Ohanaeze Ndi Igbo - Why We Don't Speak Igbo at Our Meetings

During an Igbo language programme organized by the Igbo Youth Movement (IYM) for secondary school students in Enugu, the umbrella association of all Igbo cultural unions, Ohanaeze Ndigbo, has given reasons for Igbo language not being spoken at Igbo gatherings by Ndigbo.

Professor Ben Nwabueze, the former National Secretary of Ohanaeze, who spoke during the event, lamented that Ndigbo do not speak the Igbo language to themselves because most of them were promoting their various dialects instead of speaking the central Igbo as there are as many Igbo dialects in many local communities.

According to him, Ohanaeze Ndigbo once decided that its meetings and activities would be conducted in Igbo, but this did not work because there were several Igbo dialects spoken in various parts of Igbo nation unlike Hausa or Yoruba which had acceptable central language.

"We once said at an Ohanaeze meeting that all our meetings would be conducted in Igbo because we realized that our language was dying, but this did not work. The first day we decided that we must speak Igbo in our meetings, the late governor of Anambra State, Chief C. C. Onoh spoke his own brand of WAWA Igbo.
"Onoh spoke at length and most people did not understand what he was saying. Every other person spoke his own dialect and at the end, nobody spoke Igbo again at Ohanaeze because none of us understood one another’s dialect," he said.

Former Registrar of the West African Examinations Council (WAEC) and now traditional ruler, Professor Chukwuemeka Ike, who contributed during event, blamed the inability of Ndigbo to speak Igbo on the missionaries who established schools in Igbo land.

"When I went to Government College, it was an offence to speak Igbo in the school then. When I left the college, I travelled overseas for further studies. Writers should publish their books in both English and Igbo languages," he added.