Thursday Columnist

Q and A on Nigerian English usage

Thursday, 21 October 2010 10:15

THE POLITICS OF GRAMMAR with Farooq A. Kperogi

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I received many interesting questions from my readers these past few weeks, which inspired me to make this week’s column a Q and A. I encourage readers to send in their queries to my email address. As a rule, remember, I don’t disclose the identities of questioners. Enjoy:

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Scattering the opposition

Thursday, 21 October 2010 06:31

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Cartelopia by Asabe Usman

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Goodwill Jonah is truly the President of Cartelopia. Tall, disarmingly approachable and happy-go-lucky in a slippery, thespian kind of way, President Jonah has accomplished the impossible. For the first time the ‘cabals’ who gave the country its name find themselves powerless. He has scattered them.

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‘Government’ and the disappearing children

Wednesday, 13 October 2010 21:59

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A team of foreign doctors and local health workers are in a village in one of the more remote rural areas of the country. They are there seeing to the immunisation of children. As usual, it is an uphill battle. No its not steep hills they have to surmount, it’s a mountain of obstacles. Between clueless and selfish public officials, who throw spanners in the campaign the minute they realise there is not much ‘profit in it’ and scared parents, mis-led and traumatised by the sins of the past, it is difficult.

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The grammar of titles and naming in International English (I)

Thursday, 07 October 2010 01:00

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THE POLITICS OF GRAMMAR with Farooq A. Kperogi

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I’ve lost count of the number of times Americans have asked me why the Nigerian president has a common Western first name (Jonathan) as his last name. These queries remind me of the question the late Chief Abraham Adesanya asked former ThisDay editor Bolaji Abdullahi when the latter introduced himself to the Chief on the phone. “Bolaji what?” the late Yoruba leader asked. “Why not Abdullahi Bolaji?”

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Celebration worth more than life

Wednesday, 06 October 2010 23:52

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Cartelopia by Asabe Usman

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New NSA, Lt.-Gen Owoye Azazi, rtd From out of nowhere a certain Marylin Spin has invaded our consciousness. She is the spokesperson for Cartelopia’s security service of spin (SSS). The SSS is one of those institutions that we always know to be there, lurking in the dark, hidden and mysterious from the daily routine of non-entities like myself.