Nigeria Chapter 18

What I found most interesting about this chapter on Nigeria was the complicated issue revolving around the great diversity of language, religion, and culture.  It is very apparent that this aspect of Nigerian society makes it extremely difficult to educate its large young population and to create a strong sense of national identity among its citizens.  Although it appears to be a much larger issue in Nigeria, this problem also occurs in European countries such as Spain and Italy, where a nation was created from a number of different regions, each with their own culture, variety of language, and history.  When Franco came into power in Spain, he sought to create unity among the different regions.  One way he attempted to do this was by limiting language to only Castillian, which was the only language to be taught and used in schools.  This created many issues because people of different regions felt like their culture was being compromised and still today there are problems with regions that desire to secede from the nation, such as the Basque region.  Ultimately, the resolution in Spain was to teach Castillian and the regional language in schools, which is similar to how in Nigeria the students study English as well as one of the three main languages.  It does seem to be problematic though, because so many other languages are learned and used in informal and nonformal settings.  Who is to say which languages are more important or "more educated" than others and therefore should be taught in formal settings.