Ex-Presidential candidate of the Mass Action Joint Alliance (MAJA), Prof Mercy Olufunmilayo Adesanya, has urged Nigerians to create a conducive environment where everyone could access their rights and protections as enshrined in the Constitution and harness the power of Language and Linguistics.
She also advised that all evil vices in the country would have to be shunned. She identified some of the societal ills to include corruption, insecurity, terrorism, banditry, etc which he noted had been leading to retrogression, lack of peace, unity and progress in the country.
Adesanya, who also is of the Department of English and Communication Arts, Faculty of Humanities spoke while delivering the 57th Inaugural Lecture of Ignatius Ajuru University of Education (IAUE), Port Harcourt, Rivers State, Nigeria according to a statement on Tuesday.
The Vice Chancellor, IAUE, Prof Ugochukwu Onuchuku presided over the lecture, which was titled: “Leveraging the Transformative Potential of Language on Nigeria’s Societal Challenges: A Case Study of Audio Bible.” Members of the Senate and other members of the university community as well as other invited guests, friends, family members and acquaintances attended the intellectual harvest.
Adesanya explored the impact of indigenous languages on Nigeria’s societal challenges, using a case study approach.
She said: “Languages, especially the Nigerian indigenous languages have the transformative potential to address Nigeria’s societal challenges.”
The don recalled Bishop Ajayi Crowther as being the pioneer and father of Linguistics in Nigeria and Africa.
According to her, Bishop Crowther was responsible for creating the Yoruba alphabets from English alphabets, compiling a Yoruba dictionary and writing many books including, “A brief History of the Yoruba.”
She added that the hallmark of Bishop Ajayi Crowther’s fame in Linguistics was translating the English Bible to Yoruba language completed in 1883.
Adesanya said: “Nigerian indigenous languages are vital to the country’s cultural, social, economic, and political development. Their preservation and promotion are essential for maintaining cultural diversity, improving education, building communities, promoting economic growth and fostering national pride. I hereby present the Audio Bible in Nigerian indigenous languages as having the transformative potential to solve Nigeria’s societal challenges.
“Faith Comes By Hearing [FCBH] giving the Apps for free, is an international Christian organization with a vision to providing the Audio/Video Bible to the peoples of the world in their heart languages [mother tongue] for the purpose of engagement with the word of God for the transformation of lives and communities.
As an Applied linguist, she further propounded Artificial Intelligence Linguistics (AIL), as a new branch of Applied linguistics.
Adesanya said: “AI linguistics as a subfield of Applied linguistics would be rich and would focus on the interaction between computers and human language. It would involve the development of algorithms and statistical models that would enable computers to process, understand, and generate natural language data.
“First God and His word at the creation, then man and his languages and next it would be, AI and AI Linguistics in the development of mankind. The lecture was so thought-provoking drawing from her extensive research in her discipline over the years show casing the importance of Nigerian Indigenous languages and Audio Bibles in Nigeria.”
According to the statement, Prof Adesanya is a don, an administrator and has held many administrative positions within and outside the Ignatius Ajuru University of Education Port Harcourt, Rivers State, Nigeria, including being the former Director, General Studies, Entrepreneur and Skills Acquisition of the University, among others. She is currently a Professor in the Department of English and Communication Arts.
It added that the linguist was also a Dean at the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences of Regent University of Science and Technology, Accra, Ghana and Deputy Provost at Life Gate College of Education, Ilorin, Kwara State, Nigeria on sabbatical.
“She was a Visiting Professor to the University of Cape Coast, Cape Coast, Ghana and an external examiner and supervisor of Doctoral dissertations for the School of Postgraduate Studies of University of Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, South Africa.
“Her contribution to the field of Applied linguistics is invaluable proposing and propounding as an Applied Linguist, further studies in Linguistics and Artificial intelligence (AI), the study of AI Linguistics (AIL) as a branch of Applied Linguistics; as well as, the study of AI Biblical Linguistics (AIBL) as a further extension of the AIL branch of Applied Linguistics,” it added.
