Centre for Social and Inter-Ethnic Cohesion (CENSIC), has criticised the Presidential Taskforce on COVID-19, over its indifference to the multi-ethnic composition of the country.
CENSIC said it abhors the way and manner, the task force tackled questions of newsmen, during the press briefing it held in Abuja on Thursday, April 2, 2020.
It condemned questions asked by various newsmen in Yoruba, Hausa and Igbo in a national setting that addresses issues of national importance, affecting all Nigerians.
Describing such act, as a flagrant disregard to the official language of Nigeria, which is the English language, the Director of Media, CENSIC, Mr Wellington Olaiya, said the centre abhors the task force’s indifference to the multi-ethnic composition of the country.
Olaiya said: “The Ministers of Interior; Environment, the Secretary to the Government of the Federation as well as the Director-General of the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC), who should know better, did not address such flagrant disregard of the official language of the country.
“We wish to remind these members of the executive arm of government as well as the newsmen involved, that there are over 500 indigenous languages in Nigeria, and therefore elevating any native language above others is nothing but a serious threat to inter-ethnic cohesion.’’
Olaiya, however, appealed to all government agencies and officials to display social intelligence in a multi-ethnic country like Nigeria while publicly denouncing actions seeking to elevate any language or ethnic group above others. ”
He added: “There are many regional print and electronic media with large followers, who may not understand English; so these regional media houses may be engaged at the appropriate time, but communicating in select languages over a national issue, is very unfortunate, especially when the matter at hand is of utmost importance to all Nigerians.
“We shall not fail to undertake court action against any government official or agency that continues to disregard the official language and multi-ethnic composition of Nigeria in the course of their official duties.”