By Sonny Iroche
The recent announcement by the Federal Government of Nigeria cancelling the earlier National Language Policy (NLP) mandate, requiring Hausa, Igbo, Yoruba and other indigenous languages to serve as the primary mediums of instruction in early education, has generated understandable debate. However, when examined through the lenses of global competitiveness, Nigeria’s developmental realities, the demands of the Fourth Industrial Revolution, and empirical data on learning outcomes, the decision deserves commendation.
Truth be told, Nigeria is currently at a critical inflection point. The world is accelerating into an era governed by science, data, artificial intelligence, advanced computing, biotechnology, robotics, space research, and high-end manufacturing. Virtually all the technical vocabulary that drives these modern sectors exists in English or other global languages that dominate research, innovation, and scientific documentation. Our indigenous languages rich, beautiful, and culturally indispensable, have simply not yet attained the conceptual maturity required to teach, examine, and innovate at the cutting edge of modern science and technology.
This is not a criticism of our languages; it is a reflection of our stage in the global knowledge economy. While some proponents of indigenous-language instruction compare Nigeria to China, Japan, Korea, or India, those comparisons overlook crucial historical facts. Asian giants have spent centuries deliberately developing their languages, building local research institutes, translating global scientific literature, advancing STEM education, and investing massively in human capital. Nigeria and most of Africa are still grappling with multidimensional poverty, institutional frailties, inadequate public funding, and poor learning outcomes. The priority now must be catching up, not romanticizing systems we have not yet built.
If parents who insist on mother-tongue instruction have not taught their children those same languages at home, why should the burden shift to schools? Language preservation, like culture, begins in the family and community. It thrives in storytelling, songs, social interactions, and family upbringing, not as the primary medium of teaching physics, chemistry, robotics, biology or computer programming. Nations that successfully preserved their languages did so from the bottom-up, not through top-down government compulsion.
The Federal Government, led by the Minister of Education, Dr. Tunji Alausa, is correct to emphasise evidence over sentiment. According to the extensive data analysed by the ministry, students taught predominantly in indigenous languages performed significantly worse in WAEC, NECO and JAMB examinations, especially in English comprehension and STEM subjects. The government noted that the regions that implemented the mother-tongue policy most aggressively saw some of the highest national failure rates.
As Dr. Alausa rightly stated, “Using the mother tongue language in Nigeria for the past 15 years has literally destroyed education in certain regions. We have to talk about evidence, not emotions.”
The minister’s bluntness may be uncomfortable, but the data speaks for itself. Educational policy cannot be grounded in nostalgia or cultural sentiment alone; it must be rooted in what improves learning outcomes.
Moreover, the language of global commerce, science, diplomacy, higher education, aviation, maritime navigation, and technology remains English. The CEO of Nvidia, Jensen Huang, leading the world’s first $5 trillion company, operates in English, despite his Asian heritage. The ten most valuable companies in the world, Nvidia, Apple, Microsoft, Amazon, Alphabet, Meta, Saudi Aramco, and others, are global, multilingual institutions whose core operations remain anchored in English. The world’s technological standards, research journals, scientific databases, coding languages, and academic reference systems overwhelmingly use English as the universal academic and commercial interface.
Nigeria cannot afford to isolate itself linguistically at a time when we are already lagging behind. No Nigerian university is ranked among the top 1,000 in the world; our tertiary research output remains low; our educational system struggles with inadequate funding, poor teacher preparation, and infrastructure deficits. These are the urgent battles. Our challenge is not the language of instruction. Our challenge is leadership, leadership to solve corruption, unemployment, hunger, insecurity, underemployment, poor planning, and lack of innovation ecosystems. These, not English, are the true obstacles hindering African development.
The Fourth Industrial Revolution will not wait for us to catch up. Data is the new crude oil, and artificial intelligence is reshaping education, healthcare, agriculture, finance, security, city planning, governance, and manufacturing. To participate meaningfully, our children must be fluent in the language of AI, science, engineering, and global business, which is English. What we should be debating is how to make our children globally competitive, not how to re-engineer the curriculum around languages that are not yet scientifically or technically equipped.
This is why the Federal Government’s stance is both strategic and timely.
At the 2025 Language in Education International Conference in Abuja, Dr. Alausa reaffirmed that English will remain the medium of instruction “from pre-primary to tertiary levels,” explaining that data-driven decision making must guide Nigeria’s educational reforms. The Minister of State for Education, Prof. Suwaiba Ahmed, added that new training packages are being developed to strengthen literacy and numeracy, core foundational competencies that Nigerian children urgently need.
Rather than debating instruction languages, we should be focused on STEM expansion, teacher retraining, AI integration into schools, curriculum modernisation, and digital skills development. We should be building laboratories, funding research, upgrading technical colleges, and strengthening early childhood education. We must build institutions, empower teachers, and reward excellence. These are the systems that truly drive educational transformation.
Nigeria’s indigenous languages must absolutely be preserved, celebrated, and taught, but as subjects, not as the principal medium of instruction for the sciences and technologies that will determine our survival in the global economy. Families and communities should revive storytelling, local literature, cultural associations, and language clubs. Government can support through documentation, local content development, and cultural preservation initiatives. But we must not confuse cultural pride with educational strategy.
The Federal Government has made a difficult but necessary choice, one that prioritises the future of Nigeria’s children and aligns the nation with global best practices. For a country seeking to bridge the widening gap between the Global North and South, this decision is pragmatic, forward-looking, and development-oriented.
Nigeria must focus urgently on learning outcomes, digital skills, STEM competence, and global competitiveness. English, as the universal language of science and technology, remains our best tool for that journey.
In applauding the Federal Government’s decision, we affirm a simple truth: our children deserve the best education possible, not the one most convenient to our emotions. The world is moving fast. Nigeria must move with it, and continue to provide leadership for Africa.
Note: Sonny Iroche is
* CEO, GenAI Learning Concepts Ltd
* Senior Academic Fellow. African Studies Centre, University of Oxford (2022-2023)
* Post Graduate, Artificial Intelligence, Saïd Business School. University of Oxford. UK
* Member, National AI Strategy Committee of Nigeria
* Member, UNESCO Technical Working Group on AI Readiness Assessment
* LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sonnyiroche
