February 21st was proclaimed as the International Mother Language Day by the UNESCO General Conference in November, 1999, to coincide with the day in 1952 when some language activists lost their lives campaigning for their mother language to be used officially. The day has been observed every year since February 2000. The 2025 celebration is the Silver anniversary and has the theme “Make Languages Count for Sustainable Development.” At the University of Jos, Nigeria, the Department of Linguistics and Nigerian Languages celebrates the day because of its unique location in an area that is a veritable ‘melting pot’ for diverse ethnic communities in Nigeria and the meeting point of two big phyla of African languages, namely Afroasiatic and Niger-Congo. The celebration serves to encourage people in our dense multilingual community to maintain the knowledge of their mother language while learning and using more than one language. It reminds us all to value, respect and promote cultural diversity and multilingualism as a means to creating understanding, tolerance, communication, and dialogue.

Anchor: Polycarp Dajang.

Discussants: Prof. Ihuoma Akinremi, Dr. Adewumi Erin, Mrs. Niri Gomwalk.

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