Lifestyle

“THE DEATH OF YORUBA LANGUAGE?”-BY YEYE AKILIMALI FUNUA OLADE

Published

2 months ago

January 9, 2026

(ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED ON THE Editorial Page in THE GUARDIAN NEWSPAPER,2005)

“Mommy,Daddy,””Kilo happen? Ma worry! Kini nice day.” Surely this not YORUBA this Yoruba is speaking,but everyday the Yoruba are destroying the language like this!

THAT English, the ready-made weapon of British-American cultural imperialism, is not just trying to destroy African languages, but is attacking all other languages worldwide, I agree.

Ojoogbon Akinwunmi Isola, related to me during a discussion with Ojoogbon Babatunde Fafunwa, the problem the French are having with English.

He stated that the French government had recently warned all French broadcasters to stop polluting French with English, as is now popular in general French conversation, or face dismissal.

The greatest tragedy in Yorubaland today, however, regarding language is the dominating trend to speak only English to their children, making it their first language, then sending them to private nursery school, who only teach in English and causing Yoruba children to value English above all other languages!

(After all their WAEC will not be in Yoruba, one highly*educated Yoruba man told me!)

And see the result! These English-speaking children will rudely use English to disrespect all and sundry (after all English does not have pronouns of respect for anybody).

Ask them or some of their parents and they will tell you they don’t know the original Yoruba for the popular phrases that many literate and non-literate leaders and followers commonly use throughout Yorubaland.

As a Black-American, who has come back to her Yoruba roots these past 26 years in Nigeria, I want to break down in tears over this “iyonu”! How can Yorubas kill their own language?

What sort of curse is this?

Obviously the curse of european-american imperialism/colonialism/slavery! As a result I have declared “War Against Destroying Our Nigerian Languages” from today. And it must start from Yorubaland.

Are not the Yorubas the “wisest and the greatest”?

As everything good seems to start from Yorubaland in Nigeria, “let it be so”. Full-blooded Yoruba, as of today should consciously seek not to mix English with their Yoruba.

Yoruba leaders must slowly speak, watching their tongues, not to include any English word inside their Yoruba.

It has gotten to a state where such leaders cannot avoid mixing English as they speak Yoruba and their every sentence includes whole English phrases! The late Yoruba leader, Oloye Bola Ige was a pure Yoruba language speaker and other Yoruba leaders should follow his example.

All clubs and organisations in Yorubaland should hold bi-annual and annual Yoruba Speaking Competitions for the “Best Yoruba Speaker”, with heavy monetary prizes (N20,000 plus) to get Yorubas to consciously practice speaking Yoruba without any English mixture.

Yoruba broadcasters are guilty of promoting this deadly trend. In schools, Yoruba teachers must stress the importance of not mixing Yoruba.

All private schools in Yorubaland must be required to have classes in Yoruba language from nursery through secondary school levels. And any student who fails to pass Yoruba in Yorubaland must not be allowed to graduate!

The Yoruba press must be commended for indeed holding the banner high and not polluting Yoruba with English.

More effort, however, must be made to eliminate “pasito”, “professor”, “dokita” words as most of them have genuine Yoruba words that can be enlisted and popularised among their readers.

Yoruba departments in Nigerian and foreign universities must start churning out more research on modernising Yoruba for technical, scientific and other vocabulary and making it available through special courses for the media and the general Yoruba public.

Yoruba writers must begin to write and publish bilingual publications. For any publication they publish in English, its Yoruba equivalent must be done.

In the same book (Yoruba-from the front, turn upside down, English from the back) is one way to do it or in a title simultaneously released.

More books, magazines, other publications like club histories, year books must be published in Yoruba.

Yoruba music too, has been assaulted by Yoruba artists, unknowingly killing Yoruba language. The mixture of English has reached a new high in Fuji.

Yoruba gospel has started mixing English inside Yoruba songs within Yoruba cassettes, adding along side complete English songs! Olodumare!

Such artists must be warned—no more killing of the language in this manner.

If it is English you want then put that on an English cassette.

Do not replace our God-given Yoruba in a Yoruba music cassette!

Yoruba movie practitioners are perhaps the biggest offenders and must take up this challenge to save Yoruba language.

English mixing should absolutely be banned in all Yoruba films.

I have not researched the topic but I suspect that Hausa, is probably the most unpolluted language in Nigeria, and in all their films that I have seen any English there at all.

The beauty of the Yoruba language must be showcased by having more Yoruba Cultural Festivals to be held by all clubs and organisations in Yorubaland annually.

Odua’s People Congress and other enforcers of law and order in Yorubaland must be in the vanguard, not only by stressing among its members that Yoruba should not be polluted but by holding bi-Annual Yoruba Speaking competitions for the “Best Yoruba Speaker”.

They must lead the way in correct Yoruba speaking and have literacy classes for all their members to learn to read in Yoruba and encourag them to speak Yoruba in the home to their children: Yoruba must become again the first language of Yorubas at home and abroad.

A private Yoruba school system must be set up. These schools will teach all subjects in Yoruba from nursery up to the university eventually. If it must be like a “mushroom school”, starting with nursery school first and adding class by class this must be done. This Yoruba Academy can be supported extensively by Yorubas abroad, eventually having board houses were Yoruba children from abroad can join their counterparts here, (including all “classes of children, street children etc.) This Yoruba Academy will inculcate Yoruba culture into our children also. With the help of our Yoruba scholars we can build on Ojoogbon Babatunde Fafunwa’s successful “Mother-tongue Education” at University of Ife in the 60s. Afterall, even UNESCO has proven that Mother-tongue Education is the best for all children.

Let Yoruba Language not die! God has given the Yoruba race a language to be proud of, anywhere in the world (there are at least 60 million or more Yoruba speakers throughout the world). Let’s not destroy it with our own mouths!

Let us pass it on in its richness to our children, daily in our home. Let us proudly speak it daily, read it daily, champion it daily. Yorubas cannot remain great without our language.

And let us be in the vanguard of saving all Nigerian and African languages. Biu, Ogoni, Urhorbo, Igele, Ogoja, Ebira, Idoma, Efik, Tiv, Langale: Tangale, Kagona, Kutep, Oron, Legdo, Bubiaro, Esan, Afima, lsekiri, Ijaw, Edo, Ikenne, Joba, Gwari, lbo, Igala, Hausa, speakers are you listening?

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Lifestyle

Niger laments inadequate data for women’s health research

Published

23 hours ago

March 3, 2026

Newsbreak365_Admin

The Niger State Government has decried the paucity of data to aid research in health conditions affecting women.

It urged health-related agencies and the federal government to deploy resources as well as funds to build up a database to enhance research into the health conditions of the black woman.

The Niger State Commissioner for Health, Murtala Bagana, made this known during a stakeholders’ engagement and media interaction on the need to prioritise women’s menstrual and reproductive health through evidence-based research and policy leadership put together by Youterus Health in collaboration with White Ribbon Alliance Nigeria

In a chat with newsmen, Bagana lamented what he termed “years of inadequate attention to women’s health by policymakers and government institutions”, and stressed that the research conducted by White Ribbon Alliance Nigeria would help policymakers better understand and address long-standing health challenges faced by women.

“Niger State will be part of the entire exercise of the White Ribbon Alliance Nigeria. As a commissioner and with my team, we want to be involved in field research because we are the ones who will ultimately implement the findings.

“The state will advocate for the adoption of the research findings at the National Council on Health meeting scheduled for November 2026. I hope to champion discussions on the outcome of the study,” he said

The Commissioner commended Youterus Health and White Ribbon for their engagement with the state and for raising awareness on women’s reproductive health challenges.

The Chief Executive Officer of Youtherus Health, Dr Fatou Wurie and the Executive Director of White Ribbon Alliance Nigeria, Chief Tonte Ibraye, in their remarks, noted that issues related to African Women’s health are being shrouded in secrecy due to inadequate data.

“Because of the inadequate data on African Women’s Uterine health burden, issues related to African Women’s health have been shrouded in secrecy,

“However, an African-led company, Youterus Health and civil society White Ribbon Alliance Nigeria are calling for tailored research on African women’s womb health. It is past time to unmute the womb, they said.

The Youtherus Health boss added that women’s health should be given priority as it concerns developing data to aid research

“Nigerian women tend to develop fibroids at a younger age compared to women in Western countries. While the average age range in Western populations is between 40 and 46 years, Nigerian women develop fibroids much earlier, between 35 and 37 years.

“57.4 per cent of Nigerian adolescent girls experience heavy menstrual bleeding, and the average delay between the onset of symptoms and seeking medical care exceeds 20 years.

“The absence of a national screening programme, patient registries to track outcomes, and dedicated research funding for uterine health in Nigeria, women’s health remains under-prioritised, under-researched and under-measured,” Wurie stressed.

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Lifestyle

Popular Nigerian biker dies in lone Lagos crash

Published

23 hours ago

March 3, 2026

Newsbreak365_Admin

Popular Nigerian photographer and biker, Orowole Kolapoz, widely known as Kola Onifoto, has died following a lone motorcycle accident in Lagos.

The 32-year-old travel enthusiast and brand influencer was reportedly involved in the crash on Sunday during what he described as his first solo motorcycle trip outside Lagos.

Just hours before the accident, Kola had shared on his official Facebook page that he was heading to Akure on his bike. “Big shout out to those who have ridden their bikes to every state in this country, to Africa, and across the world, especially women. My eye see wheeen,” he wrote on Sunday, March 1, 2026.

Friends later disclosed online that he had been involved in the accident and was initially rushed to the emergency unit of the Federal Road Safety Corps at 7UP, Ojota. He was subsequently transferred to the Lagos University Teaching Hospital, Idi-Araba, where well-wishers continued to pray for his recovery on social media.

Tragically, Kola succumbed to his injuries in the early hours of Monday, March 2.

News of his death sparked an outpouring of tributes and emotional reactions from friends, colleagues, and followers. Facebook user Georgiana Onyinye wrote, “We prayed, we cried, and hoped to hear better news, but unfortunately, death had other plans. Kola fought so hard. You tried to stay alive, but death had other plans. You will be greatly remembered. Rest easy, K.”

Details surrounding the exact cause of the crash remain sketchy. In January, Kola had celebrated achieving his dream of becoming a biker, sharing a photo of himself posing beside his new motorcycle.

Victoria Ayagwu also mourned his passing while reacting to the news of his death on Facebook.

“All the posts was just me keeping my hopes up and hoping on miracle..oooooooo because I heard from his closest friend yesterday night that he’s gone, he died on the spot. I don’t know why we are here at all. Kola spoilt my night and my whole day,” she wrote.

“Hot tears rolled down my cheeks. Haven’t had any encounter with him, but the way he fights for people drew me closer to his page. Goodnight Mr Kola,” Emmanuel Collins wrote.

Naomi Balogun, who claimed to have just started showing interest in his write-up, also wrote: “I have never felt so bad about a stranger’s death like I felt for you. I hope it’s not true. I just started having an interest in your writeups. This breaks my heart. I’m not a close relation, and I am already physically down, how much more people close to you. Oh! What is life?”

The spokesperson for the Lagos Sector Command of the Federal Road Safety Corps, Oluwadamilola Jayeola, did not respond to calls made to her telephone line. A text message sent to her had yet to be replied to as of the time this report was filed.

Post Views: 40

Lifestyle

Who Is Ayatollah Arafi? 10 Key Things To Know About Iranian Supreme Leader

Published

2 days ago

March 2, 2026

Oluwagbenga Olaoye

Iran’s interim leadership council has appointed Ayatollah Alireza Arafi as the clerical member of the body now exercising the powers of the late Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

Arafi officially assumed the role on March 1, 2026, in accordance with Article 111 of the Iranian Constitution, which provides for a temporary leadership structure pending the selection of a new Supreme Leader by the Assembly of Experts.

Article 111 stipulates that in the event of the death or incapacitation of a Supreme Leader, a temporary leadership council assumes the responsibilities of the office until a permanent successor is chosen.

With Khamenei’s death, the interim council has now begun overseeing the functions traditionally exercised by Iran’s highest political and religious authority.

Arafi’s appointment places him at the centre of this sensitive transition, as the country navigates a period of political uncertainty.

As a senior Shi’a cleric, Arafi is widely regarded as a figure with influence across Iran’s major institutions, including the military establishment, the judiciary and the religious seminaries.

Until the Assembly of Experts concludes its deliberations and selects a permanent Supreme Leader, Arafi and other members of the interim council will collectively exercise the constitutional powers attached to the office.

Ten key facts about the acting Iranian leader:

1. Born in 1959 in Meybod, Yazd Province, Arafi rose through Iran’s clerical ranks over several decades.

2. Ayatollah Alireza Arafi practices Islam, follows the Twelver Shi’a denomination, adheres to Ja‘fari jurisprudence, and upholds the Usuli creed.

3. In Qom, he completed his primary school education. At the same time, he began his seminary courses and preliminary courses. Later, he also attended seminary courses and learned Arabic and English. Furthermore, he studied mathematics and philosophy. (Qom is widely regarded as Iran’s religious capital and a major centre of Shi’a scholarship).

4. Arafi has attained the rank of mujtahid because of his expertise in Islamic jurisprudence and philosophy, and he has authored and co‑authored numerous works on these subjects — including the book Education Jurisprudence (Al‑Fiqh Al‑Tarbawi). Some of his academic articles, published in Iranian journals, cover topics such as Islamic jurisprudence, educational law, and social issues.

5. Between 2008 and 2018, he was President of Al-Mustafa International University, an institution that trains clerics and religious scholars from Iran and abroad.

6. He has served as the Friday Prayer Imam of Qom since 2015.

7. Since 2016, Arafi has headed Iran’s nationwide seminary system, overseeing religious education nationwide.

8. Arafi holds the religious title of Ayatollah, a rank accorded to high-level Shi’a clerics with advanced theological scholarship.

9. He has served as a member of the Guardian Council since 2019, a powerful constitutional body responsible for vetting legislation and supervising elections in Iran.

10. He has also been a member of the Assembly of Experts since 2022, a clerical institution constitutionally mandated to appoint and oversee the Supreme Leader.

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