A push has launched to create a common language for all of the over 45 million Niger Delta peoples in 40 ethnic nationalities through an App called Wolo.
Language unification for the region is thus the highlight of the 10 years of the Maiden International Education (MIE) led by Greatman Badom.
Badom told the audience at the anniversary in Port Harcourt that MIE was also working hard to push the languages of the region out there in the international community through the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO), as well as attracting investments to the region.
Badom said the language App was created to preserve Niger Delta languages first. ‘This is because we’re teaching foreign and local languages at ‘The Language School’. We saw that other regions have one language each. When you come to the South-South, you discover that we didn’t have any general language. As a matter of fact, even in Rivers State, the Gokana man did not understand the Khana man. The Eleme man would not understand the Tai man, let alone the Ekpeye man understanding the Kalabari person.
‘So, we saw the need for an intervention plan and the invention or innovation was born out of the need to preserve Rivers languages. And in 2023, we took Rivers languages-Gokana, Khana, Tai, and Eleme precisely to HIGA 2023, a UNESCO program in Spain, a UNESCO-affiliated program in Spain.’
He said MIE has had to translate UNESCO poems. ‘I translated a poem into Gokana language at UNESCO, and it has been kept in the archives of UNESCO in Spain as we speak, both the audio and the written version of it.
‘So, these are the things we have been doing in The Language School: taking our language, our region, to the limelight, telling them that we exist, we are here.’
On one language for the region, he said MIE has started with Rivers State. ‘We have launched Wolo, and we are calling on well-meaning individuals to sponsor, partner on that idea of Wolo to make it a reality.
‘We are calling them for partnerships; we’re calling them for sponsorships to make the Wolo project a reality, where the child from Ikwerre, Kalabari, Ogoni, Igbo, Delta, Edo, who lives in the diaspora, can learn her mother tongue without hitches, especially learning at their own pace with respect to their time zone and time differences. That is what Wolo embodies.’
He said Wolo does not just propagate foreign languages; ‘Wolo creates an avenue for preserving our indigenous languages. Beyond teaching the indigenous languages, Wolo will also create an avenue for indigenes to serve as contributors to preserving their indigenous languages by providing weekly content and information on specific topics in their language.
‘The whole idea is to work Wolo along the lines of achieving the UNESCO Decade of Indigenous Languages, which is ongoing from now till 2032.’
On the main focus of MIE, Badom said MIE has trained over 3,500 students in the past decade, and that they look forward to training more through partnerships with schools
‘And during the COVID-19 era, we did a free language training for an audience of 203,000 people, and that got us a national merit award, known as the Education Advancement Award.
‘We got connected to UNESCO YOD, who saw us as a viable partner. We thus partnered and did the first UNESCO poetry competition in Rivers State for primary and secondary schools aimed at promoting poetry in indigenous languages.
‘We did that for three consecutive years, and we still look forward to many more UNESCO programmes in PH. It was on that premise that I was appointed the Head of Mission for UNESCO YOD, Rivers State.’
At The Language School, he said, they don’t just teach languages. ‘We have resolved to use our platform to create opportunities, drag opportunities into our area, and that’s why we did all we could to get the UNESCO partnership, because we told them there’s little or no UNESCO presence in the South.
‘In the course of dealing with UNESCO, we’ve been able to utilize our platform to expand opportunities even up to far Abia State. One of the days, we took the Abia State Commissioner on Creative Economy to the UNESCO National Commission. I led his delegation to the UNESCO National Commission in Abuja. So, we have been utilizing our platform to create influence and opportunities for the region.
‘During last year’s ‘Make in Nigeria Conference’, I was instrumental in bringing Dr Olagunju Latif Idowu, the UNESCO Secretary-General, to Port Harcourt. He was a speaker at the ‘Make in Nigeria Conference’. So, these are the ways in which we use our own association to create opportunities for others.’
In 2025, he said, MIE brought in the Canadian Deputy High Commissioner. They visited us. ‘But for the sake of this anniversary report we are doing, the fact is that we are able to use our own influence to create opportunities across the board and for other sectors. But at the end of the day, they came to Port Harcourt, and then there was a meeting with university Vice-Chancellors: University of Port Harcourt, then Professor George Will Owunari Abraham; Ignatius Ajuru University, Professor Onuchukwu Okechukwu.
‘We had a meeting with PAMO University. We had meetings with members of the tech, digital, and creative economy in Rivers State. Foremost of them was Havoc’s Tech Hub; they were there; Suncept, led by Sunny Apban, they were there. Suncept-S-U-N-C-E-P-T, like Sunny’s Concept-Suncept, they were there; Olumati Isaiah Company was there, represented by Olumati Isaiah himself; quite a number of people.
‘We had meetings with the creative economy with team players, frontline players like Havoc’s Media, Havoc’s Tech Hub, and Suncept. Technologies, Olumati Isaiah Company. These were points for people to interact, interface, and latch onto opportunities that are available.’
He stated they have done quite a lot in influence, creating influence within our sphere, and creating influence across the board. ‘So, what we do at ‘The Language School’ is not just a matter of Rivers State but for all of Niger Delta. It’s pan-Niger Delta because we understand the pain of the South-South, and we try to embody that pain by pursuing anything that advances the cause of the Niger Delta.’