On Achieving Mass Literacy in Northern Nigeria

Today, more than ever before literacy is the key to unlocking the latent potential of the human capacity that demography gives. Unfortunately,  the Northern part of Nigeria has failed to leverage this 'advantage' of numbers.

Illiteracy is one of the main challenges that needs to be tackled and over the years a number of feeble efforts have been made to raise the literacy levels in Northern Nigeria with unimpressive results. It is why I feel there is a need to stop doing the same thing over and over again with no result and rather try something different - radical. Basically, when it comes to literacy the target is the use of a medium that optimally brings the most number of masses on board such that information is disseminated to the public in ways that there will be feedback. In a democracy, the ideal mechanism is via representation with regular consultations between the constituency and their representatives.

Unfortunately, due to low level of literacy, entrenched by poverty and other associated factors, people have no way of ensuring that their wishes are being represented and there is no medium to get the grassroots fully involved in the process which is very fundamental to the democratic process. Yet it is evident how much people are interested in keeping abreast of how they are being governed if we merely observe the listenership of radio programs both international (BBC, VOA) and local radio. What is thus needed is for the circular flow of communication to be completed. And I think the way to go is by having local languages as the medium of getting feedback. This is what works in various jurisdictions which share similar demographic challenges of low literacy and poverty. India, East and South Africa, the Arab world, Asia, Latin America and other places all use their local languages to bridge the gap of communication.

It is my belief that relying solely on foreign languages as the 'lingua franca' has been a cause of setbacks for us as we could have leveraged on our local langagues to increase mass literacy since it is not only being able to read and write in English alone that is literacy. Moreover, even without knowledge of the lingua franca (English) the desired outcomes of having 'informed' citizens who can be engaged and mobilized can still be guaranteed which is an aim of mass literacy.

Though it may be argued that the same energy and resources needed to enable people to be literate in the lingua franca, would need to be applied to make them literate in the local language, there are more advantages to be gotten. Languages usually have an unseen cultural dimension that carries with it the traditions, flavours and nuances of the specific cultural environment from where it originates. That is why it is much easier to learn languages in the environment where they are domiciled and this 'ease' is what would apply when it comes to becoming literate via local languages.  

In order not to ramble on and on, I will just end by saying that as we continuously find ourselves thinking of how to bridge the gap created by waves of development and with the geometric pace at which the globalized world is moving,  it will be necessary to start trying out ideas that might seem unorthodox.

And thankfully (even though it is not out of altruism), visionaries like Facebook and Google are already taking the initiative by preparing the way with language translation softwares that are already attempting to bridge these communication gaps. In the very near future,  language will no longer be a barrier. Let us therefore try to catch this last bus!

Haidarwali 201610140000hrs