Languages can reduce instability, corruption — experts

Prof. Harrison Adeniyi, President, Linguistic Association of Nigeria (LAN) has said that languages could help in resolving the various crises of confidence, instability and corruption in West African countries.

Adeniyi, also a lecturer at the Lagos State University (LASU), said this at the 2021 conference of the West African Languages Congress (WALC) and The Linguistic Association of Nigeria (LAN) held at LASU, Ojo, on Monday in Lagos.

Supreme reports that the conference had as its theme: “Languages, literatures and the challenges of instability and corruption in West Africa”.

He said that linguists and language experts, both within and outside West Africa, felt language has very critical roles to play in the stability and economic development of different nations, including minimising corruption.

” The sub-region has become a laughing stock in the comity of nations, when found they had difficulties in managing both its resources and differences reasonably well.

“Despite the calamities leaders have subjected the citizens to, the insatiable quest to remain in power without effective and efficient leadership still persists.

” We have cases where some individuals are now richer than the state, while facilities and social amenities have depreciated,” Adeniyi said.

He emphasised that leaders made deliberate efforts to cause disaffection among the different communities in their countries.

“Creating a viable nation state from these different communities has been difficult for most West African leaders.

” Majority of political parties are mostly ethnic or regionally-based and this undermines the unity and stability of these states, which sometimes is the primary cause of internal conflicts,” Adeniyi said.

In his opening remarks, Prof. Oyedamola Oke, Acting Vice-Chancellor of LASU said that the conference would provide solutions to the twin problems of instability and corruption, which West African countries had to grapple with in recent times.

Oke suggested that a framework should be established for a language policy that would not only guarantee peaceful coexistence in the West Africa sub-region, but also encourage socioeconomic and political development.

“The colonial language legacy inherited by West African countries has been largely responsible for a worldview that makes us more aware of the cultures, lifestyles among the youth population.

“Language has encoded the strategies that members of any society use to regulate and reproduce that society, to order, control and transmit it to the next generation,” he said.

Prof. Tayo Ajayi, Dean, Faculty of Arts, LASU, said that politically, corruption undermined democracy and good governance at the legislative level.

Ajayi said that it also reduces accountability and distorts representation in policymaking.

”Corruption in the judiciary compromises the rule of law and in the public service, it results in unequal distribution of resources.

“Corruption or perception of it destroys the legitimacy of government in the eyes of the public and this has contributed to instability.

” This is why corruption and embezzlement have always been cited as reason for military takeovers,” he said.