The Ijaws are the fourth largest ethnic group in Nigeria and without doubt one of the most hospitable people in the whole world. It's major language — Izon, is spoken by about 4 million people around the world. However, it's quite unfortunate that her leaders haven't done enough to promote the Izon language.
As at the time of writing this article, the language is not being taught in the State public and private schools; which is something I find very absurd and quite disheartening. Growing-up in the West, I had no choice but to learn Yoruba language in their public schools. As a result, I'm more fluent in Yoruba than my own native dialect. It's not a thing to be proud of, but sadly that's my reality.
The past administration led by Henry Seriake Dickson, offered a diploma course to over 500 people who were interested in studying the Izon Language. At the end of the program, they where to be dispatched to public schools across the State to teach Izon. Till today, I don't know what have become of that program.
The family is the first agent of socialization, but our parents failed in their duty of teaching us the mother tongue.It now falls on us to make sure that our children learn the dialect. Which reminds me, I once told a friend that one of the criteria I'm looking for in a potential life partner is that she must know how to speak Izon language. He laughed and said I was too ancient in my reasoning. His argument was — why can't I marry from any tribe and teach my kids myself? Well, there's a reason why it's called the mother tongue?
In addition to making sure the Izon language is taught in all public and private schools in the State, the government must also come-up with programs and initiatives that promotes the Izon culture. Years ago, I came across an App on Google Playstore that teaches the rudiments of the Izon language — ‘Izonbelli’. It was through that App I learnt how to say the numbers 1-50 in Izon language.
Presently, I can no longer find that App in the store. This may be due to lack of funding, which is quite sad considering the fact that the government continues to waste billions of naira in sponsoring stupid award shows that offer nothing in the way of promoting and propagating the Ijaw culture. The AMAA award for instance, was solely sponsored by the State for five years straight! Talk about a waste of resources.
There are documented histories of languages, customs, and traditions of people that has gone into oblivion. And if language is indeed the heartbeat of any culture, then the death of a language is the inevitable death of a culture. The Izon language is on the brink of extinction! It may not be now or 10 years from now. But if nothing is done to deliberately promote the language, a 100 or 200 years from now, future generations may never again hear the Izon language being spoken.
Sadly, even in core Ijaw communities and villages where one was sure to hear children freely speaking the mother tongue, what we now find is a situation whereby most parents are now been infected with the ‘my pikin must speak english virus’. Thereby, forcing their kids to speak english more often and Izon less frequently. And the funny thing is, they speak the english ‘paraparaly’. That is Izon for when something is not properly done. Don't you just love the mother tongue?
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