EBERE WABARA

(sex-for-grades) in schools”

“Despite the huge money expended in (on) these periodic maintenance exercises, the nation’s refineries have remained unproductive, forcing the country to depend so much on imported petroleum products at exorbitant rates.”

Daily Independent Online of March 2 backs the floodgate of goofs this week: “The result is that many under-aged (sic) children are routinely subjected to abuse….” All the facts, all the sides: overage and underage (not ‘overaged’ or ‘underaged’) children.

The politics page of the above medium raises the tone with four slip-ups: “The Presidential Advisory Committee on National Conference recently kick started (kick-started) its sitting in Akure….”

“These facts have contributed greatly in (to) the level of congestion in the courts.”

“…enjoy their loots and still aspire for (to) higher offices.” Again, ‘loot’ is uncountable—and you aspire to, not for!

Repeat by popular demand: In order to address the divergent views on the plurality of ‘machinery’, I visited Wiktionary, an online portal on Google platform and here is the result: ‘Machinery (countable and uncountable, plural machinery) (1.) The machines constituting a production apparatus, in a plant etc., collectively. (2) The working parts of a machine as a group. (3) The collective parts of something which allow it to function. (4) (Figuratively): The literary devices used in a work, notably for dramatic effect.’ ‘Machinery’ is an assemblage of machines or mechanical apparatuses. If you must use a plural form for ‘machine,’ use the word ‘machines,’ not ‘machineries’ to avoid needless morphological controversies. The machinery, not ‘machineries,’ of government.