The Place of English Language in the Development of Nigeria (original) (raw)

The target of every good government is to provide her citizenry with the basic amenities of life. Such has not been fully realized in Nigeria and cannot be realized at least for now, through her numerous vernaculars since none of them unites the nation. It is only a language which the peoples of Nigeria can use to relate with one another that can be used to build the nation. This role falls on the English language which is the nation's official and second language, as well as her lingua Franca. Consequently, this paper sought to highlight the roles the English language performs in the building of the Nigerian nation. The English language developed from Germanic and Romance (Latinate) sources and is traced to the Indo-European language family. It is spoken as a native language in Britain, America, New Zealand, Australia, Canada, South Africa, Ireland, and the Caribbean and as a non-native language in many other nations of the world. In fact, Rogers (2000:17) stated that "En...