"Don wants Hausa as North's official language" (Nigeria)

[Donald Z. Osborn]

The following item from the Kano paper, Daily Triumph, was seen via a  
link posted on H-Hausa.


Don wants Hausa as North's official language
http://www.triumphnewspapers.com/da1872008.html
By HASSAN MUSA K/MATA

FORMER Vice Chancellor, Bayero University, Kano (BUK), Prof. Dandatti  
Abdulkadir has advocated the adoption of Hausa as the official  
language of the 19 Northern states with a view to enabling governments  
in the geo-political zone send their messages across the public more  
effectively.

Speaking at the closing ceremony of a 10-week intensive translation  
course organized for media practitioners, courts and Houses of  
Assembly interpreters in the state by the Centre for the Study of  
Nigerian Languages (CSNL), Prof. Abdulkadir said the measures would  
also go along way in boosting the language.

The former Nigeria Ambassador to Libya, pointed out that since most if  
not all the Houses of Assembly proceedings in the region are being  
conducted in Hausa there is the need for the language to be adopted in  
conducting government affairs in the interest of the majority of the  
people who can hear and speak the language.

He then charged the participants to always be objective in their  
reportage and also make the best use of the knowledge they acquired  
when they get back to their respective places of work.

Prof. Abdulkadir thumbed up the Centre for its foresight in organizing  
such training and expressed the hope that the tempo would be sustained.

Vice Chancellor of the University, Prof. Attahiru Mahmud Jega,  
represented by the Deputy Vice Chancellor (Academic), Prof.  
Abdulrasheed Garba, lamented that of the 600 research institutes in  
the country, only two are in the North, noting however, with  
satisfaction that the Centre is internally recognized.

He promised to convey to the National Universities Commission (NUC)  
the activities being undertaken by the Centre to enable it get more  
support.

Earlier speaking, Director of the Centre, Prof. Abdu Yahaya Bichi had  
said the CSNL was established 38 years ago and is engaged in among  
other things, research projects in different field, and commended  
staff of the Centre for producing and publishing a Hausa dictionary,  
the first of its kind in Sub-Saharan Africa.

He said the Centre also teaches Hausa for those interested in the  
language from Germany, America, United Kingdom and Libya.

During the course, the participants drawn from the media, courts and  
Houses of Assembly from Kano, Jigawa, Borno, Yobe and Katsina states  
were trained on aspects of translation and its problems.

In a vote of thanks, one of the instructors, Prof. Sammani Sani Fagge  
expressed gratitude to all those who made the occasion a success.

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