Prof. Funmilayo Adesanya delivered the IAUE’s Inaugural Lecture Series

….says “Language has the transformative potential to address Nigeria’s societal challenges”

Professor Mercy Olufunmilayo Adesanya of the Department of English and Communication Art, Faculty of Humanities delivered the 57th Inaugural Lecture of Ignatius Ajuru University of Education (IAUE), Port Harcourt, Rivers State, Nigeria, on Thursday, July 25, 2024 at 2:00pm in the Main Auditorium.

The Vice Chancellor, Professor Ugochukwu Onuchuku presided over the lecture, which was titled: “Leveraging the Transformative Potential of Language on Nigeria’s Societal Challenges.” Members of Senate and other members of the university community were fully present.

Professor Mercy Adesanya stated that, “Language has the transformative potential to address Nigeria’s societal challenges, especially the Nigerian indigenous languages,” and she explored the impact of indegenious languages on Nigeria’s societal challenges, using a case study approach.

The paper as a case study was thus presented as, “Leveraging the Transformative Potential of Language on Nigeria’s Societal Challenges: A Case Study of AUDIO Bible in Nigerian Indigenous Languages.”

Prof. Adesanya recalled Bishop Ajayi Crowther as being the pioneer and father of Linguistics in Nigeria and Africa. The hallmark of Bishop Ajayi Crowther’s fame in Linguistics was translating the English Bible to Yoruba language in 1885.

Prof. Adesanya further explained, “Nigerian indigenous languages are vital to the country’s cultural, social, economic, and political development. Their preservation and promotion are essential for maintaining cultural diversity, improving education, building communities, promoting economic growth and fostering national pride.” She asserts, “I hereby present THE AUDIO BIBLE in Nigerian indigenous languages as having the transformative potential to solve Nigeria’s societal challenges.

As an Applied linguist, she further propounds Artificial Intelligence Linguistics (AIL), as a new branch of Applied linguistics. In her words, “AI linguistics as a subfield of Applied linguistics would be rich and would focus on the interaction between computers and human language. It would involve the development of algorithms and statistical models that would enable computers to process, understand, and generate natural language data.

One of the key goals of AI linguistics would be to develop computers that can understand and process human language in a more human-like way. This would involve developing systems that can analyse and understand the meaning of language, rather than just processing it as a series of symbols as also agreed by McShane & Nirenburg, (2021).

Professor Adesanya the Don is a teacher, an administrator and has held many administrative positions within and outside the Ignatius Ajuru University of Education Port Harcourt, Rivers State, Nigeria, including being the former Director, General Studies, Entrepreneur and Skills Acquisition of the University, among others. She is currently a Professor in the Department of English and Communication Art.

The linguist was also a Dean at the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences of Regent University of Science and Technology, Accra, Ghana and Deputy Provost at Life Gate College of Education, Ilorin, Kwara State, Nigeria on sabbatical. She was a Visiting Professor to the University of Cape Coast, Cape Coast, Ghana and an external examiner and supervisor of Doctoral dissertations for the School of Postgraduate Studies of University of Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, South Africa.

She concluded, “first God and His word at the creation, then man and his languages and next it would be, AI and AI Linguistics in the development of mankind. The lecture was so thought-provoking drawing from her extensive research in her discipline over the years show casing the importance Nigerian Indigenous languages and Audio Bibles in Nigeria.