by Alexander O. Onukwue

It was not enjoyed by all, but there was the time when the opportunity to learn a second language in secondary school was a special point of note in the Nigeria education curriculum.

There are officially about 521 languages spoken in Nigeria. However, the curriculum for languages can only accommodate a few languages outside the most widely spoken trio of Hausa, Igbo and Yoruba. Especially in Unity Schools, there had been the time when students were required to offer their major language of study as L1, as well as make a choice of another Nigerian Language of their interest as L2.

In each school, the pool of Languages available to choose from was restricted to the available teachers who were capable of teaching these languages. But there was that requirement to choose another language apart from one’s own mother tongue.

The advantages of such a system for cultural awareness and National Integration were obvious. From a desire to visit other parts of the country, to the tendency to feel comfortable in a place where the learned L2 language was spoken, the benefits of being exposed to a second language arguably have more immediate benefits to a Nigerian student than the learning of French or learning another religion.

More often than not, the French would not always be taught properly, and even when there is a measure of good teaching, there would not always be the opportunity for immediate practice as not everyone goes on to travel to a French-speaking country in their lifetime.

On the contrary, interaction with other Nigerians at the level of tertiary education and the prospect of National Youth Service offers practical avenues to look forward to for the L2 student. While the learning of another religion may in fact be of no value as most students will very likely stick to the practice of their ‘mother religions’, a second language, if well learned, is almost guaranteed to be useful to any Nigerian who acquires it, from business to politics, family life and entertainment.

Would it not be useful to the Nigerian Hausa who has learnt Igbo to be able to convince his confreres that the Igbos are not as bad as they fear? And would the Igbo mother who understands Yoruba not be averse to her son bringing home the Ekiti girl? Or was that not what they were trying to teach us in the Wedding Party?

Editor