Last week Saturday, April 28, 2018, was exactly one year Bayo Oguntuase passed on. The cold wind that blew that day, April 28, 2017, swept him away and that was a man, who had kept us on our toes, making sure we wrote English as it is written in England, its native country. His deep knowledge of the language and the expert way, in his-must-read column, in The Sun newspaper, he was driving it into our cranial cavity, made me think that he was holding a Doctorate Degree in English. I never knew that Bayo was an Engineer.

History repeats itself. At the Elementary Training Centre of the Methodist College, Uzuakoli, in the sixties, was a ‘Bayo’ too. That was Mr. M. A. Jack from Rivers State. Without earning any degree or diploma in any discipline, he was very stout in English language, even correcting the mistakes of his colleagues with Higher degrees in the language, including English men. With his literal outing and that of Bayo, I realize now that it is all about interest. MAJ, as he was known, made us, his students, to be very mindful of our spoken and written English. The gloomy impact on us was that we would be editing people’s speeches, including our tutors, instead of capturing what they were passing on to us. We carried this rascality into the Church, and were then missing God’s Message to us through His Ministers.

MAJ was held in great reputate by us and his fellow tutors. In Higher Elementary Training Centre of that College, Mr. Wragg, our English Master, an Englishman, confessed to us that, though our mates in England were more fluent in spoken English than us, we knew the grammar more than them all. That was a correct testimony as we have seen that children, including ours, born by literate parents, are very fluent in English but may not, like us, do the clause analysis.

Now that Bayo has passed on, are we free to be writing English in the way we like? There is nothing I have not heard or read in the guise of the language. Here are examples:-

1. “Don’t die in silence over your sickness.”

2. “The man was so great”; “My sister has grown so tall.” This expression is now popular in spoken as well as in written work. I was taught that we use ‘so’ for emphasis: ‘so’ great that he was made a chief; ‘so’ tall that people think she is my elder sister.

3. Every: “I command every activities of the devil”; I was taught that the word ‘every’, points only to unity – one thing – ‘every activity’, ‘every problem’.

4. “The boys is coming. I didn’t know why they didn’t told you.” Some people speak as if they did not learn grammar in the primary school.

5. Oral and written English:

a. “It’s ok”: They taught me that this can do only in oral English but in written work: “It is okay”.

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b. “The man is into furniture making”; “The lady is into prostitution”. There is no English like this. If accepted in oral English, but not in written work.

c. “5th July, 2017”. I was taught July 5, 2017. Lawyers however, seem to prefer ‘5th day of July, 2017’ and it is correct but not ‘5 July, 2017’.

d. Presently: I was taught that it means ‘in future’, while ‘at present’ is now. Today, people have twisted the language so much so that ‘Presently’ has been forced, even on English experts and dictionary, to mean ‘now’.

These are the usual expressions we hear and read all the time, including my staff members in my farm. One day, I told one of them, a graduate, to give me a copy of his degree certificate for verification and he obliged me. He earned a degree really but what I do not know is whether they now write degrees in vernacular. My worry is not really the grammatical mistakes of adults, but rather, its impact on the young generation, who still have examinations to write and there is a set standard. If things were in this manner, when Bayo was alive, what will be happening now that he has gone? If individuals and schools failed to be impacted by him, what will be the fate of English, now that the man, who laboured to correct, even experts in English, has passed on?

Who do we blame? Perhaps, all of us! Last month, about 9.15 a.m, a young girl, sitting for the 2018 WASSCE, who lives in my Boys’ quarters with her parents, came to me for prayers. She did not know, until 9 a.m, that she had a paper that morning! Who was to be blamed? I blamed her parents. Should they not have known her examination dates? How would they be praying for her effectively if they did not know this? I blamed her elder brother, who has done his WASSCE. Could he not be interested in his sister’s examination? I blamed the girl. How could someone, who studied for six years, not know her examination dates? Should she not have pasted her time table anywhere in their house for her use and awareness of her parents and siblings?

I told her, a long time ago, to form a study group with some of her classmates and be using my balcony for discussion but she never did. I never met her reading. I had to send a few days later to bring to me her examination time table and what she brought could not be understood by her nor by me. I then sent her elder brother to her school for it.

I have gone through her 2018 WASSCE Biology and Mathematics questions. I doubt whether I could pass their Biology. If I pass their Mathematics, it will be at the border line, an evidence that the standard has not changed from what it was 53 years ago. I sat for the GCE London Examination. What has changed is the attitude towards academics. Any time I travel by public transport, I always meet students in it, going to school after 9 a.m. I always ask them why they are going late. Their response, and that of other passengers, revealed by their body language, seem to wonder how it concerns me.

Once again, who is to be blamed for the lapses? We are all culpable! Why should parents keep quiet when their children leave home for school late, when their mates are already in the school, studying? There are some parents, who insist that their children must be punctual in school. May we appreciate them. Thank God for the children, who do not go late to school, and are serious with their studies. They are the ones, who know their examination dates. Thank God for people, who celebrate Uncle Bayo, by speaking and writing English in the manner he taught us. Thank God for another Bayo, Uncle Ebere Wagbara, who has stepped into the shoes of this giant, through his column in The Sun newspaper! Ndewo!

For further comment, Please contact: Osondu Anyalechi: 0802 3002-471;[email protected]