A renowned scholar, Professor Temitope Olumuyiwa, has raised fresh concerns over the gradual extinction of the Yoruba language, blaming government policy failures and the negative attitude of Yoruba parents for the decline.
Delivering the 47th Inaugural Lecture of Adekunle Ajasin University, Akungba-Akoko, on Tuesday, September 2, 2025, Prof. Olumuyiwa lamented that the failure to fully implement Nigeria’s National Policy on Education, as well as the stigmatization of Yoruba as “vernacular,” has placed the language on the brink of disappearance.
The lecture, titled “Changing the Change: Yoruba Language and Dialectology in a Changing Society,” spotlighted several challenges, including poor enforcement of the policy mandating the use of mother tongue in early education, the dwindling enrolment in Yoruba courses, and the neglect of Yoruba in higher institutions despite clear constitutional provisions.
“It is unfortunate that younger generations are abandoning Yoruba in favour of foreign tongues,” he said. “Parents discourage their children from speaking their dialects, not realising that they are pushing their culture into extinction.”
Olumuyiwa warned that if urgent steps are not taken, non-Yoruba, including foreigners, might soon be the ones teaching the language in Nigerian schools.
Ironically, he noted, foreigners are increasingly showing interest in learning and preserving Yoruba, with platforms such as BBC Yoruba, the Metropolitan Police in London requiring Yoruba as a second language, and Saudi Arabia recently translating the Arafat sermon into Yoruba.
The professor also faulted the waning interest of publishers in Yoruba texts, declining reading culture, and the proliferation of unqualified teachers, which, he argued, have further eroded standards of spelling and writing.
This decline, he said, is visible in wrong spellings on billboards, films, and even in schools.
He urged parents to take the lead in preserving the language: “Every Yoruba parent must cultivate the habit of teaching and speaking Yoruba to their children, while also developing a positive attitude towards its study.”
In his remarks, the Vice Chancellor of Adekunle Ajasin University, Prof. Olugbenga Ige, who chaired the occasion, described inaugural lectures as platforms for showcasing years of rigorous scholarship and commended Olumuyiwa for his immense contributions to knowledge and pedagogy.
