Anthony Anwukah. Some respondents argued that learning a second official language is not necessary and is a pure waste of time. Officially, French has been the second official language in this country for the past 19 years. French is also being taught at the tertiary level in the country. Nigerians should not over-flog the notion that there are no benefits in making French a second official language; events have overtaken that.
What is most important for us to know at the moment is the importance of bilingualism or multilingualism; that is having good knowledge of at least two international languages.
While other neighbouring countries have at least two international languages as their official languages, others have three to four. Nigeria must join her counterparts in the trend of bilingualism, which without doubt, has many benefits. We must understand that being bilingual has a positive effect on our intellectual growth and enhances our mental development.
Nanduti also affirms that being bilingual increases job opportunities in many careers where knowing another language is a real asset.
Nigerians will widen their horizon in the labour world with an additional international language such as French, which is the third most spoken language in the world. A lot of internationally based companies, like Total, Exxon Mobil, Air France and KLM advertise for workers from time to time with qualifications including an ability to speak either French and English or English and German.
The dearth of these competences poses a great challenge to Nigerian applicants who are limited by their knowledge of only the English language. Therefore, the more different international languages we learn, the wider our economic and political horizons.
Being bilingual can equally make an individual have more executive control of whatever situation he or she finds herself by the simple ability to switch from one international language or the other. This reminds me of the first time I attempted to get a visa. The country also has ten national languages. Hausa is one of the ten national languages in Niger and is also the most popular native language in the country.
Hausa is classified as a West Chadic language of the Afro-Asiatic language family. There are about 30 million Hausa native speakers in West Africa with another 20 million people using the language as a second language. Due to the widespread use of Hausa, the language is used as a lingua franca in much of western Africa. The majority of the native speakers of the Hausa language are members of the Hausa ethnic group in Niger.
There are several dialects of the Hausa language in Niger which are all geographically defined. Tamasheq is the collective word used to define the Tuareg languages used in Niger.
This power decreased from the 18th century, as European traders reached West Africa by sea. Colonised in the late 19th century, Niger was part of the French Empire until independence in Hamani Diori was elected the first head of state, and presided over a period of stability until severe drought in instigated widespread civil unrest.
He was replaced by his staunch ally, Ali Saibou. Army chief of staff Ibrahim Bare Mainassara took control, but quickly restored a veneer of civilian government.
In April , Mainassara was killed by his head of security. The uncertain political situation which followed was resolved with the holding of simultaneous presidential and legislative elections. The French language has approximately 80 million native speakers, as well as million secondary speakers, meaning that around million people speak the language worldwide.
It is an official language in 29 countries, with most of these being part of the community of French-speaking nations known as la francophonie. Furthermore, 20 percent of EU citizens report knowing how to speak French, making it the third most understood language in the continent. It is also the country where the language originated and is the nation most commonly associated with French. Interestingly, when focusing purely on native speakers, Canada is the second-largest French speaking country, with around 7 million people speaking it as their mother tongue.
Belgium and Switzerland complete the top four, with somewhere in the region of 4 million native speakers in the former and 2 million in the latter. Yet, it is estimated that just over half of the global French-speaking population lives in Africa.
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