The Aged: Plural, Not Singular

Media Gaffes With Ebere Wabara

THE NATION ON SUNDAY of June 20 welcomes us this week with just three gaffes: “Mixed reaction greets sackings” This is no news: mixed reactions greet sackings
“DIG commends army, police over (for/on) Yobe attacks”
Lastly from Fatai Atere Way: “Onitsha is better now, say Obiano” What’s going on here?
Let us continue with a visit to Ogba, Lagos: “Soldiers take over troubled spots” (Daily Independent, April 20) Let peace reign: trouble spots.

“Post election violence spreads” (Vanguard, April 19) Towards a better life for the people: Post-election violence….
Yet another headline solecism from Vanguard of the next day: “Post poll violence continues” Solution as above. Somebody should inform editors at Kirikiri Canal of this recurring lapse.
“President Buhari, yesterday, expressed sadness over the sporadic violent protest (protests) in the South East” (Vanguard, June 19)

The next headline blunder is from last week’s edition of this medium: “Police arrest four over Maiduguri explosion” Do we arrest the entire editorial team for (not over) lexical recklessness?
“This time around we want change through the power of….” (London Mirror Praise & Worship, 17 April) Edifying God: This time round—error coming from England of all places!
“Bribery enthrones mediocrity and crucify merit.” (Source: as above) The Tabernacle of bribery crucifies merit.
“Gang up against Buhari will fail” (NIGERIAN Tribune, 15 April) Phrasal verb: gang up; noun: gang-up (which applies here).

“We were treated to another similar incidence.…” All newspapers should know the difference between ‘incidence’ and ‘incident’ (which is the right word here).
“Although the governor’s last minute romance with the main opposition party is held against him.…” Saturday People: last-minute (take note of the hyphen) romance
“Thus, a core investor…with regards to optimal use of the machinery.…” (THE GUARDIAN, April 12) Either: as regards or with regard to….

“In the heydays of the goggled General when fuel was often unavailable…” (THE GUARDIAN, April 20) Stranglehold of oil workers: heyday (uncountable).
“Last year, many houses of the Igbo in Ajegunle, a suburb of Lagos, were razed down.…” (THISDAY, April 20) No word abuse: simply razed (not razed down). Discard the contrary views by some registers! When a house is razed, does it go up without holistic structural intervention?

Yet another routine headline gaffe: “Restrictions on inter-bank foreign exchange trading is (are) killing the market.”
“Armed robbers now have good company–street thugs and unofficial vigilante groups.” (THE GUARDIAN, April 20) Democracy as a disincentive: vigilance groups.
“Buhari points accusing fingers at INEC….” (DAILY TRUST, April 20) People in the news: Buhari points the finger. No obtuse addition.

“Nigeria is at a crossroad” (VANGUARD, April 20) Fixed expression: at a/the crossroads
“Stationeries badly needed by.…” (DAILY INDEPENDENT, April 20) ‘Stationery’ is non-count.
“But what appears criminal is the desire of these off-springs of.…” (DAILY CHAMPION, April 20) ‘Offspring’ does not take any inflection.

The next three goofs are from VANGUARD of April 20:”…the process of economic integration from which will emerge an economic block (bloc).…”

“There is a tussle going on between these two (would it have been three?) arms of government.”
“Nigerian leaders and politicians have continued to adopt and acquiesce to (in).…”
“Globacom sets (set) to rule domestic market” (Nigerian Tribune, April 20)
“I have been briefed that the wrangling among the leaders of PDP are (is) over.” (SUNDAY VANGUARD, June 20)
BusinessDay of April 20 disseminated a recurring impropriety: “Now that the Police has (have) taken over the supervision of the….”

“…and ensure it does not reoccur again.” (THE GUARDIAN, April 20) ‘Reoccur again’? Run for cover, my dear reader! Just recur. Recur, recurrence, recurrent. Occur, occurred, occurrence.
“Lack of incentives anger (angers) local manufacturers” (THE GUARDIAN, April 20)
“They provide temporary relief.” (Source: as above) ‘Temporary relief? I strongly object to that clumsy expression because there is no permanence in ‘relief’.
The PUNCH of April 20 circulated three solecisms: “The patients pay for each act of ‘healing’ through their noses.” Get it right: they pay through the nose.

“At the launching programme (launch) in Abuja.…”
“A cursory look at the figures show (shows) that.…”
Daily Times (Online) of April 19 circulated copious shibboleths: “The end point is that people wait for between three to five hours to pay in their drafts.” English without tears: between three and five.
“With the attainment of the highest office at any strata of government….” Singular: stratum; plural: strata.
“It may be difficult for Alhaji Nuhu Ribadu to resurrect again politically after his disastrous outing in the presidential elections.” Please, yank away ‘again’ in the interest of lexical sanity and our democracy.
“They better not rely on INEC.” This way: They had better not rely on INEC.
“Like (As) we had said at various forums. …” (News Focus, April 18)
“So, the government cannot ask the Supreme Court to interprete the law.” Spell-check: interpret. (Source: as above)
“…the reduction in the number of road accidents and causalities.” (National News, April 20) This way: casualties.
“…to that extent, we shall congratulate its authors for (on/upon) hearing the deafening cry of Nigerians for an effective legislature.” (Nigerian Tribune, April 20)
“…were simultaneously a continuation of the power-bloc struggle in Nigeria and unanticipated fallouts from that struggle.” (DAILY INDEPENDENT, April 20) ‘Fallout’ is uncountable.
“Out-of-control trailer crushes 15 persons to death” When people are crushed by a trailer, they cannot be alive except there is divine intervention. So, ‘crushed to death’, to me, smacks of lexical insensitivity. This is my own perception of ‘crush’, especially in vehicular circumstances. You are at liberty to accept or not. After all, some dictionaries question my poetic licence on this!
FEEDBACK
EBERE, the aged is for someone (sic: people) 80 years and above in medicine. (Dr. Nwagwu, CC., 08037055728)
COLUMNIST’S RESPONSE
PERHAPS, in medicine! In this column, the reference is to general, modern, formal, standard and universal (not regionalized) English language—which discards specialized/circumscribed/informal/possibly substandard versions of the language. Therefore, ‘the aged’ (plural) refers to ‘old people’ generally—no age limitation or classificatory requirement!