Governor Abdulfatah Ahmed of Kwara State has advocated the standardisation of three Nigerian major languages to serve as languages of commerce and instruction.
The governor who made the call while receiving the national leadership of the Nigeria Academy of Letters (NAL), who paid him a courtesy call at the Government House in Ilorin, said it had become necessary to do something quick not only to enhance students’ performances but prevent the country’s languages from extinction.

Governor Ahmed who expressed sadness over the students’ performances, attributed the problem to the usage of English Language as a language of instruction.

The governor who expressed dismay over the quality of students churned out of schools these days, maintained that the situation called for urgent and serious attention. His words:”As a country, we have been faced with challenges in our educational system. We have had some policies somersault in the past and this policy somersault has not allowed us to truly take advantage of our strength in diversity and capacities.

“Constant changes in educational system has not allowed the country to derive the benefits accruable to a particular system and this has affected in tremendous terms the quality of people that are being churned out of schools today.

“Frightening enough, if you look at the quality of students that are being churned out of public schools, that defines the future of our country. And part of the challenges is the method of our educational system”. The governor also expressed concern over the possibility of the country’s languages going into extinction with the current situation, and appealed to the academy of letters to make concerted efforts to arrest what he described as southwards slide of our academic standard in the country.

The President of the Nigeria Academy of Letters, Prof. Olatunji Oloruntimehin had earlier in his remark said they were in the state for the annual lecture of the academy.
Prof Oloruntimehin added that one of the aims and objectives of the academy was to contribute to national development, explaining that the academy as the highest body in the humanities lead the ways in humanity studies for national development.