Most Igbo proprietors in Abuja reject Igbo Language – CIAC boss

Mazi Ifeanyi Atueyi is the Administrative Manager, Centre for Igbo Arts and Culture (CIAC) in Abuja. In this interview with OKEY CHRIS in Awka, he disputed the religious belief that Igbo masquerades and cultural festivities are evil, saying that the Igbo are marginalising themselves.

The brains behind CIAC

Atueyi is from Otolo Nnewi in Nnewi North local government area of Anambra state. I was born in Barga Lagos state, but I bagged a bachelor’s degree in Theatre Arts at the Nnamdi Azikiwe University, Awka. I am the Administrative Manager of the Centre for Igbo Arts and Culture (CIAC), which was established by Dr Josephat Kanayo Okoye, an America-based civil engineer.

Okoye had been in America and married an American. It was one of his  ons who told him that he wanted to learn Igbo Language that prompted him to establish CIAC. But we have board members comprising professors, industrialists and learned Igbo. We are working together to make sure that Igbo Language does not go into extinction.

As the name signifies, the Centre for Igbo Arts and Culture, which came into existence 12 years ago, is into preservation of Igbo culture and language. The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisations (UNESCO) had predicted that Igbo Language and culture  would go into extinction in 40 years if nothing urgent is done to preserve it. That is why we are fighting to prevent the language from dying. If you look around, you will discover that our people, especially the youth, no longer speak Igbo Language. Worst still, most of our people see those speaking the language as unlearned or illiterates or should I call it inferiority complex.

We are trying to make our people understand that speaking Igbo Language will never prevent them from learning and performing excellently in their chosen field of endevours. We want them to understand that speaking English language cannot make them a better person. For instance, our worthy ambassadors like the late Professor Chinua Achebe, Nnamdi Azikiwe and Ikemba Odumegwu Ojukwu were all grounded in Igbo Language, yet it did not stop them from speaking English Language or distinguishing themselves. If they speak English Language you cannot even beat them.

 

Why did you site the Centre in Abuja?

Many people have asked me this question in the past. The only reason for siting it in Abuja is to help our people, especially the children born and bred outside the Igbo land whose parents have not visited their country home for years, to learn and communicate in Igbo Language fluently. We discovered, through our findings, that the language is still being spoken by our grandparents in rural communities. But outside the Igbo land or places like Abuja, Kano, Kaduna, Lagos and so on, there are Igbo parents who have never gone to their villages with their children for the past ten years. And most of these parents make English Language their official language of communication at home. You know that these places have people from all parts of the country and the world, and English Language is like an official mode of communication there. Therefore, we are bridging the gaps by making their children to learn and communicate fluently in Igbo language.

 

Reaching out to other places

We work hand-in-hand with South-east traditional rulers so as to see that whatever we do are translated down to rural communities. Dr Dozie Ikedife, the former President General of Ohanaeze Ndigbo, is our patron and a board member. We have other notable Igbo leaders we consult. For instance, one of our publications which took us two years to compile is a compendium of Igbo masquerades. It took us to diverse  parts of Igbo land within the five Igbo-speaking states, including Rivers and Delta states. We researched and documented the Igbo masquerades for future generations especially now religions are affecting their existence. Some of our Christian brothers and sisters currently view our culture and tradition as a bad omen that should be proscribed. But we don’t see it that way. We want them to understand that our culture is our culture and we can’t let it go down the drain. That was why we consulted our people in the East and they encouraged us to help document masquerades festivities. With their help, we visited most of the masquerade festivals in Igbo land and documented them in our compendium.

 

Our focus

Our focus is at all parts of country, including London, America. Our presence and services are being felt around the world. We circulate thousands of our magazine publication which is a bilingual (Igbo and English languages) periodical worldwide. Our people all over there study them and are always happy about them.

We set an agenda to achieve every year. Among them is organising of Igbo language competitions on current affairs, essay, debate and quiz  cross all the private and public secondary schools in Abuja once in every two years. At the end of it, winners go home with mouthwatering prizes including scholarships we usually offer those who came first, second and third positions to study at any institution of their choice. However, the essence of organising this competition is to encourage our people to teach and encourage their children to be  peaking Igbo language without fear or favour. So, the completion is purely an Igbo language affair. In fact, let me tell you, in one of our Igbo programmes, the professor we invited to deliver a lecture in Igbo language decided to deliver the lecture in English language. As a result, we stopped her from delivering the lecture. This is because everything we do in this centre is purely centered in Igbo.

Again, we usually organise Igbo seminars in Abuja every year. In the seminar, we invite renowned Igbo professors and linguists to deliver lectures on Igbo Language. Our banners, pictures, write-ups and other things meant for the programme are prepared in Igbo language. The lectures are structured to encourage children and parents to join in promoting our language and culture always. For instance, our topic this year is Ndigbo speak your language to your children before it is too late. The lectures usually centered on importance of raising children using Igbo language, the merit and the demerit of understanding Igbo language, importance of preserving Igbo indigenous foods and plants.

Most of our people are not even aware that there are merits and demerits of having knowledge of Igbo language and culture. That is why you will hear them saying “Junior doesn’t hear Igbo.” That one is a poor grammar. I do emphasise it every time I’m invited to speak on radio and television programmes. Our people must be proud of their language and culture. Parents must stop discouraging their children from speaking Igbo language. We must live in Igbo, grow in Igbo and die in Igbo. It is all about passion. We must develop the passion. I did not study Igbo language in school but my passion for it led me into CIAC. I am now an Igbo translator and I have assisted several international and local organisations in translating English articles, examination questions and others to Igbo language.

Also, we begin each year with a press conference involving all journalists from different media houses in Abuja. We raise topic on Igbo language and debate it with them. At the end, they will publicise our position on national dailies. We also publish our unique magazine, Odinala twice a year. It is the first bilingual magazine in Nigeria written and published both in Igbo and English languages. It is a conglomeration of Igbo culture and language. We have sections of research works, kiddies’ corner, Igbo designs and fashions, Igbo proverbs, and other compilations from across Igbo land in order to showcase our diversified culture. All these and lots more we do to provide a platform for our people to learn, speak and understand Igbo language and culture.

Similarly, we organise seminars for Igbo school teachers in Abuja. We work with the Universal Basic Education Board (UBEB) and Secondary Education Board. This seminar is meant for all the Igbo teachers at both private and public institutions. We use it to teach them how to improve on their teaching through application of modern techniques. The seminar usually encourages them to remain in the teaching profession as Igbo teachers. This is because we discovered that in Abuja we have few teachers handling Igbo Language. They told us that they lose their jobs every day because most secondary school owners in Abuja are saying they no longer want Igbo taught as a subject in their schools.

This seminar also creates an avenue for us to bring both the teachers and the school proprietors together and advise them on why to retain  both the language and teachers in their schools. Also, we have written several letters to government agencies, government schools and private school owners educating them on sustenance of teaching Igbo language and culture since it is one of the three major languages of communication in Nigeria.

Do you know that we were the ones who made it possible for people all over the world to be viewing African magic Igbo section? We wrote several letters to DStv immediately they introduced Yoruba and Hausa channels without Igbo language channel. They told us they were ready to introduce it if we can present them with at least 40 copies of Igbo movies because that was their main reason for not introducing it initially. As at that period, we couldn’t get up to 40 Igbo movies. However, DStv showed us over 1000 Yoruba movies and over 2, 000 Hausa movies. We searched for Igbo movies but couldn’t get up to 10. These were so disheartening because 95% of Nollywood movies producers and marketers are Igbo people. Why don’t they produce in Igbo language? Even their so called epic English movies are virtually Igbo translations produced in English language. We took it upon ourselves to write Nollywood actors and actresses, producers and marketers. We discussed with them and today, we have Igbo movies and Igbo channels of African Magic.

 

Pact with Igbo organisations

Yes! But I will say that we are mother of Igbo centres in Nigeria. Anywhere, we don’t work alone. We work with Igbo Language Academy which also based in Abuja with branches all over the world. We also work with Education Resource Centre, Igbo Language Teachers Association, Abuja branch, Secondary School Education Board, UBEB and others.

 

On Igbo teachers and marginalistion

The issue is that NdiIgbo (Igbo people) don’t have a reading culture. That is a fact. It is so disheartening that most private schools owned by Igbo people in Abuja told us they won’t employ Igbo teachers. You can go and verify it. Most of them prefer Hausa, Yoruba and other subjects as local languages to be taught in their schools and employ teachers for that. Some even have French teachers as well. But when a trained Igbo teacher come to apply for a job in their schools as Igbo subject teachers they will proudly tell them they don’t accept Igbo subject teachers because it is not taught in their schools. Even Igbo  parents encourage it as well. They will tell you they prefer their  children to learn Hausa rather than Igbo Language. These are among the overwhelming problems we are facing. This is why we are going everywhere urging Ndi Igbo to wake up. We are not marginalised. We are the one marginalising ourselves. I tell them that we are the one marginalising ourselves.

For instance, at Igbo Day celebrations organised by Ndi Igbo in 2014 at Eagle Square, the Chairman of the occasion wrote his address in  English language and was about reading it in English language when I intervened. I got up and told him that it was wrong. He told us he would read it in English Language because there were some of non-Igbo speaking people in our midst. We insisted that he must read it in Igbo language because if it were Hausa or Yoruba it must be read in their languages. At last, he stopped and it was translated in Igbo language by someone else. That was how we conquered it. I believe that our language and culture will not die if every Igbo man or woman will start standing for the course in the same way we did at that occasion. Whenever and wherever you see a loophole, stand up and demand for a right thing to be done. I am sure it must be corrected. It is abnormal  for Igbo to write or read address in English language at Igbo events like Igbo day, cultural festivals and so on.

 

Advice for Igbo youth

The advice I can give to Ndi Igbo, including the youth, is that there is no place where oil and milk flow. The ways you make your bed is how you will lay on it. Starting a race does not matter because the end justifies the means. We need passion. Passion is all we need to sustain our language and culture for future generations. You can only do well in a business or field where your passion lies. That is why some of us kill their children why pushing them to study what they had no passion for. Money is not everything. We must be passionate of our language and culture, follow our passion and other things will follow.

 

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