Walnut Book Club celebrates 25 years of International Mother Language Day 2025
By Editor
WALNUT Book Club, in collaboration with Didi Museum, Lagos and DDL Marketing and Consultancy Services, will celebrate the International Mother Language Day 2025 with activities designed to promote and encourage the speaking of the mother tongue, particularly among young people. The event has as theme ‘Make Languages Count for Sustainable Development.’
According to the award-winning author and founder of Walnut Book Club, Ndidi Chiazor-Enenmor, “We must become more conscious of the dwindling ability of children and adults alike in speaking our native languages. There is an urgent need to arrest the ugly situation, hence the importance of marking the day remarkably.”
The event will be celebrated at Didi Museum, 175 Akin Adesola Street, Victoria Island, Lagos on Wednesday, February 26, 2025 at 10.00am. It was initially billed to hold on February 21 but because of the midterm break of schools, it was shifted to November 26. The event is supported by First Bank Plc.
Speaking further concerning the event, the award-winning author and finalist of The Nigeria Prize for Literature 2024 with her children’s book A Father’s Pride emphasised the need for parents, teachers and all other stakeholders to join hands together in ensuring that our languages do not go extinct. Tracing some Nigerian languages that have gone into oblivion, Chiazor-Enenmor noted that over the years, many Nigerian languages have gone into extinction. Some of them are Ajawa, formerly spoken in Bauchi State, Basa-Gumna (Niger State), Auyokawa (Jigawa State), Gamo-Ningi, a Kainji dialect in Bauchi State and Homa, formerly spoken in Adamawa State.
Various primary and secondary schools in Lagos, both public and private, are billed to be in attendance and each participating school will present a dance, drama or poetic recitation, strictly in a Nigerian Language. In addition to the teachers and students who are to attend the programme, the Tutor-General and Permanent Secretary, Education District 111 of Lagos State Ministry of Education, Dr. Idowu Olufunke Oyetola, will grace the occasion as a special guest of honour.
Writer and founder of Walnut Book Club, Ndidi Enemor-Chiazor
Amazingly, this important event is marking a milestone this year, as 2025 is the silver jubilee anniversary. The International Mother Language Day celebration was first marked in 2000. It was in remembrance of an event that took place in East Pakistan, now Bangladesh, on February 21, 1952. On that day, students of the University of Dhaka protested against the Pakistani government’s decision to impose Urdu as the only official language of the country. The police opened fire on the students while they were protesting and lives were lost during the incident.
Many years after the 1952 event, specifically on November 17, 1999, the General Assembly of the United Nations Education, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO) approved and proclaimed February 21, as the International Mother Language Day. Consequently, the event was first marked on February 21, 2000, and it has become an annual celebration ever since. The objective, as declared by UNESCO, is to promote the preservation and protection of all languages and to encourage people to use their mother tongue. The event is also aimed at raising awareness about the importance of linguistic diversity in promoting cultural understanding, peaceful coexistence and sustainable development.
According to Chiazor-Enenmor who is a renowned children’s book writer, “Languages are indispensable in education and sustainable development. They serve as the principal means for knowledge transfer. Languages embody culture and tradition. They are central to cultural preservation. A deplorable aspect of children’s literature in Nigeria is the deficiency of books in Nigerian languages. We hope the situation improves especially as there is a growing awareness of the need to promote our languages and dialects.”
