EBERE WABARA

Witness to lexical mayhem: trouble spots.

“… rummaging all the bags and ransacking every nook and corner.” ( Source: as above) Stock expression: nook and cranny.

Leadership of August 21 disseminated seven improprieties: “The police requires ( require) a redeemer who can uplift the Force from the battering it ( they) suffered during the long years of militarization.”

“I inquired ( enquired: BrE) from those that appear to know and they said that the president is ( was) roaming the country in the name of campaigns.”

“There is ( are) no electricity, no security, no water, no roads, no health facilities in Nigeria.”

“Foreign companies will be falling over themselves ( one another) to come and invest here if we get the 2019 elections right.”

FEEDBACK

MOST of the print and electronic media reported that President Muhammadu Buhari ARRIVED in Nigeria on Saturday, August 19, 2017, after spending 103 days in London on medical vacation. I oppose the use of ARRIVED because Buhari is not a non-national. He simply RETURNED to his fatherland. He is, therefore, a returnee and not an arrival, old or new.

I submit that candidates do not WRITE examination; they SIT or TAKE it. For instance, Ebere, when are you sitting or taking your final exam? If I am asked to write exam, I will simply pen down EXAM.

Second, I had always thought that the word INDISCIPLINED (adjective), as opposed to UNDISCIPLINED, did not exist until the Chambers 20th

Century Dictionary and some others proved me wrong. They list INDISCIPLINED and UNDISCIPLINED (not disciplined, not properly trained and exercised) as both perfect adjectives. Good English for us.

(KOLA DANISA/07068074257).