A WELCOME
ADDRESS PRESENTED BY CHIEF OSARO OLLORWI, CHAIRMAN OF ELEME LANGUAGE CENTER AT
THE OCCASION OF THE LAUNCHING/PRESENTATION OF THE BOOK TITLED “NSà ELOI RÔ AT THE LEGISLATIVE
ASSEMBLY HALL, ELEME LOCAL GOVERNMENT COUNCIL, OGALE ON FRIDAY, 18TH
AUGUST, 2017
1.
The
Chairman of this Historic Occasion, Dr. Princewill Obele, Medical Director/CEO
Sonabel Medical Center
2.
The
Special Guest of Honour, Opusenibo Hart Dagogo, Permanent Secretary Rivers
State Ministry of Education
3.
Royal
Father of the Day, HRM King (dr.) Samuel O. Ejire, JP, Ͻnε Eleme X
4.
Her
Majesty, Ԑmεrε Evelyn Ada Gokpa, Ԑmεrε Ͻwa Eleme
5.
Spiritual
Father of the Day, Archbishop, Moses O. Kattey, PhD, G. O. Commonwealth
Covenant Church International
6.
The
Chief Launcher, HRH Ԑmεrε Appolus Chu, Ԑgbεrε Ԑmεrε Okori 1, Eleme
7.
The
Chief Host, Chief Hon. Obarilormate Ollor, JP, CTC Chairman, Eleme LGA
8.
The
President-General, O-E’la Obor Eleme, Elder Israel Gomba-Abbey
9.
Distinguished
Ladies & Gentlemen
10.
All
Protocol Observed.
On behalf of the
Eleme Language Center, I heartily welcome you all to the launching/presentation
of the Book titled, “NSà ELOI RÔ.
It is indeed a great honour that your presence has bestowed on this occasion.
The need to show
great concern for the teaching, learning, and preservation of the Eleme
Language can be appreciated when we realized that the language is at the verge
of extinction. Just like any other challenge of life, the government alone
cannot contain the continual drift of the Eleme Language towards
total extinction, especially when it is an established fact that corruption and
bureaucracy slows down government’s good intentions and efforts in Nigeria.
This is why government efforts at encouraging the teaching and learning of
Eleme Language should be complemented by all of us.
The Book
The book we are
launching today is the outcome of a painstaking research conducted by Eleme
Research Foundation last year. We made it clear then that, “The study is
required to create awareness and advocate the participation of Eleme people in
the teaching and learning of Eleme Language using the four language learning
skills of Speaking, Listening, Reading and Writing”. Our
primary target is to advance the teaching and learning of Eleme Language in
Schools in Eleme.
Generally,
the aims of the new 9–Year Basic Education Curriculum (BEC) is to inculcate in
children good behaviours, moral values, fear of God, respect for the rights of
others, ability to obey rules and regulations and to live in harmony with
others. The Book Nsã Eloi Rã contains fourteen (14) stories and each of the stories
is written to inculcate moral disciplines; each of the stories have a peculiar
lesson to teach, a peculiar message to deliver to the reading public, the
children in school and even the adult that is learning Eleme Language.
The stories are designed to inform, educate, and
entertain. Its language is simple and easy to read and understand. At the end
of every Chapter, the reader is expected to explain the lessons learnt and
carryout some class activities tagged, “Ogũrũ
Enu Rε Ԑnaa Ebo Kalasi” and answer the questions that follow known as “Edoεgua”. Nsã Eloi Rã is written for those interested in learning Eleme
Language.
Whither Eleme Languge?
Most people
would rather want to believe that Eleme Language is not a priority problem of
the Eleme People. We, in Eleme Language Center do not agree. Whither Eleme
Language, if I may ask? Eleme Language is dying. Eleme Language might be lost
forever, if prompt conservation actions are not taken NOW. A very high
proportion of children of Eleme extraction cannot speak or write fluent Eleme
today. For most Eleme parents English Language is the prestige language they
wish their children to acquire and any education that did not lead to its early
acquisition is often regarded as second best, and even an attempt to hold back
Eleme from advancement.
Eleme is
recognized as one of the 250 ethnic nationalities in Nigeria. The Eleme
Language is featured at number 96 of the four hundred (400) languages recorded
in the book “Studies in Nigeria
Languages”. The Eleme Language Center
in collaboration with the Rivers State
Readers Project with technical support of the Language Development Center of the Nigeria Educational Research and
Development Council (NERDC), Abuja developed and secured the approval for
the Orthography of Eleme Language as
published in the ORTHOGRAPHIES OF
NIGERIAN LANGUAGES MANUAL X, 2011. What
this means is that the Eleme
Language has been approved as one of the Nigerian Languages. The Eleme Language
Curricula have also passed through the processes of writing, review,
and assessment.
The Federal Government had done its part, it is our responsibility as owners of
the language to produce and distribute the Curricula respectively. It is also
our duty to produce the Eleme Phonology, write necessary books based on the
curricula, train the required quality of teachers to teach the language and
deploy them to schools.
Language is an
important medium for the preservation and promotion of culture of a people.
People without language are people without culture; people without language are
people without history; people without language are people living on borrowed present
and lost future; anybody can claim you and swallow you.
The disturbing
general practice in Eleme today is to introduce English Language as medium of
instruction in the nursery and primary schools much earlier than necessary.
Apart from English, other Nigerian Languages including Ibo, Hausa, Yoruba and
Efik have become prestige languages for urban-dwelling Elemes. Eleme mothers
now communicate with their children in Pidgin English rather than Eleme
Language. This is at the expense of the Mother Tongue – Eleme Language.
Churches in Eleme also prefer to conduct their services and preach their
Sermons in English, Ibo, Efik, Ogoni and other languages rather than Eleme
Language.
Similarly, the
colonizing industrialization and modernization have painfully tore Eleme people
from established cultural norms and values. Eleme Fathers’ inability to
preserve, protect, and promote Eleme Language is also a disturbing factor.
Today, there is hardly any family in Eleme without children born of women
married from outside Eleme, notably, Efik, Igbo and Ogoni speaking origin. Some
Eleme people now look at Eleme Language with disdain. The natural consequence
of all these unintended developments is rapid alienation to the roots of the
Eleme society; the rape of Eleme traditional values, and the promotion of
cultural dislocation in Eleme.
Language, as we
all know, is a very important component in a people’s culture and tradition,
yet matters got to a pitiable pitch where the Eleme man or woman is frightened,
cowed down browbeat on and threatened with regards to speaking the Eleme
Language in public places and government offices. Is it not disheartening and
dishonorable to witness Eleme Legislative House conducts house businesses in
English Language?
Ladies and
Gentlemen, extinction is a phenomenon that normally takes place without notice.
When species of wildlife is at the verge of extinction, only a handful of
people with a fecund foresight will be aware of the dangerous trend and will
raise the salvation alarm of immediate rescue and conservation of the
particular animal species. It will interest us to know that a language is said
to be at the verge of extinction when the following occur:
1.
When
there are no outstanding scholars of the language.
2.
When
the language is not taught in the school.
3.
When
the language cannot boast of a written form daily, i.e. in the form of
newspapers and magazines.
4.
When
the general means of mass communication e.g. radio and television despise using
the language.
5.
When
the younger generations have a hyper-hatred for the speaking of the language.
People of Eleme
and Friends of Eleme, when the above barometers are applied to Eleme Language,
the conclusion are clear. Please, think about this! To the best of my
knowledge, we lack enterprising scholars of Eleme Language. Kindergartens,
primary schools and post-primary schools in Eleme do not offer Eleme Language
as a subject and Eleme Language is not a Diploma or Degree Programme of any
tertiary institution in Nigeria. Radio and Television Stations in Rivers State
in particular and Nigeria in general do not cast their news and programmes in
Eleme Language. Worse still, is the glaring enslaved mentality of our younger
generation that hates the indigenous Eleme Language. As for the music world,
English, Ghana, Congo, Igbo and even Ogoni records remained favoured amongst
spineless and culturally dislocated Eleme youths.
The results
include lack of respect for local traditions, abuse of culture, disregard for
values and a widening gap between the world of school and Eleme heritage.
All hopes are
not lost. The Eleme Language deserves the highest protection possible. To
promote the teaching and learning of Eleme Language, action has to be
multi-sector involving all stakeholders. Government must show political
commitment to promote conservation awareness, Social mobilization is very
important, followed by action. Beyond generating awareness, the Eleme Local
Government should improve commitment to the teaching and learning of Eleme
Language; develop strategies for support of independent studies; seek out
appropriate NGOs/CBOs partners, build their capacity through training; create
NGOs/COBs Resources Centre; strengthen strategic planning for the teaching and
learning of Eleme Language and regularly update the partner’s data base.
As directed by
the Eleme Local Government recently, the Eleme Language should be firmly
adopted as a medium of instruction throughout pre-primary and primary schools
in Elemeland. This will ensure the survival of the language in the midst of 512
competing Nigerian Languages. The Eleme Legislative Assembly when properly
constituted should as a matter of priority take a step further by enacting
appropriate legislation making the teaching and learning of Eleme Language
compulsory in all Pre-Primary, Primary and Junior Secondary Schools in
Elemeland.
The Eleme Local
Government, corporate organizations operating in Eleme and philanthropic
Individuals should be patriotic enough to sponsor National Eleme Language Competition quarterly, biannually or
annually. This can take the form of Debate
and/or Essay Competition among
Nursery, Primary and Junior Secondary Schools in Eleme and even among Eleme
Students in Tertiary Institutions.
Inter-and Intra-Community Eleme Language Competition can also be encouraged
and appropriate prizes awarded to promote the language. Parents should make it
a point of duty to communicate with their children and wards in Eleme Language
from birth. The Eleme Elite should religiously stop being ashamed of Eleme
Language. Speak Eleme language anywhere, everywhere and anytime you meet your
kindred. Be proud of Eleme Language. Your Language is you. It is Eleme Language
that made you thick, unique and special. Eleme Language made you who you are,
what you are. That Eleme standout in the crowd as an ethic nationality is our
language. If we lose our language, we become a forgotten people.
Finally, let us
individually and collectively, join the Eleme
Language Center. Let us resolve to dedicate ourselves, our efforts, our
money and other vital resources to the promotion of Eleme Language.
Ladies and
Gentlemen, there could have been no book launch today without the encouragement
of all people here present. I feel highly honored at the turn out. As earlier
pointed out, the unique identity of a people remains their language and
culture. Language is the medium through which culture is communicated and
preserved from generation to generation. We should come together, cherish our
language and thereby carve a niche for Eleme in the society.
The quality of
people here speaks volumes. You are welcome.
Thank you all
and God bless.
Chief Osaro
Ollorwi
Chairman, Eleme Language Center/
Author Nsã
Eloi Rã
