National language for electronic digital devices
There is an urgent need for Federal Government intervention, to regulate the sale in Nigeria, of some electronic devices such as Desktop Computers, Laptops, ipads, iphones, androids, etc, which do not have Nigerian National Language keyboards installed in them. These keyboards are the software for Nigerian Language alphabets that will enable the writing of Nigerian national languages such as Hausa, Igbo, and Yoruba. It is quite embarrassing and of course a national disrespect that manufacturers of these electronic products will install many countries’ national language keyboards in these devices but ignore those of Nigeria-the Giant of Africa. This trend if left unchecked, poses grave danger of Nigerian Indigenous Languages going into extinction and by extension, our identity, in the comity of nations. This has to stop.
Smaller Countries like Latvia and Estonia have their national language keyboards in most of the devices; a country like India has as many as six or more of their national language keyboards installed in the devices, whereas Nigeria, the giant of Africa has none. At present, only one or two telephone companies bother to install these major Nigerian Languages ( ie Hausa, Igbo, and Yoruba) keyboards in their simple phones, but the more advanced devices such as Desktops and Laptop Computers, Androids, IPads and Iphones which are used more in social networking do not have the facility. The implication of this is that, only Nigerians who can read and write in foreign language like English will participate in the social conversations.
What do the manufactures and the Nigerian nation stand to gain by excluding a large percentage of the Nigerian population from participating in social conversation through the non-inclusion of Nigerian Language keyboards in these devices? One will make bold to say that having the National language keyboards in these devices is indeed a sign of national respect and honour as well as a measure to promote and protect the languages, and keep them alive, since the citizens will continue to put them into use. In addition, this translates to more business for the manufactures as more Nigerians will demand for their products.
It is very important to note that, when languages are not adequately put into use, they tend to die; and death of a language is a major loss of valuable resource to the nation.
It is important here to state that protection of valuable resources of a nation is one of the major responsibilities of government. For most nations, their valuable resources include their territory, their citizens, their language, their minerals, forests, wildlife, etc. Nations struggle to protect these resources because they are the source of their strength and their uniqueness in the competitive world.
The indigenous language of a nation is of course one of her greatest assets because when it is put into use, it provides the key for unlocking the power of understanding, interpreting and harnessing the other resources of that nation for greatness. This is of course what many developed nations have leveraged on to achieve self-propelled growth and development in many spheres of life, including science and technology. Reliance on a language that is not indigenous to the people can hardly yield the expected result. Thus, no nation that neglects her indigenous languages can hope to be counted among rich and technologically advanced nations on this earth.
It is therefore worrisome that in Nigeria, there appears to be no protection of the Nigerian National languages, a very valuable resource of the nation. It is expected that a country with large market as Nigeria is in a position to give conditions to be met by the manufacturers before their products will enter the Nigerian market. It therefore remains worrisome that these Nigeria unfriendly Electronic devices are what flood the Nigerian market today.
The dangers in this are many; It is disrespectful to the Nigerian nation to ignore their national languages; It is a threat to survival of Nigerian languages which are valuable resources of the nation; It denies Nigerians opportunity of expressing themselves in their own language; It gives wrong message to the population that Nigeria languages do not have value; and It will lead to loss of wisdom that are usually embedded in the indigenous languages.
At present, we are all aware of how Nigerians, especially our youths, who are the future of the nation, spend hours daily chatting on the social media, using the language keyboards that are imposed on Nigeria by these manufacturers, without any option. If this trend continues, the Nigerian National Languages will fall into total disuse in future, since the youths have been so indoctrinated to using foreign language while growing up. This will gravely harm the Nigerian national languages.
There is need therefore to improve the nation’s strategies to protect these national languages. Towards this end, an Agency may need to be created by the Federal Government of Nigeria to ensure adequate protection of the Nigerian National Languages. Secondly, a legal framework will be necessary to compel foreign manufactures to install Nigerian National Language software in their products meant for Nigerian market. The recently signed Executive Order Number 3 by the Federal Government on ensuring local content in goods and services consumed in Nigeria makes the matter even more imperative. Additionally, indigenous ICT companies should be encouraged by the Federal Government to go into production of these electronic devices with Nigerian Language keyboards installed in them so as to give Nigerians opportunity to put their National Languages into use. Anulunko wrote this piece from Abuja.