Most indigenous Naija languages go disappear within di next few generations. No be doomer I be. I just dey extrapolate based on current trends. Like me, many young Nigerians no fit speak dia heritage language. Or dem fit speak am small but dem no déy fluent enough to pass am to di next generation. To add insult to injury, many Naija households déy multilingual. Wetin e mean be sey, even though di two parents sabi speak dia own heritage language, dem no dey speak am for house becos dem no sabi each oda language. English na di common language, so dem no go pass dia language to dia children.
Jejely but surely, we dey head towards language death for di majority of Naija languages. One day, yor descendants go wake up realize sey dia heritage language don disappear. Even di major languages like Yoruba, Igbo and Hausa no déy safe. E go take longer, but e go happen. Unless something change.
E funny becos many years ago, I bin dey look forward to di day wey all di Naija languages go disappear. For my mind dat time, na awa linguistic diversity be di major cause of di disunity wey dey plague awa country. Of course, I bin wrong. No be linguistic diversity be awa problem. Tribalistic people go déy tribalistic, weda dem dey speak di same language or not. Things boku to déy tribalistic over, from religion to football. Language na just one of dem.
So wetin we fit do to stop dis disaster? In my opinion, e no get plenty things wey we fit do. Di problem déy solvable but we no get di bandwidth to tackle am. We get bigger fish to fry. Insecurity déy. Poverty déy. Poor infrastructure déy. I fit list di wahala wey we get for Naija from now till tomorrow. Di long and short be sey dis language preservation matter déy di bottom of di list. By di time we go get time to tackle am, e go don too late.
Naija Pidgin na very interesting language. E get many reasons wai dis language dey fascinate me. As person wey like to dey study languages, di grammar na one of dem. But wetin dey fascinate me pass about dis language be sey, even though di language get plenty stigma around am, e be di de facto vernacular for Naija. Actually, wetin dey happen be sey, Naija Pidgin dey replace awa heritage languages as vernacular.
E go hard to sustain all or even most of awa indigenous languages reach di next couple generations. Na very hard problem to solve, di solution go expensive, and we get more pressing issues to tackle for dis country. Wetin no go hard to sustain na Naija Pidgin. And if yu reason am, Naija Pidgin na amalgamation of multiple Naija languages, with English as di base. So e get DNA from different-different Naija languages. Maybe di way wey dese languages go live on na through di vestiges wey déy Naija Pidgin. Na wai I dey double down on Naija Pidgin.