The Federal Ministry of Arts, Culture, Tourism and Creative Economy celebrated the 2024 International Mother Language Day, Traditional Musical Equipment Gastronomy and a paper presentation tagged: “Empowering Through Multilingual Education: A Global Commitment to Linguistic Diversity” at the Chinese Cultural Centre, Abuja.
The Head of department, Cultural Industries and Heritage, Rev. Ben Anamah in his opening speech, expressed delight for making the event a reality. He further highlighted the importance of the event as it encompasses the preservation and protection of the country’s vast culture and tradition.
The Director overseeing office of the Permanent Secretary who represented the Hon. Minister Federal Ministry of Arts, Culture, Tourism and Creative Economy, Mr Raphael Obi Oraeluno in his remarks says the importance of the event is a call for us to promote linguistic diversity and multilingual education. He further stressed as a ministry, we recognise the importance of language in promoting cultural identity, social cohesion and Economic Development, we are committed to supporting initiative that promotes linguistic diversity and multilingual education.
“He therefore pleads with the participants to work together to promote language preservation to improve educational outcomes and enhance social mobility, because if you cannot speak the language you can’t really communicate”. He capped his remarks by citing the Biblical King Solomon who always uses traditional musical equipment to praise God, recall the Bible describes him as a man after God’s heart because of his music capability.
The Director, Chinese Cultural Centre, Mr Yang Jicmxing congratulates Nigeria and the Ministry because of the importance of the event which is not just peculiar to Nigeria and China but a global event. He stressed the importance of language as it enables us to express our emotions as it relates to person’s identity. He further stressed that Music is a language that transcends national boundaries and Nigerian music has a great influence in the World.
This year’s international mother language day also witnessed a paper presentation titled – “Empowering through Multilingual Education: A Global Commitment to Linguistic Diversity”. A former Director(Culture) in the ministry who also doubles as presenter and author of the paper, Mr. R. F Wiclox, stresses the importance of multilingual education as it enables us to interact more conveniently with those who don’t speak our indigenous languages. He therefore condemns the restriction of official languages to English and French at the detriment of other local languages. He further admonishes Nigeria and the rest of Africa not to sit idle and watch as the effect of globalization is ravaging our culture and tradition. Therefore, Africa should be at the forefront in the preservation, promotion and revitalization of our Economy.
“We should not forget that civilization started from Africa and yet, Africa suffered colonization more than any other continent in the world, Slave trade took away the strong and most industrious men from Africa to Europe while imperialism carted away our wealth and cultural properties and replace our indigenous needs with foreign ones”.
A panel of discussants, who are retired Directors in the Ministry also reiterated the need for our dear country to go back to its roots to unearth its rich culture in music, entertainment and foods as this naturally creates the sense of belonging among the citizens of the country.
The participants were thereafter entertained with a cultural performance by the Blackbone Traditional Troupe of the TIV extraction, Benue State.
Signed
Chindaya Ahmadu
Director, Information and Public Relations
