South-West, Kogi, Kwara Commissioners to Meet over Yoruba Language

Ololade Adeyanju/

In a bid to protect, preserve and promote the Yoruba language, Commissioners of Education in the six South-West States and Kwara and Kogi states will meet in Ibadan, Oyo State on March 3, 2022.

A statement from the organiser of the meeting, Yoruba World Centre, noted that the commissioners would be joined by chairmen of the Association of Local Governments of Nigeria and chairpersons of Committee on Education in the South-West and Kwara and Kogi states Houses of Assembly.

YWC noted that the meeting would also consider institutional backing for scholars and private sectors for the promotion of the Yoruba language.

Part of the statement reads, “This meeting, the first of its kind in recent times and in Collaboration with Oodua Investment Plc and DAWN Commission, is to discuss extensively on the coming annual Yoruba Language Millionaire Contest among secondary schools in all Yoruba-speaking states, a programme meant for the reclaim of Yoruba youths hooked to foreign ways of life.

“We have gotten in touch with all the commissioners, holding meetings personally with some of them, and they are so glad to have a meeting where such promotion of the Yoruba language will be discussed in order to have it used as a tool for development, nation-building, youth empowerment, national unity and peaceful co-existence.

“The meeting is going to serve as a hub for Yoruba language development, where institutional backing shall be given to efforts from scholars and private sectors to the promotion of Yoruba language, re-establishing it as a language of commerce and development.”

Also, President and Secretary of the Yoruba Secondary School Teachers Association, Egbe Akomolede, President of Yoruba Studies Association and Managing Director of University Press Limited are expected to attend.