THE Executive Director, National Institute for Nigerian Languages, Prof. Ben Elugbe, has urged the Federal Government to sustain the ‘meta-language’ project it introduced for the development of various languages in the country.
Elugbe made the appeal in an interview with newsmen in his office at the Akpaa-Mbato campus of the institute, near Aba, in Abia.
He spoke against the backdrop of the International Mother Languages Day, which is being celebrated worldwide on Saturday.
He said that the day, with the theme “Mother Tongue: Our Collective Heritage”, was set aside by the United Nations to celebrate the importance of mother tongue to national development.
The executive director said developing Nigerian languages would promote development in other sectors, including science.
He explained that being the first language babies usually pick from mother’ s laps, mother tongue ‘’is the basis of a child’s language development, understanding and cooperation with the society.’’