Notable Yoruba monarchs, including the Alaafin of Oyo, Oba Lamidi Adeyemi and the Ooni of Ife, Oba Enitan Ogunwusi, have given their backing to the enforcement of the teaching of Yoruba Language in all schools in Lagos State.
The two monarchs, as well as the Oba of Lagos, Oba Rilwan Akiolu, made their strong stance known during the inaugural Yoruba Summit, organised by the Lagos State House of Assembly, where participants strongly expressed the need for urgent measures to be taken to preserve the Yoruba Language, which is deemed to be fast losing out among other Nigerian languages.
The event, which was held on Thursday, in Lagos, also saw a notable Yoruba scholar, playwright and actor, Professor Akinwunmi Ishola, equally calling for the promotion of Yoruba Language in all areas, saying that people all over the world were better known by their languages and cultures.
In his comments at the event, the Alaafin of Oyo, Oba Lamidi Adeyemi, commended the organisers of the programme, saying all obas in Yorubaland would support any move to promote the Yoruba Language.
According to him, the first person to do a research on the impact of languages to development was the late Professor Babs Fafunwa, adding that efforts should be made to ensure that the work of the late scholar was not in vain.
Also speaking at the ceremony, the Ooni of Ife, Oba Enitan Ogunwusi, urged Yorubas to see themselves as leaders, while stressing that God had blessed the Yoruba race in many ways.
Oba Ogunwusi said that Yorubas were not promoting their culture and language due to in-fighting and disunity, and that this was causing setback to the Yoruba Language and Culture.
Professor Ishola, while delivering a lecture entitled: “Making The Teaching of Yoruba Compulsory In Public and Private Schools In Lagos State,” also suggested that Yoruba Language should be made compulsory in all primary and secondary schools in the state and that it should be a general study in colleges of education, polytechnics and universities, and that books written in foreign languages should be interpreted into Yoruba Language.
Represented by Professor Duro Adeleke from the University of Ibadan, he insisted that if conscious efforts were not made to preserve the Yoruba Language by enforcing its teaching in schools, a time would come when the coming generations would have lost total grasps of the language.
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