‘Handwriting on the Wall’ Wrong

Ebere Wabara

LET us end the year here on a business note: “Julius Berger fetes media practitioners (professionals) at end of year (end-of-year) parley”

Wrong: rave up; right: rev or rev up

The second set of slip-ups to round off this year comes from Daily Independent of December 7: “Beside (Besides), the old generation universities should be encouraged to….”

“Young estate surveyors task (tasked) on professionalism”

“He became the third Lintas alumni (alumnus) to head the umbrella body which….”

“NSE sanctions Dangote Cement, 96 others for late submition (submission) of results”

Last entry from Daily Independent: “…that we have tried our utmost best.” All the facts, all the sides: ‘Best’ has attained the end-point of intensification/absoluteness/superlative summit/amplification and cannot, therefore, be padded or subjected to circumlocution or imprecision such as ‘very best’; ‘utmost best’; ‘better than the best’…such expressions smack of verbosity and hazy thinking that borders on linguistic indiscipline! The word means ‘the most excellent type/quality, most suitable/appropriate, the highest standard that somebody or something can reach….’ End of discussion or should it continue? You are welcome to 2023 shortly!   

“However, after series of intervention….” (Polity, December 26) Get it right: a series of interventions….

DAILY TRUST of December 25 displayed editorial sloppiness with these two headline juvenilities on the same page: “Ugwuanyi urges Nigerians to emulate Christ…and “First Lady urges Nigerians to emulate Christ” The sub-editor who planned this page must have been dreaming of Christmas the previous day! How else do you explain this tardiness? 

More from the above medium: “FRSC deploys officials on (to) Asaba-Onitsha highway”

“No gang up (gang-up) against Buhari”

Still on DAILY TRUST under review: “With deep (a deep) sense of humility…who stood by us during the events of the past two months that culminated into (in) the closure of our petroleum products tank farm facility.” 

“…all Abuja brethren rejoices (rejoice) with…on the occassion of the 20th Anniversary of our great Ministry (sic).” (Full-page advertisement by state coordinator FCT Abuja of The Lord’s Chosen Charismatic Revival Movement) I hope this intellectualization of religion is not blasphemous! Spell-check: occasion

“Reception follows immediately at (on) the church premises” (Full-page advertisement by Catholic Archdiocese of Abuja)

“Cold blooded murder!” This is an example of cold-blooded headline casting!

“That was when I saw the handwriting (writing) on the wall.”

“YSFON mourns Late (sic)…” Basic knowledge: Do you mourn a living person? Enough of this loose thinking! 

THE NATION ON SUNDAY of December 25 contained a few slips: “…discussed the envisaged restructuring of the party and it’s (its) chances in 2023.”

“…he was the governorship candidate under (on) the platform of APC.”

“An engineer by profession and Harvard trained (Harvard-trained) economist….”

“…argues that the federal government is biting too much (biting off more than it can chew).”

“…turning himself into a brand that many up and coming (up-and-coming) comedians struggle to emulate.”

Finally from THE NATION ON SUNDAY under review: “Where to find last minute (last-minute) Xmas bargains” 

“…they now resort into (to) more desperate inactivity.”

“…shouldn’t the National Assembly summon the will and revert back to the….”  How does ‘revert back’ sound, dear reader? Simply illiterate.  So, delete ‘back’, which is implied.

“…on the erroneous ground (grounds) that all of them are rich.”

“Too many theories are already making the rounds (doing or going the rounds) which only an open investigation can stop.”

“The Hausa and Yoruba residents of Idi-Araba on Lagos Mainland went for each other’s throats….”  Justice in service of community: each other’s throat (two persons) and one another’s throat (more than two persons).

“The disturbances, as is (are) are now well known, started from a non-issue.”

“But as soon as the Igbo governors demanded for confederation.…” Gently delete ‘for’ in the interest of lexical sanity.

“The reunited Ijaw Youths Council has declared February 28 as a day all Ijaw youths would be ready to lay down their lives in a bid to battle the oil companies operating in (on) Bonny Island.”

“Times like this call for fresh ideas and bold initiatives that would put a final stop to this one dark spot of our national life.” The tragedy of gunmen: A time like this or times like these. And this: ‘a final stop’?

“Karzai re-opens Afghan embassy in UAE” This way: reopens.

“Any of the elected representative (representatives) who performs well will stand a better chance of being re-elected in the forthcoming elections.”

“Therefore, they should refrain from joining the bandwagon in a life of greed and avarice and take a right step in the right direction.” Nigeria and leadership succession: climb or jump on/aboard the bandwagon (not join—it is not a club or society).

“Assailant, vigilante member die in gun duel” Get it right: vigilance member. Alternatively: Assailant, vigilante die in gun duel.

“INEC official arrested over ‘missing’ ballot papers” Truth in defence of freedom: ‘arrest’ takes ‘for’—not ‘over’!

“Woman arrested with AK-47, 148 live ammunitions” The last word in the extract is uncountable. 

“This will remove the possibility of passing the bulk (buck)” No pedestrian English. 

“The organized private sector took the bull by the horn recently….” For a better society: take the bull by the horns.

“Britain handed over the reigns of power to the politicians.” Modern English: reins of government.

“One even wonders why government did not adopt that method from the onset (outset).” 

“This is true given the restricted and guarded comments from those who have been priviledged to view the clips.” Spellings count: privileged.

“Government needs to put (get) its acts together and prosecute the kidnappers.”  My own comment: get its act (not acts) together.

“Vigilante group accused of murder” Get it right: vigilance group.

“Apart from all these, the debt recovery (a hyphen confirms class) level of the banks have not been any issue of interest to NDIC.” Question CBN has to answer: debt recovery has (not have).

FEEDBACK 

PERMIT me to point out two rather frequent anomalies in Nigerian English: People are said to die after a brief illness. Does this make sense? ‘After an illness’ implies they have recovered. Death occurs from an illness—NOT after it. Often the word ‘contract’ is omitted when reporters write about government jobs. The road has been awarded. Is it right to leave out ‘contract’? No! Once more, thanks for your good works. (Prof. N.P. Okolie/University of Benin/07031677944)

YOUR efforts at reducing lexical insanity are appreciated. The column should be an every-Wednesday tonic to every lover of good English. (Stanley/08062925996)

FROM THE COLUMNIST

MY dear reader: Happy New Year in a few hours!