Across Nigeria, a growing number of young people are becoming more comfortable speaking English or Nigerian Pidgin than the languages spoken by their parents and grandparents.
For some families, this may seem like a small change.
But language is more than a way of communicating. It carries stories, names, proverbs, songs, traditions and ways of understanding the world.
When fewer young people speak their native languages, there is a risk that some of those cultural traditions could become harder to pass on.
Language Is Part of Identity
Nigeria is one of the world’s most linguistically diverse countries, with hundreds of languages spoken across its communities.
Languages such as Yoruba, Igbo and Hausa remain widely spoken, but many smaller Nigerian languages face greater pressure from dominant languages, urbanisation and changing attitudes toward language.
UNESCO has repeatedly highlighted the importance of protecting linguistic diversity because languages carry cultural knowledge and traditions from one generation to another.
When a language disappears, it is not simply a vocabulary that disappears.
A whole collection of cultural knowledge can become harder to access.
Parents Have A Major Role To Play
One of the biggest influences on whether children learn their native language is what happens at home.
If parents mainly speak English with their children, those children may understand their family’s native language but struggle to speak it themselves.
Eventually, the next generation may know even less.
This can create a cycle where grandparents speak the language fluently, parents understand it but rarely use it, and children barely know it at all.
That is how a language can slowly disappear from everyday life.
Schools And Society Matter Too
English has an important role in Nigeria.
It is the country’s official language and is widely used in education, government and business.
There is nothing wrong with learning English.
The problem comes when learning English means completely abandoning one’s indigenous language.
UNESCO promotes multilingual education because children can benefit from learning in languages they understand while also developing proficiency in additional languages.
Nigeria does have policies supporting the teaching and development of indigenous languages, but implementation remains a challenge.
What Could We Lose?
Imagine a grandparent who knows hundreds of traditional expressions but cannot pass them naturally to their grandchildren.
Imagine traditional songs being translated because younger people no longer understand the original words.
Imagine a proverb surviving only as an English translation.
The meaning may still be there, but something can be lost in the translation.
Language often contains expressions that reflect a community’s history and worldview.
That is why keeping indigenous languages alive is also a way of keeping parts of Nigerian culture alive.
But The Situation Can Still Change
This does not have to become a story about an entire generation abandoning Nigerian culture.
Young Nigerians can learn their languages again.
Parents can speak indigenous languages at home.
Schools can encourage their use.
And technology can actually become part of the solution.
Music, films, social media, podcasts and educational apps can make indigenous languages feel relevant to younger audiences rather than something that only belongs to older generations.
The goal should not be to choose between English and Nigerian languages.
It should be possible to speak both.
A Nigerian teenager can be fluent in English while also being able to speak Yoruba, Igbo, Hausa, Ijaw, Tiv, Efik or another language connected to their family and community.
The Choice Is Bigger Than Language
The real question is what happens when the people who carry a culture can no longer communicate with it in its original language.
Nigeria’s younger generation will eventually become the parents, teachers and community leaders responsible for passing traditions forward.
If they lose the language, passing those traditions on can become much harder.
Our languages are not just words.
They are memories.
They are stories.
They are songs.
They are history.
And if we stop teaching them, we may eventually discover that we have lost much more than the ability to speak them.
Source Credits: UNESCO, UNICEF and the Nigerian government. The article draws on research and information about linguistic diversity, multilingual education and the preservation of indigenous languages.
