By: Tajudeen Babamale
The Ag. Station Manager of Unilorin FM, 89.3, Mr Idris Ibrahim Akintola Alooma, has advocated the unbundling of Yoruba Studies in Nigerian higher institutions.
Mr Alooma gave the the suggestion on Wednesday (January 29, 2020) while speaking on the topic “Yoruba O re bi kan” meaning Yoruba is Going Nowhere at a career talk programme organiseed by the Unilorin chapter of the ‘Egbe Akeko Ede Yoruba’ (Yoruba Students Association) held at the old Faculty of Arts Boardroom, University of Ilorin.
He suggested that the Yoruba Study Should stand on it’s own as a faculty and be splitted in to six departments so as to give room for the in-depth knowledge of the course, saying in a convincing explanation that the existing Yoruba iStudy is too wide to remain a department.
He said the programme should be splitted into Yoruba Literature, Yoruba Culture, Yoruba Stylistic, Yoruba Ifaology, Yoruba Broadcasting and Yoruba Advertising, while the Yoruba Study will have its own faculty.
Alooma, who is a UNESCO award winning broadcaster, however, encouraged the students of Yoruba Studies not to be pessimistic about the future, saying there are jobs at the teaching profession, journalism, performing arts and translator arts.
He also said they could become consultants, script writers, as bankers and many other professions waiting for the graduates of Yoruba Studies.
He appealed to the students to develop positive mental attitude to whatever they are doing, saying that their future is guaranteed.
He added that students of Yoruba Studies have what other courses dont have but Yoruba has what other course have.
He also encouraged them to be proud of the culture because among the tribes in Nigeria, Yoruba people are the most educated, most intellectual, beautiful set of people, well dressed, the best in entertainment industry, hardworking, and nationalists who believe in one Nigeria.
Earlier in a remark, a senior lecturer in the Department of Yoruba Studies, University of Ilorin, Dr Layo Ogunlola, who said no language is superior to one another, encouraged the Yoruba native speakers to cherish their heritage and must not allow it to go into extinction.
Dr Ogunlola also counselled the students to be proud of the course they are studying, adding that, being a graduate of Yoruba studies does not make one an herbalist.
While observing that there has been a fallacy on Yoruba Studies as a religion education especially as people conceived it to be studying herbalism, the scholar however, explained that the programme is purely intellectual and has nothing to do with religion.
He also lamented the proportion at which Yoruba and other indigenous languages in Nigeria have been degraded to mean vernacular to the extent of pupils paying fines for speaking their native language at the expense of foreign languages such English, French and Arabic. He said such practices must be abolished.
Earlier in a welcome address, the President of YOSA, University of Ilorin Ogbeni Salaudeen Jamaldeen Opeyemi, appealed to parents not to discourage a child who has passion for studying Yoruba, saying, it is a course that everyone should promote.
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Is a good and lofty advice.