When Walnut Book Club celebrated International Mother Language Day 2025 at Didi Museum

By Godwin Okondo

A sizeable number of school children, accompanied by their language teachers, gathered at the Didi Museum on Akin Adesola Street, Victoria Island, Lagos on February 26, 2025 to celebrate the silver jubilee anniversary of United Nation’s International Mother Language Day. The International Mother Language Day 2025 celebration was organised by Walnut Book Club, in collaboration with DDL Marketing & Consultancy Services, Didi Museum and Everything Literature with the support of First Bank of Nigeria Plc.

The annual event is celebrated every February 21, but according to the writer (author of A Father’s Pride and other books) and programme coordinator, Mrs. Ndidi Chiazor-Enenmor, this year’s event coincided with the mid-term break of most schools in Lagos State. “That is why we marked the event on February 26, instead of February 21,” she explained, adding, “We wanted to ensure full participation of the invited schools.”

Chiazor-Enenmor expressed delight with the performances of the different schools that attended the celebration. All their presentations, drama skits, poetic performances, dances, and debates were all rendered in different Nigerian languages to give credence to the spirit of the day.

While welcoming her guests, event organiser, Chiazor-Enenmor recounted the history of UN’s International Mother Language Day celebration, tracing it to a protest which took place in East Pakistan, now Bangladesh, on February 21, 1952. That day, she recounted, the students of the University of Dhaka protested Pakistani government’s decision to impose Urdu as the only official language of the country. Some of the protesting students lost their lives as the police opened fire on them.

Many years after the 1952 incident, specifically on November 17, 1999, the General Assembly of the United Nations Education, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO) approved and proclaimed February 21 as International Mother Language Day. Consequently, the event was first marked on February 21, 2000, and it has become an annual celebration ever since.

Chiazor-Enenmor further explained that the mother tongue is the first language a child is exposed to from birth and should be maintained throughout the child’s life. She called on parents to speak their native languages to their children early so that it becomes part of their growing up cultural immersion. She noted that children have the capacity to be multilingual – that is, learn as many as eight languages, saying their brains can assimilate different languages when they are in their tender ages. She charged students and teachers alike to form language clubs in their various schools where they could engage each other in teaching and learning of the different Nigeria languages.

“You can exchange greetings in your mother tongues or language of the school environment, learn songs, and tell stories in the various Nigerian languages,” she said, noting that by doing so Nigerian ethnic nationalties would become more united rather than divisive ones.”

Also addressing students, teachers and other guests alike, the Tutor-General/Permanent Secretary, Education District 111, Lagos State Ministry of Education, Dr. (Mrs.) Idowu Olufunke Oyetola, who was represented by Dr. (Mrs.) Rita Kienka, commended event organisers for their consistent efforts in arresting the ugly trend of abandoning Nigerian local languages for English and other foreign languages. She said some even prefer to speak pidgin English instead of embracing their own languages. She noted that the Lagos State Ministry of Education has put up several intervention programmes to help promote the local languages.

Some of the schools that participated in the events were Aunty May School, Idimu, Dolphin Junior High School, Lagos Island, Girls Junior Academy, Lagos Island, Government Junior College, Victoria Island and Kuramo Junior College, Victoria Island. Others included Ruby Gold School, Lekki, Sovereign Lord Academy, Egbeda, Victoria Island Junior Secondary School, El-Shaddai Primary School, Silva Estate, Ejigbo and Wenby’s College, Idimu.

Audience members at this year’s UNESCO International Mother Language Dday 2025 at Didi Museum, Lagos