LANGUAGE, CULTURE AND NATIONAL IDENTITY

Résumé

This paper discusses the terms language and culture and appraises their roles in the achievement of National Identity. It looks at the problems facing Nigeria as a multi-lingual country with multiplicity of languages and cultures. The work further examines the impossibility the realization of the WAZOBIA project as a means of achieving language cohesion in the country. It probes into the modality for evolving a workable national language and eliminating distrust and the tendency to publicize the nation’s linguistic phenomena. Is there any possibility of making linguistic behaviour effectively synchronize/grammar with societal behaviour in order to chart a smooth National course? It therefore upholds the use of the English language; the language of our colonial masters, only as an interim measure, for communication and general acceptability pending when a concensus and neutral language will be introduced for national identity. The paper encourages the sustenance of national symbols of identity like the National Identity Card, National Flag, common constitution and lawswhich will help foster unity among the multi-ethnic groups in the country.