Nigeria is currently faced with two major problems which necessitate the use of the broadcast media to satisfy the ever-increasing demand for qualitative education in the country. These are population explosion and debilitating mass poverty. Population explosion in the country has greatly increased the need for more schools so much that demand now far outstrips provision of education opportunities, particularly at the post-secondary level. In addition, the Nigerian society is currently handicapped by a crippling economic crisis which has forced many people out of school as a result of growing inability to meet the cost of training, like tuition fees and board charges.

  A way out of these problems lies in the provision of educational opportunities through the use of radio and television broadcast. Only when radio and television are fully utilized for teaching and learning can the foundation be laid for mass education in the country. Besides, using radio and television to transmit educational programmes can cut the cost of education as boarding and tuition will become unnecessary for most beneficiaries. At the moment, many Nigerians are unable to enrol to stay on in school because of the high cost of education and because government is unable to provide the staggering amount needed to finance mass education via the traditional school system

  Also of importance is the fact that radio and television will offer good opportunities for the standardization of education in the country. At the moment, the best school in terms of facilities and qualified teachers are concentrated in the urban centres to the detriment of the rural areas. This has given rise to imbalance and uneven distribution of qualitative education in the country, so much so that experienced and qualified teachers often reject posting to rural schools, while over-concentration leads to under-utilization of capable hands in urban schools. Since educational broadcasting involves the best brains producing and broadcasting educational materials from one central location and reaching out simultaneously to scattered audience in the rural and urban areas, the quality of educational provision will be made even throughout the country.

  The usual argument against the use of radio and television for teaching is the absence of immediate feedback which is thought to be essential for learning. But this handicap is more than compensated for by the listener’s or watcher’s ability to record and play back as often as he or she likes, any part of the lesson he or she may find confusing or difficult to understand. Besides, support facilities like telephone and postal services may be used to clarify difficulties or answer students’ questions. In addition, since Nigeria is still largely an ornate society, using radio and television for direct teaching will not pose a serious communication problem. A beginning must therefore be made to promote aggressive school broadcast in the country.

  In 1968 Nigeria was the world biggest producer of groundnuts (averaging 712,600 tonnes a year), the second producer of cocoa (203, 600 tonnes) after Ghana, the fourth producer of tin (13,264 tonnes) and the biggest producer of columbite. Oil palm, growing wild and in plantation in the south, supplied half the world’s export of palm kernels (407, 200 tonnes) and seventy per cent of the world’s export of palm oil (152, 700tonnes). Nigeria forests covered some 310, 800 square kilometres and produced about 1.132 million cubic metres of timber a year, for export as logs, sawn timber or plywood sheets. Rubber was grown by peasant farmers and, increasingly in plantation; and was partially processed in local factories. The ancient livestock industry of the north still supplies the whole country. About a million cattle are slaughtered annually, and the trade is now being modernized and expanded. As a by-product of the type of skin inaccurately called ‘Moroccan leather’ comes from Nigeria.

  The standardization processes of Nigerian pidgin seems to have started during the post-colonial period. Naturally, Nigerian pidgin appears to be the first choice of most Nigerians in informal situations, especially when they are among those from different ethnic and linguistic background. Thus, the selection process has tactically taken place. Among all the languages used in Nigeria today, English inclusive, Nigerian pidgin could be said to be the most widely spoken. Evidence abounds in motor parks, parties, congregations and most social occasions. There is also ample evidence in the electronic and print media, especially in political propaganda, campaigns and product advertisement. Thus, in terms of spread and extensive use, Nigerian pidgin could rightly be called a national lingua franca.

  The use of Nigerian pidgin in contemporary Nigerian could be described as most productive, extensive and complex. It appears that the standardization processes-selection, codification, elaboration of functions and acceptance-which started in the post-colonial era, are as now being completed in contemporary Nigeria. The reason for this assumption is simple-apart from its complex use as a lingua franca, languages of media advertisement, social interaction, unofficial military training and limited literary output, Nigerian pidgin gas attained widespread acceptability in the media, political propaganda and campaigns as well as soap operas. It is also the language of radio and television jingles. Most electronic media now use appreciable percentage of their airtime to cast news and give reports in Nigeria pidgin. Even though its use in some newspaper columns has declined, especially with the demise of the ‘Waka About’ column in the Daily Times, it is however found extensively in some newspaper advertisements

  In places like Warri, Sapele and Port Harcourt, there were reports that teachers at lower primary level taught their pupils in Nigerian pidgin. This unofficial adoption of the Nigerian pidgin as the language of the lower primary education by those teachers is justifiable considering the provision in the National Policy on Education, which states that in addition to English, the major language in the child’s environment could be used at the elementary level of education. Similarly, Nigerian pidgin has become a language of religious preaching, especially Christianity. In most rural and even urban centres where congregation are not all very well-educated, pastors resort to the use of Nigerian pidgin.

  The use of the Nigerian pidgin as a literary language tends to have started in the sixties with the work of Achebe, Soyinka and others. But it is in the contemporary times that it has become most widespread. The number of poems, novels and plays written and published in Nigerian pidgin is growing even more rapidly. Many more literary writers now attempt to experiment with the language. Therefore, the evidence of codification and elaboration of functions and the partial or tactical acceptance of Nigerian pidgin are clearly visible.