How I Discovered Ebira As Language In Google – Ex UniAbuja Vice Chancellor, Prof Nuhu Yaqub

Former Vice Chancellor of the University of Abuja, Professor Nuhu Yaqub has unveiled the discovery of one of the Nigerian languages, Ebira in the Google Search Engine (GSE).
Professor Yaqub, in a keynote address in Okene, Kogi State, at De Noble Club 10 Kogi Central annual lecture session titled: Salvaging Ebira Values And Language From Extinction…, said: “for a very long time, I have been intrigued by trying to find out which other ethnic groups throughout the entire world has a name similar to our ethnic group – Ebira.
“I googled the search engine， the only apparent engine in the world at the moment that anything in the fortress of knowledge could be dugout and/or could easily be accessed.
“My question to Google Search Engine (GSE) was posed thus: is there any ethnic community in the world that has its name and ‘identity mark’ and would thereby be called ‘Character,’ when the ethnic name is translated into the English language?”
Professor Yaqub said that the answer he got was that there was no such ethnic Community but that when he reframed the question after additional information thus: “has there been a language/community whose identification name is “Character,” no matter the language it is translated into, as has been discovered among the Ebira people of Nigeria?”
He said that the GSE responded by saying: “No, there isn’t information about a language (or a linguistic community) that has been translated (or identified) as a character after the Ebira language of Nigeria.”
The Prof said that the GSE went on to give detail information about Ebira language, even as he quarreled with the terminology that places Ebira as an ethnic minority.
“This marginalization costs us (Ebira) from enjoying any position, whether political, economic or infrastructural amenities that should have been due to us because of the numerous natural endowments nature has granted.
“Yet, if or assuming that Ebira Ethnic Groups are not scattered, we are estimated to number not less than two million strong. Our settlement in one place and not being scattered in various places would have probably qualified for a state of our own.”
Professor Yaqub explained that the lack of territorial contiguity among the various Ebira peoples who are now scattered and settled in Abaji, the Federal Capital Territory, Toto in Nasarawa State, in Koton Karfe, Kogi State; Akoko Edo in Edo State and several others, has robbed Ebira nation of its numerical strength, referencing en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ebira_people.
Professor Yaqub offered some suggestions on how to promote Ebira language, including the teaching of the language in schools, organising competition among the Ebira people, encouragement by the state government through policy formulation and funding and the urgent need to address and resolve the seeming controversies arising from the different dialects of the language, such as Egbura, Igbirra and Etuno, to determine which should be adopted as lingua Franca.
The lecture session was attended by top academic scholars, traditional rulers and authors of Ebira language, including Dictionary of the language.