The Place of French in Nigeria’s Language Policy Framework: A Comparative Perspective

Nigeria's language policy framework, as articulated in the National Policy on Education and related instruments, assigns French a specific but underimplemented role within the national language hierarchy, yet comparative analysis of how Nigeria's approach to French compares with those of other Anglophone African states with francophone neighbours has not been conducted. This study examines the place of French in Nigeria's language policy framework from a comparative perspective, drawing on policy cases from Ghana, Cameroon, and Gambia as comparators. A qualitative comparative policy analysis design was employed, combining systematic document analysis of language policy instruments in the four countries, expert interviews with twelve Nigerian language policy specialists, and review of implementation evidence from comparable contexts. The comparative framework assessed language policy across six dimensions: constitutional status, educational mandate, resource allocation, institutional infrastructure, enforcement mechanisms, and regional integration rationale. Results show that Nigeria's formal policy commitment to French is more explicit than Ghana's and Gambia's but less institutionally operationalised than Cameroon's constitutional bilingualism, which provides legal enforcement mechanisms absent from the Nigerian framework. Resource allocation to French education as a proportion of the education budget was lowest in Nigeria among the four comparators. The study argues that Nigeria occupies an intermediate policy position that combines ambitious policy rhetoric with weak implementation infrastructure, and recommends adoption of specific enforcement mechanisms and resource allocation benchmarks modelled on the stronger elements of the Ghanaian and Cameroonian approaches. Keywords: language policy, French language, Nigeria, comparative analysis, West Africa