I received the recent announcement of the federal government’s cancellation of the mother-tongue education policy with profound dismay. The declaration, made by the Minister of Education, Dr Tunji Alausa, at a British Council conference, is more than a routine policy adjustment. It is a direct assault on Nigeria’s cultural sovereignty and accelerates the erosion of our indigenous languages. 

To justify this reversal on the grounds of poor student performance is both misguided and dangerously simplistic. It overlooks the persistent root causes of educational decline — chronic under-funding of public schools, inadequate teacher training and the near-absence of structured pedagogical resources for indigenous-language instruction. To blame our native tongues for failures of implementation is akin to blaming the roots of a tree for the gardener’s neglect.

Language is not the problem; it is the foundation. It is the vessel of thought, identity and worldview. To strip a child of their mother tongue in the classroom is to disconnect that child from their culture, their ancestors’ wisdom and the power of self-definition. Research by UNESCO indicates that learning in one’s mother tongue leads to better comprehension, stronger cognitive skills and improved long-term learning outcomes. English proficiency does not flourish from English-only instruction—in fact, it is strengthened when rooted in solid native-language understanding. Thus, a policy elevating English as the sole medium of instruction from preschool through tertiary education is not just pedagogically unsound—it is culturally suicidal.

This change carries hidden costs that extend far beyond the classroom. It will erode cultural identity by severing children from the proverbs, folklore and ancestral wisdom embedded in language—the very bedrock of who we are. It will create spiritual disconnection by dismantling indigenous world-views and belief systems that form our moral frameworks. It will foster educational regression by ignoring the body of research supporting mother-tongue education as essential to comprehension and critical thinking. And, perhaps most perilously, it will reinforce a neocolonial mindset by prioritising English—a colonial language—as the singular tool of progress, thereby perpetuating cultural inferiority and dependence. This is not evolution of education; it is the re-awakening of linguistic colonisation in a new guise.

If the government’s intention is truly to improve educational outcomes, the solution does not lie in abandoning our linguistic roots but in reinforcing them. Nigeria must recommit to investing in teacher training and the development of high-quality learning resources in indigenous languages. The problem with prior policies was not the principle of mother-tongue instruction, but its weak implementation. We must also adopt a bilingual/multilingual model—one that equips children to master both their mother tongue and English, enabling them to engage confidently with their local culture and the global community. Furthermore, we must harness cultural platforms such as the African Indigenous Language Film Festival, which demonstrates through film that our languages are not archaic or obsolete but vibrant, modern and capable of expressing the full range of human experience.

The African Indigenous Language Film Festival was founded on the conviction that our languages are not relics of the past but living, breathing vessels of creativity, innovation and identity. The government’s policy reversal represents a betrayal of that belief—and of our collective future. It risks producing a generation fluent in English yet alienated from its roots; a generation that can articulate foreign concepts but cannot name its own heritage. Such an outcome would mark not progress but loss—a quiet, collective forgetting of who we are.

I therefore call on the government to reconsider this short-sighted decision and to look beyond exam metrics when crafting education policy. We must think in terms of legacy — not convenience. The true measure of progress lies not in how well our children imitate foreign models, but in how confidently they carry their own identity into the world. Let us not preside over the silent funeral of our own languages. Instead, let us build an education system that honours our past, empowers our present and safeguards our cultural and linguistic diversity for generations yet unborn.

— Osezua Stephen-Imobhio
Founder, African Indigenous Language Film Festival (AILFF)

The  3rd edition of the, African Indigenous Language Film Festival 2025 is scheduled to be held between 3rd and 5th December at Freedom Park, Lagos and it promises to be more than a celebration of cinema. It is poised to be a reflection of conscience, a call to inclusion, and a reminder that through film, Africa continues to tell its own story—boldly, truthfully, and beautifully.

For partnership/Sponsorship support, call: +2348023141942 or email: ailfffilmfestival@gmail.com