MULTILINGUALISM AND THE NATIONAL LANGUAGE QUESTION

We do have nations being described as multilingual, if more than two languages are the official languages, as in Switzerland. In the Ex-colonies, the problem of multilingualism is a little different because of the diverse ethnolinguistic backgrounds of the people. The imposed languages serving as unifying forces are not the languages of any one group in the nation. Sequentially, two problems are created in the National Language question. The first is the importation of English into the country, as in Nigeria, as far back as the 15th century; and Lord Lugard’s amalgamation of the Southern and Northern protectorates in 1914. Along with this foreign language came its foreign culture. The English Language does not at all qualify as the Nigerian National Language. Secondly, the government incapacitated itself by giving official recognition to only three out of 521 languages (Oyetayo, 2006) and using the derogatory term “MAJORâ€, meaning that all the other, over 518 languages are “MINOR†languages. A titanic criticism on the government is that totalitarian posture, posing instability to the corporate unity of the nation. There is no categorical statement for an indigenous language, taking over from English. Any proposal that does not take into cognizance the multilingual nature of the country is not likely to succeed. To solve this, we propose that the language spoken by the smallest (micro) population in the country be selected. This should be allowed to develop from within, then expand to some other languages in the form of borrowing, as borrowing is a normal consequence of the natural contact of language in multilingual societies

Prognostic model to predict postoperative acute kidney injury in patients undergoing major gastrointestinal surgery based on a national prospective observational cohort study.

Background: Acute illness, existing co-morbidities and surgical stress response can all contribute to postoperative acute kidney injury (AKI) in patients undergoing major gastrointestinal surgery. The aim of this study was prospectively to develop a pragmatic prognostic model to stratify patients according to risk of developing AKI after major gastrointestinal surgery. Methods: This prospective multicentre cohort study included consecutive adults undergoing elective or emergency gastrointestinal resection, liver resection or stoma reversal in 2-week blocks over a continuous 3-month period. The primary outcome was the rate of AKI within 7 days of surgery. Bootstrap stability was used to select clinically plausible risk factors into the model. Internal model validation was carried out by bootstrap validation. Results: A total of 4544 patients were included across 173 centres in the UK and Ireland. The overall rate of AKI was 14·2 per cent (646 of 4544) and the 30-day mortality rate was 1·8 per cent (84 of 4544). Stage 1 AKI was significantly associated with 30-day mortality (unadjusted odds ratio 7·61, 95 per cent c.i. 4·49 to 12·90; P < 0·001), with increasing odds of death with each AKI stage. Six variables were selected for inclusion in the prognostic model: age, sex, ASA grade, preoperative estimated glomerular filtration rate, planned open surgery and preoperative use of either an angiotensin-converting enzyme inhibitor or an angiotensin receptor blocker. Internal validation demonstrated good model discrimination (c-statistic 0·65). Discussion: Following major gastrointestinal surgery, AKI occurred in one in seven patients. This preoperative prognostic model identified patients at high risk of postoperative AKI. Validation in an independent data set is required to ensure generalizability