Director-General, National Orientation Agency (NOA), Mr. Garba Abari, has appealed to Nigerians to stop referring to Nigeria as `Najia’ in order to maintain the originality of the country’s name.

Abari noted that the new trend of making funky the original name of Nigeria was worrisome and not in the best interest of the country.

He said “We try in all our advocacy visits to insist that Nigeria must be referred to as Nigeria and not Naija. So, our schools have a role to play in this; the media itself has also got a very fundamental role to play because it is the media that helps in the propagation of this kind of misnomer.

“All of us, as individuals, as corporate organisations, as media, whether broadcast, print or online, must wake up to the reality. That the more we use these misnomers referring to our country, the fallout of it is that, a significant percentage of our younger ones will not even remember that Nigeria is the original name of our country. I want to appeal to all Nigerians, young and old to always refer to our country as Nigeria.”

Abari also urged parents to key into the efforts to preserve the country’s original name by discouraging their children and wards from referring to Nigeria as `Naija’. NAN