Lafia Emir calls for recognition of Pidgin English as an official language in Nigeria

Emir of Lafia, Sidi Bage Muhammad I, has urged the Nigerian government to officially recognize Pidgin English as a language in the country.

Muhammad, a retired Supreme Court Justice made the call on Saturday at the 35th Annual National Conference of English Scholars’ Association of Nigeria (ESAN), in collaboration with Department of Languages, National Open University of Nigeria (NOUN) Abuja.

According to him, the recognition of Pidgin English was necessary as it would help unify the country.

He said it had enabled Nigerians communicate in times of difficulty.

“Pidgin English has done very well because it has become a medium of communication in this country.

“This has helped a lot of Nigerians who do not have a great command of English language opportunity to communicate with people at our level, and it has kept this country together.

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“I did say when we were having conference at the Court of Appeal to decide on some pertinent question that there is the need for pigeon English to be given some recognition in this country,” Muhammad said.

Muhammad stated that even the Court of Appeal recognized that Pidgin English could stand in the place of English and as such its statements were admissible in evidence.

He said: “There was this argument in the past whether a statement made in Pidgin English can be admissible in law; it was subjected to a lot of interpretations and it started from the level of the High Court and met us at the Court of Appeal.

“The decision of the High Court is that Pidgin English is not English and as such that statement cannot on its own stand the test of a statement; it has either to be interpreted in English which was what the court said it must be subjected to but that it will require some degree of corroboration.

“It came to us at the Court of Appeal and we sat at the panel to decide. Our decision at the court of Appeal was that Pidgin English is English, and we said that what is important is that it has communicated exactly what the owner of the statement intended to convey.

“Again, we said that the audience it was intended for fully understood it, so Pidgin English can stand the place of English and such statement can be admissible in evidence.

“We thought that the parties affected will appeal to the Supreme Court since it was of a national importance so that it can become a law and not be subjected to another form of interpretation next time, but they didn’t go to Supreme Court.”

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