Meet the World with an Open Mind Irrespective of Our Different Languages

We have to determine if language is our most prominent hallmark, and if we find it to be, we must work assiduously and collectively to replace it with something else that will have an overriding importance. Because...

In a world that is coming together at break-neck speed, it might be foolish to not have an open mind. In looking for jobs these days, you have an advantage if you can speak another language - a bigger one.

There is no more glaring unwillingness to make one great nation out of Nigeria than in the ways ethnic groups clutch onto their languages. Can we not all present vocabularies and forge one language for Nigeria?

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Latin was a prominent language but was largely used in an inward-looking, self-centred civilization. Where is it today in the parlance of the streets of the world? It has given way to globalization. But something good never completely dies:

Latin wise sayings remain.

Latin literary works remain.

Latin remains the pivotal language for the customs and traditions of the Roman Catholic Church. 

Hence, there still exist, and will always exist, Latin Students.

Last Sunday we were discussing at The Forum: The concept of or existentiality of Armageddon.  Heaven does not bring down a nation. Nations crumble from internal actions or inaction.

There have been how many?... some Native American Legends say as few as five, and a NASA-funded study says as many as thirty-two civilizations have come and gone. The common denominator in them all being... that they collapsed due to human impiousness or, put loosely, due to humans' inability to tame freedom.

Imagine if pockets of all the languages used still exist today; how could we communicate? Would Football commentators have a job if every five thousand people have a different language? At the Pentecost Jesus Disciples miraculously spoke to the understanding of many, perhaps suggesting that a universal language can be a miracle. Wherefore do we clutch tightly to our breasts ours to the detriment of national/global cohesion!

The Ibos, I conclude, are an adventurous people. They are the ones who seek to secede, but they are also the ones most present in every nook and cranny of Nigeria, maybe even the world. They put in root, grow, and blossom. They marry and have children. It becomes an uphill task to consciously teach, within a family of four, the Igbo language and to foster practice.

Out in social circles children meet the wider world with the more general language. Back at home, mom and dad may not even be around; who do you practice with?

There are two options for every tribe: stay home and swirl in your language, or go out and meet the world with an open mind. Mind you, there is only so much language that one human head can carry - barring genius, which many of us aren't.

Whatever we decide, Armageddon is an ever-occurring phenomenon, viz: When your cup is full, it overflows.

Hitler, Mussolini, Gaddafi, Pol Pot... the heavens didn't strike them down with lightening. Decision after decision, they boxed themselves in and dug their own graves. That's Armageddon. In big ways and in small, it happens every now and then.

The rapist's cup gets full; he gets caught.

The promiscuous' cup gets full; he gets AIDS.

The little criminal's cup gets full; he gets lynched.

When our cup is full in this Nigeria - especially by our unwillingness to yield, to cooperate, it will overflow.

Armageddon.

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