France, March 23 -- Ejigbo is located north of Nigeria's economic capital, Lagos and more than 350 kilometres from its French-speaking neighbour, Benin.   

In the streets here, where the official language is English, one can hear what is called 'petit francais': a clever mix of words in Yoruba and Baoule, all interspersed with French words. 

Although surrounded by French-speaking countries such as Benin, Niger, Cameroon and Chad, Nigeria has very few French speakers, even though teaching the language is in theory compulsory up to secondary school.

But there is a severe shortage of teachers. Links with Abidjan  

Since the ...