2023 General Election: LASU Centre for Yoruba Studies holds Round-table discussion on Language, identity, and Governance

From Cyriacus Nnaji, Lagos

Centre for Yoruba Studies, Lagos State University (LASU) has held a Roundtable Discussion on Language, identity and governance.

The event which was held on Thursday, March 23, 2023, at the Central Language Laboratory, Faculty of Arts, Main Campus, Ojo, Lagos has the topic: Language, identity, and governance: A critical Discourse on Gbadebo Rhodes-Vivour’s Statement ‘I Don’t Think in Yoruba’.

Gbadebo Rhodes-Vivour was the Labour Party candidate in the just concluded Governorship election in Lagos State, he was caught on a television interview during his campaigns saying ‘I don’t think in Yoruba and that statement has generated discussions across the state.

Addressing the media, one of the conveners, Dr Ahmed Adesanya, Acting Director, Centre for Yoruba Studies said the essence of the Roundtable was to discuss a major issue arising from the political situation in Nigeria, especially during the Governorship Election in Lagos State whereby one of the candidates, in answering questions in a broadcast media said ‘I don’t think in Yoruba.’ “We are here to discuss a major issue arising from the political situation in Nigeria, especially during the Governorship Election in Lagos State. One of the candidates, in answering questions in a broadcast media said ‘I don’t think in Yoruba’. So we have brought that in the public space, so that the people can talk about it, they will give us their various views, so that it can help us and it can help the masses, it is just a matter of connection between the town and gown, whatever happens here will be brought to the public domain.”

He said the Roundtable was to raise consciousness in the people to understand their culture, language, and understand their identity. He said, “Language as a medium of identity has been pushed to the background, but with this roundtable, we want to raise consciousness in our people to understand their culture, language, understand their identity, and of course, all these things should be interconnected.”

Speaking on the mother tongue policy of Lagos State which stressed the need to teach the child with Yoruba from Primary to Junior Secondary School Level, he disclosed that the language policy is clear, adding that what the policy targeted was the local language of the child, “The policy is not saying Yoruba or Hausa, the policy says the child’s local language should be used to teach that child especially at the primary school education. So it is clear.”

A linguistic expert, Prof. Harrison Adeniyi, Department of Linguistics, LASU, (Immediate National President, Linguistics Association of Nigeria) spoke on what he titled ‘Language, Thought and Identity: A Reflection on Gbadebo Rhodes-Vivour’s Statement; “I don’t think in Yoruba.”

Analysing Gbádébò͕ Rhodes-Vivours’s Statement; ‘I don’t think in Yorùbá’ Adeniyi said such response showed that Vivour sees Lagos as a cosmopolitan State and possibly that there is no need for him or the people to speak Yoruba in Lagos State. “From the above statement, we can deduce the following: The language is primordial, hence archaic; Lagos is a cosmopolitan state with no need to speak Yoruba; attending schools at MIT, Nottingham and the University in France should exclude him from speaking Yoruba; He will not give the Yoruba language any attention if and when elected̀; it is apparent that he is enmeshed mentally in the English language and possibly other European languages too; Yoruba is not part of his identity, and finally, he doesn’t know whom he is.

“Given the avalanche of resources that have been committed to the development of Yoruba language by the State Government and by extension the culture, which also include John Randle Centre for Yoruba Culture and History, among many others,  everything would likely go down the drain if  Mr. Gbádébò͕ Rhodes-Vivors gets to the position of authority.

While speaking on the linguistic profile of Lagos State, he emphasized that Yorùbá is a major language of Lagos State, adding that apart from being Yorùbá settlements and though, cosmopolitan in nature, there are more speakers of Yorùbá in Lagos and every day, even as non-speakers aspire to learn the language. He also stated that Lagos has three major dialects, Àwórì, Íjébú and Èkó.

He called for a Law to provide for the preservation and promotion of the use of Yorùbá language and for connected purposes including teaching of Yorùbá Language as a core subject at all levels of primary and secondary schools in the state; ensuring that all the laws in the state would be translated into Yorùbá Language; that all state-owned tertiary institutions should incorporate the use of Yorùbá language in the General Studies (GNS) courses, the use of Yorùbá Language should be an acceptable means of communication between individuals, establishment, corporate entities and government in the state if so desired by the concerned, and it should not be an offence for a person to speak Yorùbá language by the state government.

Another Discussant, Henry J. Hunjo, PhD, Department of English, Faculty of Arts, delivered a paper he titled ‘Rhodes-Vivour’s Members’ Resources and the Dilemma of Acceptability’.

Hunjo stated that the confession by Vivour has generated a lot of reactions: some negative, others positive, and concluded that his paper would dwell on implication of Vivour’s statement.  

He replayed what transpired between Gbadebo-Rhodes Vivour, and the Channels Television’s interviewer wherein Vivour was asked “But if you plan to unify, you know, Lagos, do you feel conflicted or do you feel that you’ll be unable to since you don’t speak the language?” and Vivour responded “Not at all. Lagos is a cosmopolitan state and the fact of the matter is not as though I don’t understand Yoruba or I cannot speak it. My intonations are funny, people laugh at me and I don’t think in Yoruba. Right? I went to school at MIT, I went to school in Nottingham, I went to school in France, I went to school…“

Analysing the interaction between Vivour and Channels, the linguistic expert deduced that the implication of Vivour’s explanation was that Lagos is a cosmopolitan state, he is a product of the cosmopolitan culture; he knows there is a language called Yoruba; he is unable to speak because he feels excluded for the fact that people mock him, adding that when he said ‘I don’t think in Yoruba’ it means his sociocultural development does not include social practice of the Yoruba and that he views the world with other languages.

According to Hunjo the Political implications include Challenges of Acceptability by the people of Lagos, Difficulty in being included in the sociocultural practices of the indigenous people of Lagos e.g. traditional religion, Exclusion from activities that require integration, Combating feelings of exclusion dealing with peers that are proficient in the use of Yoruba.

Hunjo in the end called for Adherence to the recommendation of the NPE that children should be taught in their mother tongue from primary one to three; Ensuring that children acquire their mother tongue before they are sent to formal school at the age of six; The use of indigenous languages at home should be encouraged, adding that to school in overseas countries could rob one of knowledge of indigenous cultures.

Speaking on the objectives of the Roundtable, he said “We have learnt that language aids self-disclosure; we now know that meaning of utterances are derived from speaker’s Members’ Resources. Using Rhodes-Vivour’s Members’ Resources we discovered the silences in his utterance, the need to develop mother tongues from indigenous languages in places of one’s dwelling has been emphasized.