LANGUAGE: A CATALYST TO PEACE AND SECURITY IN NIGERIA
Obadare, Felicia Tomi
Department of General Studies, School of Education
College of Education, Ikere Ekiti, Ekiti State, Nigeria
Email: obadarefelicia@yahoo.com
ABSTRACT
Peace and security, without exaggeration, are needed for a country to develop both the human and natural resources. That Nigeria is not safe, is purely stating the obvious. There is palpable fear within and without because of insecurity of unimaginable proportion in the land. Since independence, Nigeria is synonymous with political, religious, socio economic crisis while corruption and poverty are our siblings giving birth to novel crimes like terrorism, kidnapping, cybercrimes, ritual killing and so on. Without mincing words, there is absence of peace all over the country. Nigeria on the other hand is blessed with numerous languages to foster co-existence and enhance peace and security. Nigeria is a blessed country with a lot of resources but in an atmosphere full of security challenges, development becomes a mirage. The multiplicity of languages is a blessing and not a curse so all hands must be on deck to use the various Nigerian languages to ensure peace and security where everyone will be able to contribute his or her quota to the development of the nation. The focus of this paper therefore is how the numerous languages in Nigeria can be adequately utilized to enhance peace and security in Nigeria.
Keywords: Language, Security, Peace, Violence, Corruption, Kidnapping
