Have u ever wondered why young children from the western part of Nigeria can't speak the yoruba dialect very efficiently? I will tell you why; It is because their parents didn't take their time to teach such children how tospeak the native language or what is is basically the mother tongue. Childern born between the 70s and early 80s are deeficient as far as speaking their mother tongue and you may want to ask this is so?Anyway, some of these children attribute this deficiencyto negligience on the part their parents, in failing to teach them how to communicate in their mother tongue.This is very prone in the eastern part of Nigeria, basically the igbos in particular and this affecting the children and youths from this region in communicating effectively among their peers and adults alike.

The term native language is used to indicate a language that a person is as proficient in as a native inhabitant of that language's base country or as proficient as the average person who speaks no other language but that language.. Sometimes the term mother tongue or language is used for the language a person learn at home,usually from one's parents. The usage of these terms is far standardized; however, the term first language is used for the language the speaker speaks best.
Sometimes, the term first language, second, and third langauge are used to indicate levels of language skills, so that it can be said that such a person knows more than one language asfirst or second language level. Mother tongue or native can also be misleading ,regardless of their definitions.It is quite possible that the mother tongue learned is no longer a speaker's dominant language, as in the case of of most Igbo indigenes, whose families have moved to a new linguistic environment, may lose, in part or in totality, the language they first acquired.

Mother tongue should not be interpreted to mean that it is the language of one's mother.In some paternal societies, the wife moves in with the husband and thus,may have a different first language or dialect, than the local language of the husband.Yet their children usually speak their language.Only a few will learn to speak their mother's language like native dialect.

Nevertheless, in the contemporary Nigeria, many youths have replaced their mother tongue with the English language,which is a borrowed language from our colonial masters, while others have become so conversant with the ever popular English lingo,otherwise known as pidgin English.I think the misconception of teaching our children English language as the first language should be corrected, so that our children would learn to appreciate their mother tongue.

If urgent measures are not taken perhaps in the nearest future, English language will take the place of our mother tongue.It is amazing how fast many Nigerians want to do away with their mother tongue.
Hopefully, it won't get to that extend whereby English will replace our mother tongue.
However, this ought not to be so because the mother tongue is our heritage and we should therefore guide it.There is need for a conscientious efforts by all stakeholders in preserving our mother tongue.Better orientation needs to be given to our youths on the benefits of preserving our mother tongue and passing it to generations yet unborn.

The home is the first point of call for a national effort in preserving our heritage.So the parents owe it as a point of duty to keep their children abreast with their mother tongue .Migration should not be an excuse to bastardize our native dialect rather it should be an avenue for propagating our mother tongue and possibly turning it into one of the international languages being spoken around the world.