Incident, Not ‘Incidence’

Ebere Wabara

RENEWED Hope Initiative: “…resilience and unwavering commitment of (to) ensuring the full participation of Nigerian women in the national economic development and growth.”

“We thank you all for taking time out your tight schedule (schedules) to make the event a remarkable experience.”

“Tinubu targets 24hrs (24hrs’) port clearance” 

“The manufacturing sector is struggling amidst (amid) fresh operational challenges.”

“…recently stated that 776 local industries have (had) shut down operations due to exorbitant cost of essential raw materials.”

“…no fewer than 322 manufacturing plants shutdown (shut down) operations and….”

“However, CBN should sustain its current efforts to inject forex in (into) the economy.”

“But it should also go beyond attracting Foreign Direct Investments (FDI) (FDIs)….”

“Sadly, the FDIs have been limited to short-term (a short-term) portfolio investment like the stock market….”

“The government must ensure that manufacturers have access to credits with single-digit (a single-digit) interest rate.”

“Lamentations in Abia oil producing (oil-producing) communities” 

“…the suspicious cloud of doubts surrounding the unfortunate incidence (incident) would have been prevented.”

Do you know that it is wrong to say ‘steak meat’? Just steak (countable and uncountable noun) which means ‘good quality BEEF, a large thick piece of any good quality red meat. Steakhouse: A restaurant that serves steak’. (Reference: Longman Advanced Dictionary of Contemporary English/New Edition) Thanks to Mr. Kenneth Ugbechie for provoking this introduction. An aside: red meat is cancerous! How about this my own register: ‘stick meat’? What do you think?

Vanguard of March 26 exploded the English language: “A medical personnel in the emergency room of the….” ‘Personnel’ is a collective (plural) word referring to ‘people who work in a company, organization or military force’—use employee, official, worker….

“Police smash car snatching (car-snatching) syndicate” Except if the car was snatching the syndicate!

“Residents uncover ritualist (sic) den in Lagos” Get it right: rituals’ or ritualistic den

Vanguard interrogation continues with its Views Page: “Many see this piece meal (piecemeal) approach as doomed due essentially to the absent (absence) of political will and hypocrisy involved in such exercise (such an exercise).”

“…whom he accused of serially demanding for bribe by proxy before he would admit him to bail.” Delete ‘for’ in the interest of lexical justice.

“Ondo students elect new leaders” What is the function of ‘new’ here? Campus News: If they were old leaders, it would have been ‘reelect’! So, yank away ‘new’.

“Biotechnologist potentials (potential/potentialities) lay (lie) idle in Nigeria—Expert” 

Daily Independent of March 22 comes next with a few headline wrongdoings: “FUNAAB produces 81 first class (first-class) graduates”

“Benue, Cross Rivers receive $5m grant for sanitation” Cross River and Rivers states are different.

“Jihadists execute three Syria (Syrian) rebel officers”

“Firms delivers homes in pilot scheme, plans 5,000 units” How did this subject-verb disagreement (S-VD) arise?

“LCCI frowns at protracted Poly teacher’s (teachers’) industrial action”

“Nigeria will not go down, cleric assures” Who did the cleric assure?

“We congratulate the team over (on/upon) the victory of the Bosnian dragons.”

Finally from THE NATION of April 1: “All Nigeria (All-Nigeria) Athletics Championship”

The only dual contribution this week is also from Mr. Ugbechie: Health authorities often commence deworming (worming) programme. Worm (verb) is ‘to give an animal (man inclusive) medicine that causes worms to be egested in faeces.’ And to buttress Ugbechie’s intervention, the Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English (New Edition for Advanced Learners) describes ‘worm’ (verb) thus: ‘to give an animal medicine in order to remove PARASITES that live inside it.’ Therefore, ‘deworming’ is non-existent. Just one of the copious Nigerian awkward creations! 

Still from Mr. Ugbechie: ‘I am not at ease with ‘witchcraft confessor’. A Catholic priest hearing confessions by believers is the confessor, not someone who admits to being a witch. Page 350 of the above dictionary states: ‘confessed’ (adjective) only before noun—Example: a confessed criminal (witch), self-confessed.

“The situation whereby parties get more confused and hence worse than they were before approaching to (sic) the courts is rather unpleasant and detestable.” Delete ‘to’.

“South Sudan govt, rebels (rebels’) leader agree to end war”

“Iraq (Iraqi) rebels seize leader’s home town (hometown)”

“Uganda (Ugandan) rape survivor speaks at London summit”

Daily Trust of April 7 committed a series of mistakes: “Pakistan: 9-month-old fingerprinted, charged for (with) attempted murder”

“…slammed governors in the zone for trying to make the Federal Government feel guilty by shifting the blame for the insecurity in the area on (to) it.”

“…with majority (a majority) of the youths having never attended primary schools….”

“The governor had, at (on) the occasion, accused the Federal Government of fuelling terrorism….”

“It has become necessary to retool the campaign against Boko Haram to end the menace and restore peace in (to) the affected parts of the country.”

The following two goofs are from the OPINION Page of the above edition of Daily Trust: “…a few of them were preoccupied in using the positions and powers invested (vested) on (in) them to accomplish selfish interests.”

“Indeed, people seat in their comfort zone and blame President Bola Tinubu for not doing one thing or the other (one thing or another)….” ‘The other’, unlike ‘another’, is limiting

“The Board of Trustees and the entire membership of Ikemba Solidarity Front…congratulate His Excellency, Prof. Chukwuma Soludo, for (on/upon) his well-deserved election as the Executive Governor of Anambra State.” (Full-page advertorial)

“Regiments do not brook of distractions.” Delete ‘of’.

“Asokoro district of Abuja, an area that houses amongst (among) others….”

“…in addressing the reoccurring (recurring) acts of vandalism of Nigeria’s gas pipelines.”

“…there have (has) been a lot of chest-thumping by government and its officials.”

“Education reform pitches (pits) teachers against Obaseki”

“Seventh Day Adventist Church celebrates 100 years anniversary in Nigeria” From my chronicle: celebrates 100 years or marks 100th (centennial) year. ‘100 years anniversary’ is an anathema in collocation.

“Decrying the ‘non-challant’ attitude of students towards learning….” Campus Column: nonchalant 

“Parents (Parents’) forum donates cafeteria to crescent varsity (Crescent Varsity)”

“NFF reads riot act to Falcons, Eaglets coaches” Sports: the riot act and Eaglets’ coaches

Do not say ‘a small accident’. Say ‘a minor accident’. (From Longman…)