Language and health communication strategies towards effective public health communication programmes in Nigeria

Amuseghan Sunday Adejimola^1*, G. O. Ayenigbara² and Orimogunje Tunde³

¹Department of Arts Education, Adekunle Ajasin University, Akungba-Akoko, Ondo State, Nigeria.

²Department of Science and Educational Technology Adekunle Ajasin University, Akungba-Akoko, Ondo State, Nigeria.

*Corresponding author. E-mail: amusunny2000@yahoo.co.uk. 

Tel: +234-805-363-5149.

Accepted 24 February, 2010

   Abstract

Nigeria, as the most populous country in Africa, always receives the collaborative supports from international donors, government agencies and organizations for its public health communication programmes. Many positive results have followed such programmes in almost all fields of public health practices such as family planning, HIV/AIDS and others. This paper discusses some problems of Nigerian health practices and discovers that a greater number of the population lives in the rural areas of Nigeria and still upholds the old health beliefs. After a critical analysis, it is suggested that public health practices must engage audiences at all times, offer clear and captivating information and must receive feedback. The best approach is considered to be through multimedia methods. The paper concludes that with determination, professional skills, effective approaches and willingness to learn, family planning and health communication programmes should introduce cost sharing approach with the donor nations and agencies in order to achieve a desirable goal. Besides, the issue of the multilingual setting must be addressed so that both linguistic minorities and majorities and the official language, the English language, should be considered in the health communicative programmes in the 21^st century in Nigeria.

Key words: Language, communication, strategies, health, multimedia, effective, behaviour and rural community.