From Okey Sampson, Umuahia
The federal government has upgraded the National Institute for Nigerian Languages (NINLAN), Aba, Abia State, to a degree-awarding institute.
The outgoing Executive Director of the Institute, Professor Obiajulu Emejulu, who disclosed this, added that the National Universities Commission (NUC), in a letter dated May 20 and signed by its Director of Academic Planning, gave approval for the Institute to run full-time degree programmes.
Professor Emejulu announced that the courses for which the Institute will be awarding degrees include B.Ed. Early Education; B.Ed. Business Education; B. Library and Information Science (B.LIS); B.A. Igbo and Community Studies; B.A. Ed. Igbo Language; B.A. Linguistics; and B.Sc. Mass Communication.
Professor Emejulu disclosed that the Institute received approval to run the degree courses in affiliation with the Nnamdi Azikiwe University, Awka, with effect from the 2024/2025 academic session.
“I am glad that I am exiting as the Executive Director of NINLAN, leaving the Institute as a degree-awarding institution, something that had eluded it for more than three decades, in spite of many efforts.
“I urge both the National Universities Commission and the National Assembly to speed up the review and amendment of the NINLAN Act to enable the Institute to award its degrees, as stipulated in its Act, without affiliating with any university.”
He called on the Federal Government to amend the Act regulating the Tertiary Education Trust Fund (TETFund) to include the four Inter-University Centres in the country.
The centres are NINLAN; the Nigerian French Language Village, Badagry; the National Mathematical Centre, Abuja; and the Arab Village, Ngala.
He also urged the Federal Ministry of Education to give NINLAN its due place and regard in the implementation of the recently approved Nigerian Language Policy, as this will help to realise the aims of the policy.
Emejulu highlighted other achievements he made on the academic front in his five-year stay at NINLAN, including getting approval from the National Commission for Colleges of Education (NCCE) to run NCE programmes and award the certificate, something he said was not previously available.
“Of course, we have sustained and upgraded our older academic programmes, namely, the Postgraduate Diploma/Postgraduate Diploma Conversion Programme; Sub-degree Diploma; and Diploma Programmes.
“More and more Nigerian languages are now catered for in our programmes. We cover Igbo, Hausa, Yoruba, Efik/Ibibio, Urhobo, Tiv, Fulfulde, Kanuri, etc. Under my watch, the Institute now has more academic staff to man the various programmes.”
Other achievements, according to Emejulu, include the Institute holding its first-ever convocation, improvements in staff welfare, infrastructural development, erosion control, and the inauguration of a Nigerian languages development app called Omenka App or “Aapu Omenka” in Igbo.
The NINLAN ED said the aim of the app, and equivalent apps for other languages that are in development, is to enable Nigerians to learn their languages online from any part of the world.