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The public Hearing of the Draft Bill of the Nigerian Institute of Translators and Interpreters (NITI), which has been at the National Assembly for passage into Law, was held on 17th November 2009. A strong NITI Bill Defense Team was at the occasion and successfully defended our Bill against all vicissitudes. The team comprised Chief Union Edebiri, NITI Legal Adviser, Prof. Ekundayo Simpson, immediate NITI past President and Ex-Oficio Committee member, Prof. Tundonu Amosu, NITI National President, Mr. Wole Ajiboso, NITI National Treasurer and Mr. Joachim Okeke, NITI National Secretary.Three powerful defence presentations were made, first by Prof. Amosu, who laid a concrete defense foundation with his introductory speech; Prof. Edebiri next consolidated the edifice with his legally fortified defense memo, then Prof. Simpson laid on the cupola on the edifice with his protective and finishing presentation, which was based on his keynote address at the 2005 International Translation Day celebration. All three presentations sought to convince the Honourable members of the Committee to convince the National Assembly to pass our Draft Bill into Law. Honourable Farouk Lawan, Chairman of the House Committee on Education, presided over the Hearing, which started at 11 a. m. He agreed with the need to regulate the profession of translation and interpretation in Nigeria in order to separate the wheat from the chaff and keep the profession in its high and dignified position. He recalled a public event where the service of a sign language interpreter was hired because some deaf people were in attendance. Nobody in the audience suspected any foul play on the part of the sign language ‘expert' who was throwing his hands up and down like a choir master until the deaf people at the event protested the antics of the sign language clown. It turned out that the language ‘expert' knew nothing of sign language and had to be removed from the event. The Honourable members of the Committee, who had read the Draft Bill, then threw a number of questions at NITI, seeking answers and clarifications:
The National Secretary gave the vote of thanks to the Honourable House for Hearing us out and promising to take further action. Proceedings were adjourned at 12.40 in the afternoon. The Chairman offered NITI refreshment, snacks and lunch. It was indeed a memorable day.------------------------------------- Ladies and Gentlemen of the NITI fold, when a Draft Bill journeys through a Legislative House up to this stage, that Bill is usually as good as passed. Therefore, get ready to become a Chartered Translator and Interpreter as soon as our Bill is passed into Law, and that comes with greater demands of responsibility and professionalism. NITI is embarking on a nationwide registration of translators and interpreters who are not yet in our register. So please pass on the word to any language professionals around you to take this Professional Body serious now - register and pay your dues - because NITI is about to start functioning like the ICAN, NMA, NBA, NSE and professional bodies like that. More details will follow later.
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The Nigerian Institute of Translators and Interpreters has seen a lot of activity since the last post here. Apart from our regular meetings in Abuja, we held the last meeting of 2009 on Saturday 12th September, and the following deliberations were taken:
THE NITI BILL : The House of Representatives went on break briefly, so the planned NITI follow-up visit to the House could not hold. As soon as the House resumes business on 29th September, we will visit our contacts to put more effort into passing the NITI Bill into Law. This is a long process which we are achieving gradually. This meeting finally makes an urgent call to all NITI members to please pay up their 2008 and 2009 annual dues. Every association of professionals in the world needs funds to run its affairs and those funds come from the members. This great Institute of you and I lack the funds necessary to run it because members have not been paying up. Consequently, we once more remind to pay into the NITI ECOBANK account at any of the Bank branches nationwide. MEMBERSHIP DRIVE : We decided to intensify membership drive for NITI, contacting as many language professionals as possible who work in European as well as African languages. The All Nigerian Universities’ Association event at UNILAG in November would also be used to further this course. This meeting also decided to introduce Membership ID Cards and, possibly, Certificates for NITI members. ADMISSION INTO NITI : This meeting looked into the organization of paid admission examinations for language professionals who aspire to become NITI members, with the exception of experienced well established professionals who, in the assessment of NITI, should be exempt from the examinations. There would be initially two examination centres, Lagos and Abuja, and this year’s examination might hold in December or January 2010, and will comprise three papers: English, Translation (into the applicant’s target language) and a general paper. The examination fee will be fixed soon and new entrants into the NITI fold will have to pay either the examination fee or an admission fee (for those exempt from the exam). 9TH NITI AWARDS AND CONGRESS : In the earlier meetings, we had decided to hold a 9th NITI Awards and Congress on 30th September 2009 in celebration of the International Translation Day. But in this last meeting, for reasons beyond our control it was decided that the earlier fixed date was too close to organise and execute the event as planned, so NITI decided to still celebrate the International Translation Day but with a scaled down event. However, the preparations for the 9th NITI Awards and Congress would continue but the event has been moved to a date in 2010 to be announced later. Consequently, on 30th September 2009, our dear Institute held the NITI International Translation Day Awards and Dinner at the Rayfield Hotel, Asokoro, Abuja. This was a one day event comprising: - The presentation of the dinner speech. - Official presentation of two Awards: the Award for Institutional Excellence in Translation Promotion presented to the Voice of Nigeria (VON), and the Award for Interpretation Excellence given to Mr. Muyiwa Phillips, veteran Nigerian expert in the field of interpretation. - Dinner: Buffet was served by the Rayfield Kitchen. The event was well attended by NITI members and important invitees from different works of life. Let´s rub minds on the workings of our noble profession.
I wish to let you know that this page is designed for all NITI members to air their views about any topic that has to do with translation and interpretation in Nigeria and, indeed, in the West African subregion. Just use the contact form at this site to send in your contribution and your blog will appear here in a few minutes or hours, depending on a few factors. Please make your contribution not too long, say, two A4 pages maximum. Members also have the right to react to other people´s contribution. So dear colleagues, let´s keep our website buzzing starting from now. It´s been quiet for too long. The first salvo I have to fire is to say how dissapointed I am at the nonchalant attitude of members in responding to NITI requests, which are aimed at making us all proud. We announced after the 8th NITI Congress and Workshop that all those who presented papers at both the 7th Congress in Lagos and the 8th Congress in Abuja should please send in their papers in soft form, that is, typewritten and sent by e-mail. The deadline given expired, we gave more time and that one expired too; and how many people of all NITI responded? Only four. That´s right! Only four members responded after more that two months of notice. Well, like we mentioned in the notices, we are now going to press,and we are publishing only what we have. if any member does not find his or her paper in the publication, blame the paper presenters´devil. I want to see NITI people writing beautiful things that will appear on this page on a daily basis. Have your say, dear colleagues. I can´t wait to receive your writeup. Thank you. NITI Sec. |
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