Yoruba among world’s most spoken languages - Fafunwa

By Wilson Osimhi - 16.05.2008

An educationist and erudite scholar said Professor Babatunde Fafunwa, has said Yoruba language was the sixth most widely spoken language in the world.

He said this on Thursday at the Cultural Centre, Ibadan, as his keynote address during programme organised by the Yoruba Academy entitled “The Yoruba language in the contemporary world.”

He said the language was one of the three languages widely spoken in Nigeria.

He also said the language was being spoken in “Benin Republic, Togo, Ghana, Ivory Coast, Liberia and Sierra-Leone. It is also spoken outside the shore of Africa in Brazil, Argentina, Cuba, West Indice and America.”

Yoruba language, according to him, was rich in culture and tradition than any other language in the world.

However, Fafunwa noted that the language was not given its due recognition by the native speakers, adding that it was sad to note that Yoruba children were being encouraged to speak in foreign languages at the expense of their native language.

He said research carried out by him and other eminent scholars at the University of Ife now Obafemi Awolowo University showed that most appropriate and effective way of educating on children was throw their mother tongue.

Fafunwa, therefore, called for a collective effort by all stakeholders to uplift the language in the fact of the current realties.