A British Nigerian, Professor David Jowitt, who teaches English language at the University of Jos, Plateau State is dead. Three sources from the University of Jos (UNIJOS) confirmed his death to PrimeStar News.
Jowitt, who has lived in Nigeria for over 50 years and had his application to become a Nigerian successful this year died in a United Kingdom-based hospital on Sunday, August 13, 2023.
He is a professor of English specialising in English Linguistics with a special interest in World Englishes and Nigerian English.
Until his death, he was a Fellow of the Nigeria Academy of Letters (NAL), and English Scholars’ Association of Nigeria (ESAN). He officially became a Nigerian citizen on May 28, 2023, after the immediate past Vice President, Professor Yemi Osinbajo presented his official documents to him.
He has authored Nigerian English, Common Errors in English, and a memoir, which is yet to be published, chronicling his birth and growth in North London, his earliest memory of Hitler’s blitzkrieg over London, and his arrival in Nigeria.
Jowitt came to Nigeria in 1963 and stayed in Ubulu-Uku, Delta State, where he taught at the Grammar School for two years after which he made Jos his home.
Throughout his lifetime, he advocated that the Nigerian government should not allow English to kill Nigerian languages.
He had once stated at the University of Ibadan (UI), “English is a killer of languages and it is threatening other languages. Most of us want to see the threatened languages survive but I doubt if it is going to be possible. The young Nigerians are no longer competent in their languages.”
He was convinced that the Nigerian languages will go into extinction in the next few years if nothing is done to stop it, reiterating that without drastic steps taken to preserve the nation’s languages, in the next hundred years, Nigerian languages including the three major languages, Yoruba, Hausa and Igbo, would go into extinction.
According to him, “In the next generation, these languages will disappear. We can save them from going into extinction. As a person, I will want to save many languages from extinction because it is God’s gift just like wildlife animals and we should preserve the beauty of God by preserving His gifts including languages.”
The scholar noted that Nigeria would be better off if at least the main Nigerian languages are placed equally with the English Language, adding that it is better for the country to be at least a bilingual country rather than monolingual.
