Monday, October 13, 2025 - A United States–based language expert, Dr. Foluso Okebiorun, has called for the inclusion of Nigerian Pidgin English in the national school curriculum, describing the language as a vital unifying force and cultural asset that reflects the nation’s creativity and resilience.
Okebiorun, a former faculty member at Northshore Community
College in Massachusetts and a former public-school teacher in Lagos, made the
call in a recent study on Nigerian Pidgin usage.
The study was first presented at the Society of Pidgin and
Creole Languages Conference in the United States in 2022 and later published in
an academic volume in 2024.
She observed that although attitudes toward Nigerian Pidgin
vary, the language has become an indispensable means of communication across
social classes and media platforms—citing the BBC News Pidgin service as a
major example of its growing influence.
“Nigerian Pidgin is more than just a language; it is a
societal symbol that unites Nigerians. It reflects our history, resilience, and
creativity,” she argued.
Her research, which examined inscriptions on public
transport vehicles in Nigeria, found that Pidgin expressions were often
preferred to those in other languages. These expressions, she noted, commonly
convey “defiance, protest, aggression, experience, and advice,” demonstrating
the expressive power and cultural depth of the language.
Okebiorun emphasized that Nigerian Pidgin possesses
proverbs, idioms, humour, and linguistic patterns characteristic of a fully
developed language. She maintained that incorporating it into schools would
enrich learning, validate students lived experiences, and affirm the linguistic
creativity born from the fusion of English and indigenous languages.
She also highlighted Pidgin’s potential to promote national
unity, noting that in a multilingual nation with over 500 languages, it serves
as a common lingua franca that transcends ethnic and regional divides.
“It is time for Nigeria to embrace its linguistic reality,”
she said. “By incorporating Nigerian Pidgin into the school system, we can
preserve our cultural identity, promote inclusivity, and foster mutual
understanding among students from different regions.”
The scholar recommended that Nigerian Pidgin be taught as a
subject in secondary schools and called for the development of a standardized
orthography to ensure formal recognition and consistency in its use.
She further urged policymakers, educators, and parents to
see Pidgin not as a threat to English proficiency but as a bridge to it—arguing
that its deep borrowing from English vocabulary can create a more inclusive and
comfortable learning environment.
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