You are welcome to the 2022 pre-Valentine’s Day edition of this column: did you know that English is the most romantic language of love? A sage once said there was no romance without finance—this is sweet and pleasant to my ears! Do you agree with that declaration? Let us converse.
Now, back to business: “Bill to increase minimum educational qualification for president, lawmakers scale (scales) first hurdle”
“Importers raise alarm (the alarm) over private jetties operating illegally as container terminals” (Maritime, February 2)
“Rivers communities threaten to shutdown (shut down) NLNG Train 7 project (sic)”
“Residents, monarch hail Uzodinma’s flood control (flood-control) project at Amaraku”
“…as you can easily settle your children’s school fees (children’s tuition, preferably) and pay back (and repay) over a 36 month (36-month) period.” (First Bank advertisement in major national newspapers, February 2, 2022)
National News of February 2 falsified the English language on four occasions: “Ad, media stakeholders partners on value addition” Brands and marketing partner
“Winners emerge in LG win a trip to Dubai promo” Life is Good: LG’s win-a-trip-to-Dubai promo
“His depth and finesse as a professional stands (stand) him out amongst equal….” Current trend: among equal….
“Fire guts ATM machine, office equipment at MMA2” (sic) It is mandatory to drop ‘machine’ from that headline!
“Communities benefit from World Bank assisted dev project”. World Bank-assisted dev project
“All strategic decisions in the All Progressives Congress under the tepid and visionless presidency of Muhammadu Buhari are taken by a caucus of mediocres.” (The Moment, February 8) Get it right by using any of these: mediocrities, mediocrists or the mediocrity. ‘Mediocre’ is exclusively an adjective.
“Ex-head of states, who have cracked and liquidated the nation’s coffers, are to be paid N2.1 billion this year.” (Daily Trust, February 8) Building a new nation: Ex-heads of state
“Vocational equipments, basic infrastructures and qualified personnels must be given priority in our scheme of things.” (Blueprint, February 7) Uncountable words: equipment and personnel.
“The news of the death of…via a ghastly motor accident recently came as a rude shock to us.” (The Pilot, February 8) Advert condolence: fatal (not ghastly) motor accident. Beyond the correction, since the man died, there was no need for the inclusion of the mode of mishap. Simply: a motor accident. Got the point?
“But suffice it to say that those rooting to unseat a recalcitrant lawmaker should be abreast with (of) the legal bottlenecks rather than arm-twisting.” (DAILY CHAMPION ONLINE, February 8)
“Even there is a lacunae in the recall clause.” (Source: as above) Singular: lacuna; plural: lacunae or lacunas.
“It is very easy for a moneybag (moneybags) who has….” (Leadership, February 9)
“…our eating and living habits can predispose our systems for (to) such diseases as….” (Nigerian Tribune, February 8)
“2 vigilante men roasted” (DAILY INDEPENDENT, February 8) First: 2 vigilance men; second: the men were burnt, not roasted! Have we lost the human dignity?
“…that is a prerequisite for development in (on) the African continent.” (THISDAY, February 8)
DAILY INDEPENDENT of February 8 disseminated the next three errors: “UN abandons troubled spots in Africa” Get it right: trouble spots.
“This is tragic and a degradation of human specie (species).”
“Staff of the Federal Ministry of Education and its agencies in Lagos has (have) been told they have till next weekend to present their papers.”
“As he spoke to the admiration of the labour leaders and journalists at (on) the occasion….” (THE GUARDIAN, February 8)
“The stories, in the opinion of the trial judge, was (why these recurring discords?) considered embarrassing to the government.” (Vanguard, February 8)
“Journalism schools should include courses on shedding crocodile tears to (in) their curricula.” (The PUNCH, February 8)
“The police has an image problem, too.” Bound to correction: The police have….
“I have persistently advocated, without much success, the need to align policy-making to (with) crime control….”
“But if the House Ethics Committee fails to sanitise (sanitize, according to latest lexicography) affairs, then we would be setting a dangerous precedence contrary to the Buhari and Enwerem example.” (DAILY INDEPENDENT, February 8) Not yet: a dangerous precedent.
“Additionally, signals suggest that a lot of work still need (needs) to be done to get us on the democratic superhighway.” (THE GUARDIAN, February 8)
“The purchasing power in the hands of consumers have (has) been going down; it means that effective demand for goods and services are (is) reducing.”
“Houses, furnitures and domestic helps are not provided for as government regulation, as we do here.” No question about this: ‘furniture’ is uncountable.
“The executive cannot acquiesce to a patently wrong situation in demur in a similar situation.” (Leadership, February 8) The legislature we deserve: acquiesce in (not to).
“It was later gathered that the mayhem was as a result of conflict (a conflict or conflicts) between two cult groups.” (THISDAY, February 8) My own preference: delete ‘two’ to avoid headaches (even as it is acceptable to some people and curious reference materials).
“A general strike began on June 1, 1964 (another comma) which did not only shutdown the entire country but also led to violent protests and anarchy.” (The PUNCH, February 8) This way, again: shut down.
“Punishments should also be similar to what they meted out on (to) the innocent non-cult students.” (THE GUARDIAN, February 8)
Henceforth, I will try as hard as possible to be diagnostic in error identification (and correction). I do not want to be dismissed as a surgeon who cures ailments without knowing their names by the Managing Director of The Guardian Newspapers and profound language activist who shares ‘grammatical cousinship’ with me, Mr. Martins Oloja. By the way, one of my professorial friends pointed out last week that, indeed, some nouns (accountancy profession/highway patrol, etc.) can double as adjectives, contrary to my inadvertent assertion last week! Again, there is no infallibility or perfection in information management—we keep striving after excellence without, however, falling below universally acceptable level of communicative quintessence which informs this column.
The only challenge I have is that such didactic comprehensiveness may make this column boring to numerous readers—and even the columnist! It is not for lack of classical scholarship, but a function of style.