Innovative and professional
President Muhammadu Buhari has since signed the 2020 federal appropriation bill into law. He is thus legally now permitted to spend the N10.33 trillion provided for in the budget in the next 12 months, beginning from next month. This is the highest federal budget so far in our history. It should do better than make […]
President Muhammadu Buhari has since signed the 2020 federal appropriation bill into law. He is thus legally now permitted to spend the N10.33 trillion provided for in the budget in the next 12 months, beginning from next month. This is the highest federal budget so far in our history. It should do better than make you chuckle over the health of our national economy. Not bad, loans, et al.
The national assembly has a generous provision of N125 billion in the budget. That is more than the budgets for education (N48 billion) and health (N46 billion) combined. Law-making in a democracy is an expensive business and expensively must it be funded.
Tucked into the N125 billion of the national assembly budget is N37 billion for the renovation of the national assembly. The Daily Trust reported in its issue of December 19 that this had caused a public uproar. This could not have been done out of ignorance, I think. None of us was aware that the national assembly faces imminent dilapidation with leaking roofs, crumbling walls, carpets with large and unsightly holes in them and the marble floor tiles now broken, what with the heavy traffic in the corridors of the legislative power building.
We do not yet have the full picture of what the money would be spent on but I am willing to accept that the nation owes it a duty to its law-makers to provide them with a healthy atmosphere conducive to the onerous and no mean task of making laws for the good governance of our dear country. The national assembly has had more leaders since our return to civil rule in 1999 than the other two branches of government. The South-East gave us five senate presidents; the North-Central, two and the North-East one so far. Each senate president commands a retinue of official and unofficial aides and hangers-on; not to talk of the steady and heavy human traffic of visitors to the senate presidents, the speakers of the House of Representatives and other principal officers of the legislature. I am not making a case for the renovation; I am only suggesting that there is some room for understanding what a creative cub reporter would describe as a whopping amount of money.
Anyway, here is what the Daily Trust did in its honest attempt to explain to its readers why there was/is uproar over the proposed cost of the renovation. With the aid of expert in building technology, the newspaper established the following facts about that handsome sum of money could do for the public:
- It could build 27,000 primary health centres
- It would be enough to build 10,360 modern classrooms
- It could build 12,333 2-bedroom bungalows.
Do you get it? I commend the newspaper for being innovative and professional. Unfortunately for Buhari, the choice for him is not between building 27,000 primary health centres or 10,360 modern classrooms or 12,333 2-bedroom bungalows and renovating the national assembly. His hands are tied.
The goofs this time
I wish to report that the printer’s devil has not given up on messing with editors and sub-editors. Here are some avoidable goofs in the December 16, 19, 22 and 23 issues of the Daily Trust to prove my point. I confess that I cannot blame the printer’s devil entirely for some of these errors in headlines and basic grammar.
December 16, front page lead headline: “Abuja-Kano road collapses amid project delay.”
It is more usual for a bridge and a building to collapse. A portion of a road does not enjoy this luxury, if that. It could be made worse and become impassable. The story here is that the delay in the road reconstruction has worsened it for motorists.
December 19, page 3: “2,745 condemned inmates awaiting death nationwide.” Condemned prisoners are usually said to be on death row, the final stop before they officially meet their maker. The sub-editor could have simplified this with: “2,745 inmates on death row nationwide.”
Page 4: “Ganduje assents 2020 budget.”
What the governor did was to “assent to (the) 2020 budget.”
Page 4: “Plateau assembly passes N177.3 billion.”
The N177.3 billion is the 2020 state budget. The appropriation bill for the budget was what the assembly passed; not the money. There was no reason to omit “budget” from the headline.
December 22, page 4: “Policeman kills colleague, commits suicide.”
The man killed his colleague and then killed himself. The correct headline should be: “Policeman kills colleague, self.”
Here is a good example of the type of headline that makes the reader scratch his head endlessly. It is found on page 20: “India sees deadly citizenship law protests as police ban assembly.” I wish I could help you here.
Page 33 (page number missing): “Kwara farmers battle bad roads, insecurity, depreciating soil.”
We get this sort of thing when the headline writer insists on putting all the information in a headline. The headline is an abbreviated story and cannot take every information, no matter how important, contained in the story. It is enough for the farmers to battle bad roads and insecurity in the headline; whatever else they are up against could be spelt out in the story. In any case, what is a depreciating soil? Land depreciates, meaning it loses its value. But soil? News to me.
December 23, page 7: “4 million Nigerians benefitted from SIP in 3 year – minister.”
Note the two errors. The rule of headline writing has not changed. The verb must be in the present tense: benefit; 3 years, not 3 year. I can see the handwork of the devil here.
Page 14: “Imo election: “Gladiators wait on Supreme Court as groups tango.”
I do not know what information is conveyed here. All I can say is that it is more correct to say that “Gladiators await Supreme Court.” To wait on (the) Supreme Court is to serve it. It is not the same thing as waiting for the apex court.
Page 26: “Qataloog wins NCC emerging techs competition.”
The full title of the competition is Emerging Tech Competition.” Emerging in the headline should have been treated like the proper name it is.
Here is one more of those headlines that make the reader scratch his head.
Page 20: “Building collapse antecedents, prevention and mitigation measures.”
It is a label headline that makes no sense.
Rare English words
I have always made the point in this column that English is a difficult language. I have also occasionally provided some evidence of this to make the column livelier and a total learning experience for those who are lucky enough to be saddled with the burden of earning a living from the written word. I trawl the internet regularly in search of the quirks in the English language. Here is what my recent search yielded: strange or rare words in the language from a source called milkthistles.
Here they are. See if you recognise any of them. The rare words are in bold type:
Acosmits – One who believes that nothing exists
Paralian – A person who lives near the sea
Aureate – Pertaining to the fancy or flowery words used by poets
Dwale – To wander about deliriously
Sabaism – The worship of stars
Dsyphoria – An unwell feeling
Aubade – A love song which is sung at dawn
Eumoirous – Happiness due to being honest and wholesome
Mimp –To speak in a prissy manner, usually with pursed lips.
If you feel tempted to use any of them, my advice is, please do not. I presented them here for fun and fun only.