LITERATURE, LANGUAGE AND NATIONAL DEVELOPMENT: A QUESTION OF ESSENCE

Abstract

It is an unarguable fact that every country strives to achieve all-round development by formulating different policies; Nigeria is not an exception. In the country, several development plans have been carefully designed and implemented over the years. However, the country continues to experience several social problems and security challenges such as poverty, unemployment, corruption, ethnic rivalry, abductions and terrorism. These problems in totality show that there are still many issues to be resolved before national development can be achieved. Literature, since its formal beginning in Nigeria, has been committed to exposing these social vices and security issues with the aim of effecting correction for national development. The persistence of these problems unavoidably questions the essence of literature as a veritable means of solving these problems, in terms of immediate application of its proffered solutions. This paper critically shows how Nigerian literature has been able to effect positive changes in society, and also its inability to initiate useful transformation in other aspects. Closely linked to the above is the discussion of the place of language in Nigerian literature which is looked at from the angle of the Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis. This paper further sheds light on the relationship between literature, language and national development.