Nigeria’s Education Minister, Dr Tunji Alausa, has been accused of unleashing a “cultural bomb” by scrapping indigenous languages from the school curriculum—a move described as unconstitutional, neo-colonial, and intellectually regressive.
In a hard-hitting analysis, Dr Jeff Godwin Doki has condemned the Minister’s decision, announced last November at an international conference on “Language in Education” in Abuja. Dr Alausa had cited poor student performance in examinations such as WAEC, NECO, and JAMB as the rationale for removing mother-tongue instruction.
But Dr Doki, writing in response to the policy, argued that the Minister’s reasoning is “preposterous and senseless,” and constitutes a form of educational imperialism.
‘Annulling Belief in Ourselves’
Drawing on the work of the late Kenyan writer Ngũgĩ wa Thiong’o, Dr Doki likened the policy to a “cultural bomb”—a weapon used by imperialist agents to annihilate a people’s belief in their languages, names, environment, and ultimately themselves.
“By jettisoning our indigenous languages in favour of English, the Education Minister wants Nigerians to see our past as a wasteland of non-achievement,” Dr Doki wrote.
He noted that Nigeria is home to approximately 250 ethnic groups and over 400 languages, with Hausa, Igbo, and Yoruba already designated as major languages under existing educational policy. He argued that early childhood education in mother tongues is known to produce better cognitive and scientific outcomes, citing examples from China, Japan, and South Korea.
Constitutional and Educational Concerns
Dr Doki further pointed to Section 97 of the 1999 Constitution (as amended), which permits legislative business to be conducted in English and, by resolution, in other Nigerian languages. He maintained that language is not merely a tool for communication but a carrier of culture, an instrument of thought, and a means of expressing social values.
“If the Honourable Minister is truly an African who knows the dignity of African values, he may wish to rescind his decision,” he added. “Otherwise, I fear that one day he may also scrap departments like African Studies and Performing Arts in Nigerian universities.”
Criticism of Coventry University Campus and UTME Cut-Off
The analyst also took issue with the Minister’s plan to establish a campus of Coventry University in Nigeria under the Transnational Education (TNE) framework, describing the initiative as “asinine” and a reflection of the Government’s failure to elevate local universities to world-class standards.
Additionally, Dr Alausa’s recent decision to peg the minimum UTME cut-off mark at 150 for universities and 100 for polytechnics—while exempting colleges of education entirely—was condemned as a “total debasement of merit.”
“Are we celebrating mediocrity to the detriment of merit?” Dr Doki asked. “Which land is this where leaders jump out of their beds and move straight to the media to make personal pronouncements without consulting stakeholders?”
Conclusion
Dr Doki concluded that the Minister’s actions mask a grim reality in which Nigerians are expected to accept foreign models as the only path forward. He warned that the truly educated and the oppressed will stiffly resist this new form of intellectual colonialism.
“Language does not stand apart from experience but completely interpenetrates it,” he said. “Indigenous languages are creative, not destructive.”