Multilingual Education for Nation Building: The Case for French Language

Abstract

Language is man's essence and his vehicle for communication with people. Given her heterogeneous linguistic nature, Nigerian citizens tend to have ethnic consciousness rather than national loyalty. Bearing the Nigerian background in mind one may hardly see the need for another foreign language in the Nigerian educational system. But Nigeria, being an Anglophone country cannot remain alone. She is surrounded by French-speaking neighbours with whom she has to interact and enter into international cooperation. Together, these countries in the sub-region can then form a front to find solutions to their common problems of poverty, underdevelopment and unnecessary inter-tribal wars. This paper proposes to review multilingual education and highlight how French language can contribute towards the national development and building of our country.