When it becomes law

BY OFONIME UDOTU

The native language Bill recently initiated by member representing Ibesikpo State constituency in the Akwa Ibom State House of Assembly, Hon. Aniekan Uko has scaled through legislative crucibles, awaiting  Governor Udom Emmanuel’s assent. I consider the bill a laudable one as it seeks to articulate what is left of the spirit of profound patriotism among the people. 

According to the lawmaker, he came to limelight because he sang gospel songs in his native Ibibio native language. Hon. Uko, by any portrayal is a man who loves and promotes his cultural heritage.The timeliness of the bill is also commendable as it comes at a time when most of African cultural values have been despoiled – a phenomenon that is compounded by the gospel of globalization which puts on the mask of replicating Western Industrialization and economic paradise in the Third world. 

They are possessed and propelled by the spirit of capitalism which has eroded the people’s culture as they discard or “Anglocize” their names, language, dressing, dialects, dance and other core cultural values.

Long before Nigeria’s political independence in 1960, the European invaders had labored to translate the Holy Bible into Efik language and use the New Religion to nail the people’s cultural practices even the ones that did not undermine the new faith, the “Calabar people” remain uptil now Israelites at heart and believe that the African Traditional religious practices were fetish. Some of the victim converts claim to be more Christian than the Israelis. The capitalists know the strategic importance of religion and language in imperial acquisition. As a result they used covert and ruthlessly methods to keep the people within the sphere of its influence.

It is not unlikely that the road would be rocky for the successful application of the Native language law. Already, the Ibibio language is a subject that the West African Examinations Council (WAEC) examines candidates at the Senior Secondary School Level. For more than two (2) decades, the University of Uyo has offered Efik/Ibibio at the degree level. The government would have to decide on which of the native Akwa Ibom languages would be accepted by the majority in schools. The government may also have to fly the kite on the law since the call for public opinion on the matter had escaped the memory of the hallowed chamber. Let us find out whether the Obolo would like to study Itu Mbuso, whether Annang people would like to study Oro, whether the Ibibio would like any other dialect to subsume their own and vice versa.  If that fails or succeeds, the State Government would have to invest its “dwindling resources”, to borrow government official rhetoric, in training the trainers who would impart same to learners. Though the possibility is not in doubt, the difficulties posed by undocumented vocabularies of the various dialects in a largely heterogeneous ambience that is united by map may be insurmountable. 

But with the acephalous nature of the people, reactivation and deepening of radicalized ethnic nationalism that is fueled by militancy, emboldened by slavish exploitation and marginalization by juggernauts of capitalism and hi-tech economic hitmen, there is no how a law that would promote one language against the other would succeed. In a way, everyone wants to be seen and heard from ethnic lenses. the imperial powers also pursued the administration of the Western influence and this was the ostensible reasons that the Europeans gave inexorable publicity to Christianity that was rooted in the Middle East. 

In effect, most Africans including the Akwa Ibomites are tuned on one hand by neo-colonial influence and on the order by lack of pride of self-identity. Without prejudice, it was not until the coming of former Governor Godswill Akpabio that Akwa Ibom man was not proud of his identity and personality. Subsumed in the culture of the invading imperialists, most Akwa Ibom people choose the western way even when they address their Kinsmen to display his mastery of another man’s language. 

As a matter of fact, only lip-service attention has been demonstrated to revive their cultural values. When the law gets the Governor’s assent, it would exhume the relics of deep-seated ethnic animosity that almost set the state ablaze during a fund launch by Better Life for Rural Women (Nka Uforo Iban) in Uyo in the 1990s when Dr. Ime Umanah suggested the Akwa Ibom languages that should be aired on the state radio. Many unprintable things were said as opinion leaders oiled their verbal guns and became more atomistic than united.  

Many opinion leaders on the matter believe that we should start from the basics, the scratch where it matters most and teach our kids at home with the native language and leave the “digital family values”. Akwa Ibom people do not need the law to speak any native language, but a new orientation to love what they have. Let the sleeping dogs lie.