The Lagos State Government has charged parents to preserve the Yoruba heritage through the means of communication with their children.
Mr. Olanrewaju Odesanya, the Special Adviser to Gov. Babajide Sanwo-Olu on Development Agenda for Western Nigeria (DAWN) Commission and Regional integration, gave the charge at the maiden edition of Yoruba Week, on Wednesday, in Ikeja.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the state government in April announced plans to dedicate the last week of September every year as ”Yoruba Week”, to celebrate the Yoruba culture.
The event is expected to showcase the cultural heritage of the Yoruba people through traditional music, dance, art exhibitions, and delectable culinary delights. Odesanya said that parents should make it a point of duty to speak in Yoruba language while communicating with them. He also enjoined parents to ensure that their children and wards communicate same with them.
He said that there was the need to preserve the Yoruba language, as it was going into extinction.
According to him, the Yoruba Week is geared to showcase, promote, champion the rich socio-cultural heritage as a race, as a people, above all, as a nation.
“Our heritage and history must not go in vain, hence, the need to conscientise our people, home and abroad,” he said.
Odesanya said that in order to preserve the Yoruba heritage, members of the Lagos State House of Assembly now communicate with Yoruba language during plenary on Thursdays.
Mr. Jamiu Alli-Balogun, the Commissioner for Basic and Secondary Education, said the Yoruba Week was centred on culture, heritage and language. “How do we preserve our language? It has been predicted that it will go into extinct come 2050. So, we are here today just to let the world know that there is a language that is universal.
“It is universal because it is not only spoken in Nigeria, we have Yoruba people in Benin Republic; Togo; some parts of Ghana; Jamaica; Cuba and Brazil. “In all these countries mentioned, we have that promotion of Yoruba culture, heritage and language that more or less being practiced more than we that are in our own space speaking that language. “It is a common thing in our household, where we don’t allow our children to speak that lovely language, the language that is embedded with so much wisdom, knowledge, and we just want to make u-turn to correct that impression. “We need to let our children know the value of our language, the value of our culture and the value of our heritage,” Alli-Balogun said.
He said that the Lagos State Government had a law that mandated the speaking of language in schools. According to him, principals and the tutor-general have been called to implement the speaking of Yoruba in schools, majorly to boost students’ understanding of what was taught. He said that according to UNICEF, the best way a student or people could learn better was to be taught in his or her indigenous language, and that starts from one to nine years old.
“They can actually learn better and faster, when they are taught in indigenous language,” the commissioner said. On her part, Mrs Adefunmilayo Tejuosho, a former Deputy Speaker, Lagos State House of Assembly, said that settings the last week of September of every year as Yoruba Week was a good development. Tejuosho said that during the Seventh Assembly, she moved the motion that plenary should be conducted in Yoruba language on Thursdays.
She said that it had encouraged the assembly members to improve in their Yoruba language speaking, and also encourage their children to speak Yoruba. “The younger generation must be proud of their culture. We are Yorubas, and we must be proud to speak Yoruba and to practice the tradition and the culture of the Yoruba people.“I feel that charity begins at home. Once we start training our young ones, if we speak Yoruba to our children and guide them in the ways to do, to work, to conduct themselves, they will be better off,” Tejuosho said.
