“2023: Nigeria will have two presidents if north insist (insists) on retaining power”
“As you clock 59, I, on behalf of my wife and children wish you…” No putting the cart before the horse in collocation: My wife, our children and I…” Congratulatory messages are not civil service pieces of information!
From the House of Representatives Committee on Reformatory Institutions comes the next goof: “A motion on the need to investigate jailbreaks across the country with a view to forestalling reoccurrence…” Get it right: recurrence
“History has thought (taught) us that all those who accumulated wealth will abandon it to die…”
The first conspiracy against the English language this week is by NATIONAL NEWS of September 19: “Congratulations to the TheNEWS of yesteryear for (on/upon) publishing a comprehensive story on…”
“GCE: Man, 49, arrested over (for) malpractice” (THISDAY, September 14)
“Federal varsity takes-off in Oye-Ekiti, January” (Source: as above) Tertiary education: takes off. The comma, just like the hyphen in the phrasal verb, is otiose.
“Insecurity: Evil forces laying siege on (to) Nigeria, CAN laments” (DAILY INDEPENDENT, September 14)
Still on the country’s clueless leadership that signposts all the hallmarks of a drab presidency: “…revelations are ‘beer parlour gossips’ ” (THE PUNCH, September 13) Who will help me tell print journalists these two facts: there is nothing like ‘beer parlour’, but pub (public house, inn, bar, hotel or, for ‘old school’ usage, tavern). ‘Beer parlour’ is a riverside and intoxicating Nigerian creation that results in drunkenness! And this: ‘gossip’, as an idle talk, cannot be inflected (because it is uncountable in that context). Interestingly and ironically, those who do the talk are gossips (countable in this lexical environment)!
“Not every secondary school students are varsity materials —Proprietor” (EDUCATION, September 13). A rewrite of the entire blunder to save time and space: Not all post-primary students are fit for varsity tier/level/scope/education…or simply varsity.
“A decade after 9/11, new innovations in skyscraper design” (Nigerian Tribune, September 13). There is something utterly wrong with ‘new innovations’! We could have recent/latest…innovations.
“…Nigerians keep paying through their noses.” (National News, September 13) Jobs & Career: we keep paying through the nose (fixed idiom).
Still on Leadership: “NAICOM collaborate with NESG for 2022” This S-VD is too embarrassing to appear in a promising publication.
“EFCC arrests cleric over (for) $44,000 scam” (THE PUNCH, September 13)
“Tales of woe” News Plus headline, September 13) Again: tale of woe (stock expression).
“I am stranded, says widow whose house was touched in community crisis” (DAILY INDEPENDENT, September 12) Grappling with morphological crises: delete ‘touched’ to pave way for ‘torched’.
“Explosions rocks (sic) bar in Jos” (Daily Champion Online, September 12)
“Two charged over (with) alleged fraud”
“World Youth Games: Dare explains Nigeria’s absent” (Source: as above) Sports: Nigeria’s absence
The next thoughtless headline is from DAILY NEWS of September 12: “Abia APGA dissociates self from vote of no confidence on (in)….”
“More telephone firms may fold-up (fold up)”
“Nations Cup qualifiers: CAF orders last day (last-day) simultaneous kick off (kick-off)”
“The CBN governor said he is (was) optimistic that all the five rescued banks will meet the December 30 deadline for their equity declaration.” (MONEY LINK, September 12)
Let us welcome Celebrity weekly magazine to this column. Its September 21 edition contained a verbose front page headline: “Monalisa Chinda: Though men ask me out, but now my career comes first” West Africa Magazine of the Year: ‘Though’ and ‘but’ cannot co-function. Therefore, a rewrite: Though men ask me out, my career comes first…
“Cross section of the children of the diseased” (Weekend LIFE Caption, September 10) ‘Rite it right: A cross-section of the children of the deceased
THE NATION ON SUNDAY of September 26 circulated two gaffes: “The antidote for our national crises…” Read at least one book in a month for scholarship and language currency: antidote to (not antidote for) our…
Still on the above edition: “Eleven cars…that left no fewer than 17 persons died (dead).” (From Osunkwa, Port Harcourt, Rivers State, 07053455852) Thanks for this contribution.
“Govt house, gov’s office took lion share of Bayelsa budget” (SUNDAY PUNCH, September 26) News: lion’s share
“Party registeration targets 70 million Nigerians” (Vanguard sub-headline, September 9). Spell-check: registration. This is too pedestrian an error!
“Kwara police trains (train) men on vehicle tracking” (Nigerian Tribune, September 9)
The next blunder comes from DAILY INDEPENDENT of September 9: “NCC urges media to sensitise (sensitize, preferably) Nigerians on copyright laws” A rewrite: NCC urges media to sensitise Nigerians to (not on) copyright laws
National News of September 9 muddled up one of its headlines: “Yakowa, ACF mourn late Kaduna military governor” The inclusion of ‘late’ in the presence of ‘mourn’ smacks of blockheadedness! If the military governor must be further qualified, unnecessarily, ‘former’ should replace ‘late’.
Now, your Friday Flavour from the above edition: “Oxygen has designed series of mouth-watering discount packages….” Freshness comes to Abuja: a series of…packages.
Finally from National News: “FRSC advises tanker drivers on importance of retro reflective” Business News: retro-reflective tapes.
“Oil prices hit $33, Iraq accuses US of double standards.” Conscience, nurtured by truth: double standard (not standards).
“Iraq continues to point accusing fingers at its major adversary, the United States, over alleged double standards (sic).” Fixed expression: point the finger.
“You better get down on your knees and do what I am doing right now.” The end of illusions: you had better get down….
“…every detail of our daily life furnish (furnishes) compelling reasons for pessimism.”
“…as if it were some occupation force from outer space about to mete out extra-terrestrial justice on (to) an erring Iraq.”