The Minister of Information and Culture, Alhaji Lai Mohammed has advocated more global funding and provision of modern learning resources for Arabic language.
The minister made the call on Sunday in Abuja at the Arabic Language Learning Workshop organised by the Embassy of the United Arab Emirates (UAE) in Nigeria.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports the event is in commemoration of the UN World Arabic Language Day which is celebrated annually across the globe on Dec. 18.
The Minister said the Arabic Language is in dire need of more funding and provision of modern learning resources, to continue to play its role as a partner in the advancement of human culture and civilisation.
He, therefore, called on nations across the world to use the occasion of the celebration to ponder on the challenges confronting learners of the language globally.
The minister noted that the Arabic language is one of the ancient and earliest-known languages to mankind.
“It is unique and renowned for its rich diglossia and employed on a daily basis as a medium of spiritual and theistic interactions between God and adherents of Islam, who number 1.8 billion people.
“Furthermore, Arabic is that language that forges global alliance and unity among disparate racial and ethnic communities and nations.
”It is one that has proved to be a veritable tool in global efforts that target the realisation of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals, particularly SDGs numbers one to five on the eradication of poverty and hunger,” he said.
The minister said that Arabic has contributed to national development in Nigeria and functioned as the storehouse of the nation’s history.
He said the language is being spoken by the Shuwa-Arabs, an ethnic stock in the northeast of the country with cultural and historical affiliation to the wider Baqqara tribe in East Africa.
Speaking in the same vein, the UAE Ambassador to Nigeria, Dr Fahad Al Taffaq said the Arabic language remains a pillar of the cultural diversity of humanity, being one of the most widely spoken languages in the world.
According to him, Arabic is used daily by more than 400 million people across 25 countries globally and in more than 10 countries in Africa including Nigeria.
He said Arabic was adopted as the sixth official language of the UN in 1973 and has played a catalytic role in the emergence of civilisation.
NAN reports the workshop featured recitation of Quran passages while lectures were delivered by Prof. Elkhidiru Mohammed of Nigeria Centre for Arabic Research and Dr Taher Abdelaal of the University of Abuja. (NAN)
