An ex-presidential aspirant of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Adamu Garba, has claimed that Arabic is Nigeria’s official language in addition to the English language.
He made the claim via his Twitter handle, @adamugarba on October 27, 2022, while expressing his support for the redesigning of the naira, saying it is long overdue.
This claim is false, Here are our findings:
Research shows that there are over 500 native languages spoken in Nigeria. However, the official language of Nigeria is English, the language of the former colonial masters – the British.
The language is used for all formal communication in government and is also the language used in the drafting of legislation as well as in the Nigerian judicial system. English is also incorporated into the education system of Nigeria as the medium of instruction.
The naira notes have retained the inscriptions with the Ajami inscriptions since 1973 when the name of the Nigerian currency was changed to naira from pounds.
The Ajami was inscribed on the country’s currency by the colonialists to aid those without Western education in certain parts of the country, who, back then, constituted a larger part of the populace. The Ajami is not a symbol or mark of Islam but an inscription to aid the populace uneducated in Western education in ease of trade.
Conclusion:
Our findings show that although Arabic (Ajami) inscriptions are used in Nigeria’s currency, there is nowhere it is documented that it is an official language in Nigeria. The English language is the only known official language in Nigeria.
Hence, Garba’s claim that Arabic is an official language in Nigeria is false.
