Concerned by the threat of extinction of the Igbo language, some Igbo women under the aegis of the Igbo Women Assembly (IWA) have designed a programme to help save the Igbo language from going into extinction.
The women said they are determined to promote the use of Igbo language as a major means of communication among Igbo families both in Nigeria and in the diaspora, reports The Nation.
To this end, the women disclosed that they would be holding an event on 21 February, 2024 in Owerri, the Imo State capital to mark the United Nations‘ International Day for Mother Tongue and use the event to celebrate Igbo language in its fullness.
National President of IWA, Lolo Nneka Chimezie, who announced this weekend, at a press conference in Enugu, appealed to Igbo youths, particularly young parents, to show interest in their mother tongue by speaking it to their children.
“Igbo language is our own native language and it has been our custom in the Igbo Women Assembly to celebrate the International Day of Mother Tongue every year”, she said.
The IWA President, who said the group had already established seven schools in Lagos where Igbo language is taught, disclosed that the group intends to have Igbo language centres across the 36 states of the federation and the Federal Capital Territory, Abuja to encourage young Igbo to learn and speak the language.
She however regretted that the majority of young Igbo mothers do not like communicating with their children in Igbo language, adding that the development was already posing an existential threat to the language.
According to her, if no urgent measures were taken to revive and promote the use of Igbo language in daily communications among the people, the language might go into total extinction in about 10 years.
“It’s disheartening that present young Igbo mothers no longer speak Igbo to their children. About 80 per cent of these children don’t even understand Igbo anymore. In Enugu State here, 80 percent of the language spoken is English.”
