WITH DAN AGBESE

OMBUDSMAN

who to blame when you run into a howler such as a story repeated on two different pages of the same issue of a newspaper, sometimes with the same headline or a slight variation. On page 8 of the April 13 issue of the newspaper, we read this story: N450 million money laundering: You have a case to answer, court tells Belgore. We find the same story on page 10 with a slightly different headline: N450 million fraud: court says Belgore, ex-minister have case to answer. Do we blame the devil or the subeditor? You be the judge.

Reporters and editors still have problems with knowing that when a wife and a husband have been separated by death, the surviving party takes a new title. A surviving husband becomes a widower and a surviving wife becomes a widow. But on page 5 of the May 10 issue, the sub-editor ignored this fine distinction and gave us this: SGF, Ironsi’s wife for songs of Nigeria project. The general is late and does not have a wife any more. The wife he left behind is his widow.

April 11, front page promo: Obasanjo’s coalition collapses into ADC. I do not think it happened that way. The coalition transformed into a political party, ADC.

April 13, front page promo: Nollywood couples who met on screen and got hitched. How did the word hitched find its way into the headline? My guess is that it rode on the back of the printer’s devil. I may be rusty now in that department but I thought that when the chemistry between a young man and a young woman is right, one hooks the other. And we pray there is no hitch in the relationship. (To be continued).