LANGUAGE INEQUALITY: AN EXPLORATION INTO NIGERIA’S LANGUAGE POLICIES

Language inequality, the belief that languages are not of equal status, has been scantily considered in the existing literature. It is not thoroughly treated because it is mostly considered as a minute part of a larger topic. It is therefore examined in this study with the purpose of situating it in the language policy statements in the country’s constitution and National Policy on Education. Nigeria as a multilingual nation was considered before embarking on the examination of two policy statements in each of these documents. It was established that language inequality pervades the policy statements in the two documents. It was demonstrated that while Hausa, Igbo and Yoruba are presented as being superior to all other indigenous languages in the country, English, an inherited but official language is shown to be more important than all the Nigerian indigenous languages. The paper therefore concludes that languages can only be said to be equal theoretically since they are all used for communication purpose, but assignment of different functions to and people’s attitudes towards languages practically demonstrate that some languages are more equal than the others. It is finally recommended, among others, that parents should encourage their children and wards to use their indigenous languages to prevent them from going into extinction.