the El-Kanemi of Borno, HRH Shehu of Borno, Humanistic Practice Award to TundeKelani and Distinguished Life Fellow to Professor Emeritus Femi Osofisan, Nigerian Academy of Letters (NAL) appealed to the Federal Government of Nigeria to not abolish the Mother Tongue (MT) Policy but to re-design and re-position it as “A SecondGeneration Mother Tongue Policy” so as to see it serve as “Path To Nation-Building” as it is seen in Ethiopia, Senegal, South Africa and Chad.
Professor Imelda Udoh who anchored her presentation on “The First Pathway To Nation-Building” MT draws attention to the mooring infrastructure of a nation like stated by Prof. Ishaq Oloyede- cultural consciousness, linguistic heritage, functional literature consumption of the young ones from the homes where mother tongues are used, to ground them and induct into human beings distinct from animals. Like mother tongue like mother suckling – very humanistic and resourceful. Leads to human optimization pathway in the maze of pathways.
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For Professor Vicky Sylvester, whose presentation hinged on “Policy and Practice Mismatch”, Federal Government was ignoring the fulcrum of mother tongue practice as enunciated by UNESCO in 1953 − not as cultural idealism but as an intellectual boost for the young ones who must still face the colonial languages as well as the Nigerian pidgin. Hence the need to fund it so as to gratify the self esteem of the Nigerian child into well rounded adult. Developing contents in this age of AI could be very original and greatly universalisable if mother tongue practice is well planned. That is where Professor Yinusa Salami brings in what he calls epistemic order and pluriversalism− that is, no matter the number of mother tongues in Nigeria or Africa, their epistemic values and contents must be isolated and uploaded into a universal data base. That takes research, and producing good curricula. It must not be a simple translation from European languages to the mother tongue or vice-versa. Here linguists will tell you that the semantic unit of African proverbs or expressions cannot be rendered word by word.
Universalization could also generate epistemic order semantic units specific to mother tongues, model. Just like Prof. Muhammed Sulaiman Audu writes in his paper on Twi and Ga in Ghana. The Ghanaians have two well-developed languages to upload their own knowledge process, despite the official English in Ghana and the official French in Togo. Ga has helped to promote the peace between Ghanaians and Togolese but as evident in Aflao border. This seems not attainable in Nigeria, Cameroon and Chad borders–Fulfude, Kanuri and Hausa seem on centrifugal drive. It is humanistic and social. How to reconcile them for centripetal purposes beckon. On the occasion of the induction ceremony, The EL-Kanemi spoke of 1500 years of existence, museum and unconquered state and it should matter in nationhood building.
In Ethiopia, Ethiopian languages are the official languages with one dominant language called Amharic. It is expected that each of the official languages take care of its region of origin and educate its citizen along the local needs of Ethiopia, and that expectation to work at federal level must be the knowledge of Amharic – not federal character quota basis. As in Canada where you need to speak and write French and English to become a confederal worker in Ottawa, most people in British Columbia, Prince Edward Island, Newfoundland, Labrador, and Alberta do not care about speaking French and prefer to stay and work within their provinces, thus localizing their development drive and keeping the provinces relevant and active. Unlike in Nigeria where people flock to the center Abuja, Lagos, Kaduna, Port Harcourt neglecting or leaving the rural areas to non-state actors.
Twi and Wolof are very relevant in the development of the rural areas. It may be slow but it is not left to insurgents or Boko Haram-type of activities. In Ghana or Senegal, the notion of Town and Krom (it is a town, it is my ancestral home)
Africa, nay Nigeria, needs a healthy dose of humanistic education that can upload the epistemic pathways embedded in mother tongues that drive Ubuntu philosophy – I am because you are.
As G.S. Ibileye has said, Africa’s problem at the moment and for the near future is more of people and their environment cohesion than deep science and technology. “What does a camera see that a historian cannot name and what does a drone detect that a linguist cannot read… if the life of the spokesperson of the armed forces could not be preserved (Major General Rabe Abubakar) what exactly are we asking five thousand cameras to do?” he said.
So, in effect, for a nation building process where inclusiveness and brotherhood counts and where insurgents are banished, re-design mother tongue policy to look like what obtains in Ethiopia or Senegal.