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Random thoughts on indigenous languages
By
Sat Jul 03 2021
In furtherance of last week’s conversation on this page, which focused on the need for decolonizing African psyche, this column today looks at how government, the media and native speakers of indigenous languages in Nigeria are helping to under-develop mother-tongues. While the impact of the media may be linked to modern technology, government weak response and the lackadaisical attitude of native speakers cannot be isolated from colonial influence. Some colonial policies particularly in the education sector have, no doubt, had far-reaching consequences on the socio-cultural heritage of Nigerians in terms of indigenous languages.
Lawyers have faulted the recent directive by the National Broadcasting Commission (NBC) on the abolition of self-carriage status by broadcast entities, saying the 2014 Digital Switch Over Whitepaper the commission relied on to issue is an expired document and lacks the force of law.
Ahead of the commencement of the second phase of the DSO programme, which has proceeded in fits and starts, including two unmet deadlines, the NBC recently directed digital terrestrial television operators to reconfigure their transmission set-ups and transfer their carriage to either ITS or Pinnacle Communications Limited, the licensed signal distributors, with immediate effect.
The NBC, in a letter signed by its acting Director-General, Dr Armstrong Idachaba, said its directive on abolition of self-carriage is Section 10 of the 2014 DSO Whitepaper, which it said prescribes the splitting of broadcasting activities into content distribution and signal distribution. The commission stated that with the sp