EMPOWERING NON-MAJOR NIGERIAN LANGUAGES FOR EDUCATION: THE URHOBO SITUATION

Nigeria is well known as a multiethnic, multicultural, and multilingual country with over 525 indigenous languages (Wikipedia.org). Besides these, there are exogenous languages such as English, French, Arabic, and the English-based Nigerian Pidgin (NP), which Nigerians need for communication at different times. Three Nigerian languages, namely, Hausa, Igbo and Yoruba are recognized as major/national languages: they have the largest number of speakers, score highest in terms of level of sociolinguistic vitality, are the most developed for literacy and numeracy and feature strongly at all levels of the educational system in the country. All other Nigerian languages belong to the non-major group: they have fewer speakers, feature, with varying degrees of seriousness, at the 9-year Basic Education level, that is, primary to the junior secondary school level in their respective home states and most are not well equipped to feature effectively as languages of education (Bamgbose2007, Schaefer and Egbokhare 2011, among others). In this paper, we examine the situation with the use of Urhobo, a non-major Nigerian language, in education vis-a-vis the language empowerment strategies discussed by Emenanjo (2010). The study shows that there are gaps that must be filled if Urhobo is to be effectivelyused in education.