I'm curious as to why families don't speak their native language at home in Nigeria. I'm afraid I don't know a lot about your history, but I'm guessing British colonisation brought the English language in and I know many countries where they banned them from speaking their native language during the British empire. Did this happen in Nigeria too, is that why some parents no longer know their language well enough to teach their children, or was it more a way to try and fit in better with the colonisers? Do they only speak English in the schools?
I gather you have a variety of tribal languages across the country as well, so I guess English would be a language to allow communication to happen more easily across the country. Would this have had an impact too?
This is actually what happened to us here in Nigeria, but it was prevalent in the urban centres, people in the rural areas weren't given stiff restrictions in terms of language prohibition except those who had court cases at the colonial bench.
These prohibitions in the urban centres have negative effects on the urban dwellers. Look at the effects on the populace in today's Nigeria.
Yes! And this in collaboration with neocolonialism have made most of our cultural heritage to be buried underneath the ground. Young ladies are no longer proud of their mother tongue. The other day, listened to my neighbor telling her daughter to maintain the proper stress patterns in English while she spoke to her. It should be noted that I've never heard her daughter speak her native language.
Thanks for stopping by, I hope this explains the question.