Bauchi Assembly Adopts Hausa as Official Language

Bauchi State House of Assembly has adopted Hausa Language to be the language of communication for members during plenary sessions.

Speaker of the House, Rt Hon Abubakar Y Suleiman, announced this at the plenary shortly after member representing Shira Constituency, Hon. Auwal Hassan, moved a motion, on Tuesday.

It was gathered that the move was part of the efforts of the House to give room to all lawmakers to contribute to debate. However, English Language will also be used concurrently with Hausa in the House.

Background

Hassan said that the English is the official language adopted for conducting of governmental and nongovernmental institutions in Nigeria and the Section 97 of the 1999 Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria and Order 3 Rule 8 of the Standing Orders of the Bauchi State House of Assembly 2017 provides that the proceedings and debates of the House shall be conducted in English Language, the house may conduct its business in one or more other languages spoken in the State.

What led to the resolution

He submitted that Hausa being the most popular spoken language in Bauchi, used for communication purpose by over 90% of people across the State, should be adopted in addition to English as second official language.

Seconding the motion, Hon. Musa Wakili Nakwada representing Bogoro Constituency, commended his colleague for the motion, recalling that he moved same motion in the 9th Assembly.

After the Speaker put the motion to voice vote, the house unanimously adopted