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The Minister of
Labour and Productivity, Chukwuemeka Wogu, has said a recent report by
the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation
(UNESCO) that the Igbo language might become extinct in the next 50
years is worrisome and calls for prompt attention.

Mr. Wogu, who
represented President Goodluck Jonathan, stated this in an address at
the second International Conference on the Extinction of the Igbo
language in Owerri, Imo State.

“Until the shocking
revelation that Igbo language may go into extinction in the next 50
years, most of us had thought that [the] Igbo language enjoyed a high
level of scholarship,” he said.

Mr. Wogu blamed parents for downplaying the language and called on stakeholders to look inwards for solutions.

“I am of the view
that neither the school system nor the Diaspora factor is responsible
for this problem, for if they were, other major Nigerian languages
would be suffering the same fate. That this is not the case tells the
Igbo to look inwards for the solution,” he said.

“[The] Igbo
language may be getting extinct because the Igbo family stopped
speaking to their children in their mother tongue.”

He also called on other Nigerian groups to emulate the efforts of the Igbo to preserve their language.

“I therefore call on all other ethnic nationalities in Nigeria to
emulate ‘Ndi Igbo’ in demonstrating the urgent need to preserve and
safeguard her language. We must not let our native languages die.”