By Ifa Dare
NGR youths often ask me why I think NGR should be rearranged along ethnolinguistic lines. But what I’ve come to realize is that those who consistently ask me this question do not understand the nature of reality.
Fundamentally, the nature of reality is the nature of observation. In other words, if you cannot define what you observe, you cannot define and process reality. For example, let’s assume you just saw a red dot on the wall, but the words “red” and “dot” are not defined in your language; so, how do you define and process what you just saw? How do you even describe what you just saw?
Anyway, the only tool that’s adapted for defining and processing reality is a language. This is why in a programming language, every function or object is defined; and similarly, in the language of Ifa, every Odu is defined.
Consequently, if you lose your language in your own land or if you adopt a foreign language in your own land, it’s absolutely impossible for you to define and process your reality, and it’s absolutely impossible to build a civilization. For example, in the Yoruba language, “Esu” (i.e. a Yoruba diety) is defined as a principal Orisa with many positive attributes. However, in the Anglo-Christian language, “Esu” is portrayed as the devil. In other words, “Esu” has been negatively transformed right before our eyes. And it’s this negative transformation that “Esu” has undergone that the Nigerian reality is currently undergoing.
Ladies and gentlemen, without English language, NGR cannot exist as a unitary entity. And with English language, Nigerians and their realities are being negatively transformed every day. Look around you!
The only way to punctuate this negative transformation is to rearrange NGR along ethnolinguistic lines so as to enable the people to use their respective indigenous languages to define and process their realities.
No people in the history of the world have ever built a civilization using a foreign language as their medium of communication.
#Nigeria
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