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<h1 class="entry-title">Indigenous Language: Lagos Speaker Commend Army’s Directive</h1>
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<span class="gmail-td-post-date"><time class="entry-date gmail-updated gmail-td-module-date" datetime="2017-11-26T20:57:28+00:00">November 26, 2017, 20:57</time></span> <div class="gmail-td-post-comments"><a href="http://leadership.ng/2017/11/26/indigenous-language-lagos-speaker-commend-armys-directive/#respond">0</a></div> <div class="gmail-td-post-views"><span class="gmail-td-nr-views-27711">157</span></div> </div>
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<div>The Speaker of the Lagos state House of Assembly, Mr
Mudashiru Obasa, has commended the Nigerian Army on its directive to its
personnel to learn the country’s three major indigenous languages —
Yoruba, Igbo and Hausa.</div>
<div>Obasa, in a statement signed by his Special Adviser on Political
and Legislative Matters, Mr Mufutau Egberongbe on Saturday, said the
directive showed that the army was passionate about ensuring internal
peace and unity in the country.</div>
<div>“Our argument has often been that security officers should operate
in areas where they understand the language, cultures and traditions of
the people,” he said.</div>
<div>The speaker said that was one of the reasons why the lawmakers had constantly advocated for state policing.</div>
<div>“We also recently resolved to have the Yoruba language taught in all schools in Lagos.</div>
<div>“It is not a personal issue; there is the need to ensure that the language retains its importance in the country.</div>
<div>“Across the world, people are proud of their languages. They even
teach with it in schools and solve major societal issues with it.</div>
<div>“We know English is our major language here, but we must keep indigenous ones from extinction.</div>
<div>“With the introduction of the three major languages in the
military, we are sure of a positive result in the fight against
terrorism and other issues threatening our peace as a nation,” Obasa
said.</div>
<div>The Director of Army Public Relations, Brigadier General Sani
Usman, in a statement, had said that the army expected its personnel to
learn the languages within the next one year.</div>
<div>He said the directive was in line with a new language policy of the army.</div>
<div>According to him, the policy will, among others, foster
esprit-de-corps and better communication with the populace to enhance
information gathering and civil-military relations.</div><br clear="all"><br>-- <br><div class="gmail_signature">=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+<br><br> Harold F. Schiffman<br><br>Professor Emeritus of <br> Dravidian Linguistics and Culture <br>Dept. of South Asia Studies <br>University of Pennsylvania<br>Philadelphia, PA 19104-6305<br><br>Phone: (215) 898-7475<br>Fax: (215) 573-2138 <br><br>Email: <a href="mailto:haroldfs@gmail.com" target="_blank">haroldfs@gmail.com</a><br><a href="http://ccat.sas.upenn.edu/~haroldfs/" target="_blank">http://ccat.sas.upenn.edu/~haroldfs/</a> <br><br>-------------------------------------------------</div>
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