By IfeanyiChukwu AFUBA
IT’S relieving to hear that the Igbo socio – cultural organisation, Ohaneze, is finally interested in checking the continued setback of Igbo language. Leadership newspaper of Saturday, September 13, 2025, reported that John Azuta-Mbata, President of Ohaneze, pledged the organisation’s support on the mission of Igbo cultural renaissance.
The affirmation was made in the course of briefing on preparations for this year’s Ohajioku Festival, scheduled for September 26 at Owerri. Ohajioku debuted in 1979 as a platform for fertilisation of the Igbo worldview. Mbata reportedly said the present Ohaneze leadership has sponsored endowment chairs for researches in Igbo language, history and culture. “We are encouraging studies and research on Igbo language and culture. We have set up a committee for that. Any role we are expected to play, we shall gladly play it at the Ahajioku lecture. Our people must be heard.”
In the past two decades of the alarm on eroding use of Igbo, Ohaneze leadership maintained scandalous silence. UNESCO has classified Igbo along with some other indigenous Nigerian Language as a ‘vulnerable’ language since 2004, warning of possible endangerment if current trends continue. No institution or study of note has controverted the UN agency’s prediction. The lack of contradiction is not surprising given the verifiable bases of language influences.
Ohaneze, in the past, had proved ineffectual on the issue of modern Igbo civilisation. Some would even say she was vacuous. Many have tried to exploit the body as leverage for political relevance and patronage. Sadly, in the intervening period since UNESCO’s alert, the fortunes of Igbo language has further diminished.
One indicator of decline is the reduced use of Igbo among educated speakers, often due to social and economic incentives to use English. Many educated Igbo prefer listening to radio and television news in English than Igbo which would pose problems of nuanced expression.
Although many factors contribute to the downward slide of Igbo, the major ones converge around three areas. They consist of the technological, political and social. The technological relates to the leaps in modernisation which have neither been reported nor domesticated in the language. Modern advances in learning, professions, science and technology, cannot be discussed in many native languages because they have not kept pace with the changes in time. Language does not exist in a vacuum. It grows and develops from lived experiences.
Consequently, a language like Igbo which is not a participant in the tradefair of the jet age, suffers two main disabilities. It becomes confined to it’s ancestral space, and even within that limitation, experiences shrinking patronage. Dominant technologies, by their utilitarian value, exert influences on their recipients. You cannot be using American computers and say you don’t recognise American spelling in English. And so, lacking the feed of the new world order, the Igbo and members of her class live under danger of stunted growth.
Fortunes of the Igbo language have been further eroded as a result of the political disadvantage faced by about 40 – 50 million Igbo sub nationality. With the winner – takes – all equation that governs much of Nigeria’s power game, fluency in the language of the ruling ethnic group, could admit into the banquet hall. The post – Biafra officer was a spectator in the military manoeuvres for power.
Dispossessed in the judicial heights and other strategic centres through the unwritten law of marginalisation, it’s still an elusive chase under democracy. While some consciously embrace language of the ruling bloc, some others are subtly conditioned by the prestige and influence flowing from political authority. The political angle is also about what might have been on home front; the road not taken by governments of Igbo – speaking States. Were there not measures they could have put in place to bolster the use of Igbo? There were and there still are.
The social factor refers broadly to the impediments in intergenerational transmission of a language. According to Wikipedia, “following the rise of colonialism, language death has typically resulted from the process of cultural assimilation leading to language shift and the gradual abandonment of a native language in favour of a foreign lingua franca.”
For decades after independence, speaking Igbo in schools was discouraged or even punished, a policy that began under colonial rule and lingered into the late 20th century. In my five years of secondary education in Enugu, Igbo never appeared in the timetable and was not taught for one day. As if acting on cue, parents from about the 1980s, gradually took pride in making English the child’s first language at home. With Igbo taken out of the child’s early formative years, both at home and at school, the foundation was sadly laid for cultural alienation. How would generations, exiled from Igbo, as it were, be enthusiastic about using the language, let alone, ensuring it’s transfer to the next generation?
Of interest too, is a trend that may be described as the Igbo split personality. This shifty attitude speaks to a lack of consciousness of social imperatives. Even without any undue influence, some Igbo learn and choose to speak other languages simply to demonstrate their linguistic prowess. In itself, this seems a very positive attitude – but not when the apparent liberalism is at the detriment of the native language.
Consider the oddity of religious worship in Igboland, where members of the congregation are Igbo speakers, yet the choir busies itself singing hymns in other Nigerian languages. This is not an uncommon sight. And this in an age Christianity has emphasised local enculturation of the faith. The same zeal for sophistication continues outside the Church. Non Igbo speakers visiting or resident in the southeast, whose assimilation of the language would have added to the spread chain, are told not to bother. And Igbos gladly speak to other Nigerians in their sub national languages right in Igboland!
As it were, Ohaneze has it’s work on the language issue cut out for it. She has the dual responsibility of lobbying governments in the southeast and parts of Delta, Rivers, Benue, and Cross River States to adopt affirmative action on Igbo language use. Among other measures, these governments can give Igbo a boost by making it alternative communication medium for executive and legislative businesses.
Igbo-language broadcasting is still significantly less than English, possibly around 20 per cent on many stations, though figures vary. This lopsidedness can legitimately be rectified on the basis of public interest in government owned media. With time and sustained momentum, privately owned media should also see the need to key in.
On the other hand, Ohaneze leadership has some aspects of the language project to execute or oversee directly. There is need to have clear terms of reference for committees working on this brief as well as have their reports reviewed by a second body. Such a vetting process will help avoid the gaffe represented by “ututu oma” as Igbo new day salutation. Ututu oma is a product of validation mindset seeking to worship at English’s good morning altar. The transliteration neither reflects the communal ethos of “ndeewoo” nor the interactive forge of “unu aputago ula” with which most Igbo societies identify. This bland imitation ought to be discontinued immediately.
Top on the priority should be the compilation, publication and availability of a standard Igbo dictionary. Translation of general and literary classics into Igbo, beginning with Chinua Achebe’s Things Fall Apart should start apace.
Ohaneze is invited to consider creating substantial prizes for outstanding films, home videos, documentaries and novels rendered in Igbo. Quizzes and essay competitions on brilliant works of literature in Igbo will help to spur interest and readership. English will remain a dominant tongue for a long time to come but let Igbo function alongside.
Afuba can be reached via afubaifeanyichukwu@gmail.com.
