You endanger your kids speaking English at home – Plateau Chief

A Central Nigerian village Chief, John Mallo says African parents not speaking their dialects at home risk their children’s future.

Children who cannot speak their native dialects, Mallo said are at risk of identity crisis.

The Village Head of Butura, a Central Plateau community in Bokkos Local Government told a local women group that civilization was no reason to speak lingua-franca at home.

“You’re not doing your kids any good if you speak English or Hausa to them.

“Speak your dialect to them at home, they will learn English in school,” he said quoting a Western scholar.

In 25 years, the Ron language of the Butura tribe will be extinct, Mallo feared.

To prevent this, the community leader announced plans to establish a language academy.

“If it means having strategic classes for women who don’t speak Ron, we will do it.

“Perhaps in time we will consider a Butura or Ron Academy,” he said.

Already, a blueprint for cultural revival tagged the “Butura roadmap” is being developed to “tell the Butura man who he is,” said the Saf Butura.

“What we are doing is not for ourselves but our unborn generations,” he declared.