World richest man grants interview in ‘Pidgin English’, says 'Nigeria dey important'

shakirudeen taiwo

September 24, 2017 9:08 PM

This has just certified Pidgin English as acceptable version of standard English language.

The BBC Pidgin service achieved another great fate by interviewing Bill Gates, the world richest man, in the adapted English language.

According to the email sent by the BBC world service to media houses in Nigeria, Bill Gates was interviewed by three top child-rights activists using the Pidgin English. These personalities are Hadiza Bala Usman of the Bring Back Our Girls Campaign Tonte Ibraye of the White Ribbon Alliance for Safe Motherhood and Papa Omotayo of the Child Life Line organization.

This version of English is mostly spoken in the Southern part of Nigeria,large swathes of West Africa and parts of Cameroon

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Mr Gates said in Pidgin English about Nigeria and the work of his foundation in the country.

“Im talk say Nigeria dey very "important" for di world and for di kain work wey im Foundation dey do 2because of di country population.

“Di health situation for Northern Nigeria dey very challenging,” Mr Gates remarked.

He also responded to one of the questions which asked about how his foundation is helping IDPs in Nigeria to access proper medical care.

“Im talk about how im organisation, Gates Foundation, dey help try reduce number of mama and pickin dem wey dey die for di country.”

“Mr Gates no dey work alone; e talk say im dey work with government dem and NGOs plus people, including Africa's richest man wey be Aliko Dangote,” Mr Gates responded.

The BBC Pidgin service was launched on August 21, 2017, as one of the local languages expansion programs of the BBC global media network.

Other indigenous language service launched include Afaan Oromo, Amharic, Gujarati, Igbo, Korean, Marathi, Pidgin, Punjabi, Serbian, Telugu, Tigrinya, and Yoruba.

shakirudeen taiwo