Aisha Buhari’s Embarrassing Grammatical Infelicities at USIP

By Farooq A. Kperogi, Ph.D.
Twitter: @farooqkperogi

I am aware that this article won’t endear me to
several of my thin-skinned Buhari/APC
partisan readers who, interestingly, wildly
acclaimed my past articles that pilloried
former First Lady Patience Jonathan’s
sidesplitting grammatical transgressions. But I
am never one to shy away from embarking on
what I’m convinced is a just and fair
undertaking because of a fear of backlash from
mawkish, hypersensitive crybabies.

In any case, in my Saturday column—and in
my Facebook status updates—I have defended
Wife of the President Aisha Buhari against
Gov. Ayo Fayose’s brash and reckless calumny
against her. In an ironic twist, it was her bid to
give the lie to Fayose’s charge that she couldn’t
visit the US without being arrested that caused
her to come here and give a speech at the
United States Institute of Peace (USIP) that is
the subject of this column.

Mrs. Aisha Buhari’s speech at the United States
Institute of Peace didn’t rise to the level of
former First Lady Patience Jonathan’s
legendary contortion of English grammar, but
it was inexcusably egregious nonetheless, not
least because it was supposed to be the
product of preparation and forethought.
In general, the speech was riotously
incoherent, lacked lexical and semantic
discipline, and was peppered with avoidably
ugly and elementary grammatical infractions.

Mrs. Buhari vacillated between reading from a
prepared script and speaking off the cuff. But
the prepared speech and Mrs. Buhari’s
extemporizations were indistinguishable: both
were tortured, infantile, error-ridden, and
cringe-worthy. Winston Churchill’s famous
putdown of his opponent—"He spoke without
a note and almost without a point."—seems to
apply to the Wife of the President. (Watch the
video below.)

Below are highlights of the infelicities that
stood out like a sore thumb during Mrs.
Buhari’s 10-minute speech at the United States
Institute of Peace in Washington, DC:

1. Subject-verb agreement. Like Patience
Jonathan—and former President Goodluck
Jonathan—Aisha Buhari doesn’t seem to have
any respect for subject-verb concord rules in
English grammar. These howlers illustrate this:

“I want to…thank the international community
for giving us a solutions…,” “those that
needs to be…,” “the school have been
running…,” “adult ones that needs the
opportunity.”

Most people know that a singular subject (such
as “the school”) agrees with a singular verb
(such as “has”) and a plural subject (such as
“those,” “adult ones”) agrees with a plural verb
(such as “need” instead of “needs.”) That means
the Wife of the President should have said,
“those that need to be,” “the school has been
running,” “adult ones that need the
opportunity.”

Of course, “a solutions” is a self-evident
bloomer: you don’t pluralize a noun that is
preceded by the indefinite article “a” because
“a” signals nominal singularity. In other words,
“a solutions” is both ungrammatical and
illogical since it implies nominal plurality and
singularity simultaneously. It is either
“solutions” or “a solution.”

2. Redundant pronoun. Pronouns typically
take the place of a noun and save us the
torment of ungainly repetition. That’s why, in
Standard English, pronouns don’t typically
appear in the same sentence as the nouns they
refer to. In her USIP speech, Mrs. Buhari said
the following: “As you are all aware, Boko
Haram issue, it is a global issue attached to
terrorism, which need [sic] to be addressed
globally.”

“Boko Haram issue” is the antecedent for the
pronoun “it” in the sentence quoted above,
which makes the pronoun superfluous since it
appears in the same sentence as its
antecedent. “Boko Haram is a global issue…”
would convey the same meaning—and without
the ungrammatical baggage. I admit, though,
that redundant pronouns of the kind I
identified in Mrs. Buhari’s speech occur in
nonstandard native English dialects. But we are
talking of an official speech in a formal context
in a foreign, English-speaking country.

The sentence also violates the basic principle
of pronoun-antecedent agreement. The
principle says, “A pronoun usually refers to
something earlier in the text (its antecedent)
and must agree in number — singular/plural
— with the thing to which it refers.” The
phrase “which need” refers to “Boko Haram
issue,” which is a singular subject that needs a
singular verb, i.e., “needs.”

3. A curious resultant “done.” During her
speech, Mrs. Buhari praised the University of
Maiduguri for remaining open even in the
worst moments of Boko Haram insurgency.
“The university really done us proud,” she
said. This is a misuse of the past participle
“done” that linguists call the “resultant done.”

It is curious because it is typical of the
informal, nonstandard (and sometimes
illiterate) speech of the American south.

In Standard English, the sentence would be
reworded as, “The university has done us
proud.” If we want to be faithful to Mrs.
Buhari’s lexical and structural choice, we would
rephrase it as, “The university really did us
proud.”

4. Buhari’s government as a “recent
regime.” Mrs. Buhari puzzlingly referred to
her husband’s administration as “the recent
regime.” Here is the context: After thanking
the “international community” for its military
and financial support that led to the defeat of
Boko Haram, in a rather awkward transition,
the Wife of the President said, “In which the
recent regime has done so far considering
what we inherited—the level of insecurity
in the country—we can now say that we
successfully fought the Boko Haram
insurgency.”

Apart from the weak, messy transition, that’s
some really dizzyingly incoherent verbal
blizzard!

But the bigger issue is that she called the
current administration “a recent regime.”
There are two problems with that. First, the
word “recent,” especially when it is applied to
administrations, implies an immediate past,
that is, that which precedes the present. It is
both ungrammatical and illogical to speak of an
incumbent administration as “recent.”

Second, there is always a tone of disapproval
when a government is referred to as a
“regime.” That is why the word is often
reserved for military and other totalitarian
governments. Even the Associated Press
Stylebook defines “regime” as “the period in
which a person or system was in power, often
with a negative connotation. For example,
Saddam Hussein’s regime, the Nazi regime.” I
hope Mrs. Buhari doesn’t consider her husband
as the honcho of a regime.

5. “Academicians.” Mrs. Buhari called
university lecturers in the audience
“academicians.” Well, it’s OK to refer to
university teachers as “academicians” in
Nigeria and in other non-native English-
speaking countries, but it doesn’t hurt to learn
the proper form when you address native
speakers in their own territory. Educated
native English speakers call university teachers
“academics,” not “academicians.”








www.farooqkperogi.com/2016/08/aisha-buharis-embarrassing-grammatical.html?m=1#.V6bvtF5HOXV.facebook

Honestly, you people really have time!

Analysing one's command of English like this.

Abeg, English language no be our indigenous language jare!

greatgod2012:
Honestly, you people really have time!


Analysing one's command of English like this.


Abeg, English language no be our indigenous language jare!

You never said this with PEJ

Abeg who English lang epp

I don't think speaking English impeccably is the aim, rather it's getting the message across. If you listen to the French or Chinese speak English or even the current UN sec gen you'll appreciate what am saying. Enough with our inferiority complex, English is not a measure of intelligence.

dunkem21:



You never said this with PEJ

With all of them, abeg, you lots have time checking whether someone speak good English or not. Where do I have such time

BIGERBOY1:
I don't think speaking English impeccably is the aim, rather it's getting the message across. If you listen to the French or Chinese speak English or even the current UN sec gen you'll appreciate what am saying. Enough with our inferiority complex, English is not a measure of intelligence.

Don't mind them jare.

I'm ain't a fan of anyone of them, but sitting down to analyze their command of English is totally uncalled for.

greatgod2012:




With all of them, abeg, you lots have time checking whether someone speak good English or not. Where do I have such time

I never check but they checked PEJ's English..

Now, what you wrote on your signature will happen..


What a man sows,..

OP.... the English founder... pls try check your level of sanity... thanks

dunkem21:



You never said this with PEJ

PEJ was a disaster in English.

She was on a whole different level that couldn't be ignored.

Everything she said sounded like "Jenifer" trying to communicate.

dunkem21:



I never check but they checked PEJ's English..

Now, what you wrote on your signature will happen..


What a man sows,..

Pls be quiet.

Aisha is a learner when placed side by side with our darling PEJ.
... Wait oh! This article sef long pass Aisha message.

Like someone rightly said, take away grammar and give me money.

dunkem21:



I never check but they checked PEJ's English..

Now, what you wrote on your signature will happen..


What a man sows,..

Compare those statements with 'MY FELLOW WIDOWS' and tell which is more glaring.

Chai. See eff-up!

Major gbagauns doing 90 on a 60!

Dr Kperogi, mbok, "temper mercy with justice".

...former First Lady Patience Jonathan’s
sidesplitting grammatical transgressions.

Ohw Lawd!

Mrs. Aisha Buhari’s speech at the United States Institute of Peace didn’t rise to the level of former First Lady Patience Jonathan’s legendary contortion of English grammar..

Ugu Republicans would find it difficult w&nking on this thread for obvious reasons.

ba7man:
PEJ was a disaster in English.

She was on a whole different level that couldn't be ignored.

Everything she said sounded like "Jenifer" trying to communicate.

Bros your first lady is also an olodo in English language. Deal with it

fulani-english on point!

Buhari family and dullness be like..

cktheluckyman:

Bros your first lady is also an olodo in English language. Deal with it

Comparing Aisha and PEJ's English is like comparing "waves at the beach" to a "Tsunami".

I'm sure you know this yourself.

So it's no more she didn't go to USA
It's no more her bag
It's now her speech

very good analysis. I learnt a few things myself. Don't mind those punks above me. Its because that's the same way they speak too, that's why they're defending her.

..

greatgod2012:
Honestly, you people really have time!


Analysing one's command of English like this.


Abeg, English language no be our indigenous language jare!

Will you keep kwayet!

Babe I dey joke

Dorctor Kperogi always on point.
English isn't our native language. It however is our official language and when we give a speech in an official capacity, we should always remember that we have to do it properly.

Jonathan sef dey gbagaun.his gbagaun is legendary...



Sorry but i hear sey Former US president
JF Kennedy gbagaun too.
So nobody shud kill anybody for gbagaun jare

I hope her speech writers take note.

koladebrainiac:
Jonathan sef dey gbagaun.his gbagaun is legendary...



Sorry but i hear sey Former US president
JF Kennedy gbagaun too.
So nobody shud kill anybody for gbagaun jare

Exactly.. none is a master of the queens' language

Freegift75:

Aisha Buhari’s Embarrassing Grammatical Infelicities at USIP

By Farooq A. Kperogi, Ph.D.
Twitter: @farooqkperogi

I am aware that this article won’t endear me to
several of my thin-skinned Buhari/APC
partisan readers who, interestingly, wildly
acclaimed my past articles that pilloried
former First Lady Patience Jonathan’s
sidesplitting grammatical transgressions. But I
am never one to shy away from embarking on
what I’m convinced is a just and fair
undertaking because of a fear of backlash from
mawkish, hypersensitive crybabies.

In any case, in my Saturday column—and in
my Facebook status updates—I have defended
Wife of the President Aisha Buhari against
Gov. Ayo Fayose’s brash and reckless calumny
against her. In an ironic twist, it was her bid to
give the lie to Fayose’s charge that she couldn’t
visit the US without being arrested that caused
her to come here and give a speech at the
United States Institute of Peace (USIP) that is
the subject of this column.

Mrs. Aisha Buhari’s speech at the United States
Institute of Peace didn’t rise to the level of
former First Lady Patience Jonathan’s
legendary contortion of English grammar, but
it was inexcusably egregious nonetheless, not
least because it was supposed to be the
product of preparation and forethought.
In general, the speech was riotously
incoherent, lacked lexical and semantic
discipline, and was peppered with avoidably
ugly and elementary grammatical infractions.

Mrs. Buhari vacillated between reading from a
prepared script and speaking off the cuff. But
the prepared speech and Mrs. Buhari’s
extemporizations were indistinguishable: both
were tortured, infantile, error-ridden, and
cringe-worthy. Winston Churchill’s famous
putdown of his opponent—"He spoke without
a note and almost without a point."—seems to
apply to the Wife of the President. (Watch the
video below.)

Below are highlights of the infelicities that
stood out like a sore thumb during Mrs.
Buhari’s 10-minute speech at the United States
Institute of Peace in Washington, DC:

1. Subject-verb agreement. Like Patience
Jonathan—and former President Goodluck
Jonathan—Aisha Buhari doesn’t seem to have
any respect for subject-verb concord rules in
English grammar. These howlers illustrate this:

“I want to…thank the international community
for giving us a solutions…,” “those that
needs to be…,” “the school have been
running…,” “adult ones that needs the
opportunity.”

Most people know that a singular subject (such
as “the school”) agrees with a singular verb
(such as “has”) and a plural subject (such as
“those,” “adult ones”) agrees with a plural verb
(such as “need” instead of “needs.”) That means
the Wife of the President should have said,
“those that need to be,” “the school has been
running,” “adult ones that need the
opportunity.”

Of course, “a solutions” is a self-evident
bloomer: you don’t pluralize a noun that is
preceded by the indefinite article “a” because
“a” signals nominal singularity. In other words,
“a solutions” is both ungrammatical and
illogical since it implies nominal plurality and
singularity simultaneously. It is either
“solutions” or “a solution.”

2. Redundant pronoun. Pronouns typically
take the place of a noun and save us the
torment of ungainly repetition. That’s why, in
Standard English, pronouns don’t typically
appear in the same sentence as the nouns they
refer to. In her USIP speech, Mrs. Buhari said
the following: “As you are all aware, Boko
Haram issue, it is a global issue attached to
terrorism, which need [sic] to be addressed
globally.”

“Boko Haram issue” is the antecedent for the
pronoun “it” in the sentence quoted above,
which makes the pronoun superfluous since it
appears in the same sentence as its
antecedent. “Boko Haram is a global issue…”
would convey the same meaning—and without
the ungrammatical baggage. I admit, though,
that redundant pronouns of the kind I
identified in Mrs. Buhari’s speech occur in
nonstandard native English dialects. But we are
talking of an official speech in a formal context
in a foreign, English-speaking country.

The sentence also violates the basic principle
of pronoun-antecedent agreement. The
principle says, “A pronoun usually refers to
something earlier in the text (its antecedent)
and must agree in number — singular/plural
— with the thing to which it refers.” The
phrase “which need” refers to “Boko Haram
issue,” which is a singular subject that needs a
singular verb, i.e., “needs.”

3. A curious resultant “done.” During her
speech, Mrs. Buhari praised the University of
Maiduguri for remaining open even in the
worst moments of Boko Haram insurgency.
“The university really done us proud,” she
said. This is a misuse of the past participle
“done” that linguists call the “resultant done.”

It is curious because it is typical of the
informal, nonstandard (and sometimes
illiterate) speech of the American south.

In Standard English, the sentence would be
reworded as, “The university has done us
proud.” If we want to be faithful to Mrs.
Buhari’s lexical and structural choice, we would
rephrase it as, “The university really did us
proud.”

4. Buhari’s government as a “recent
regime.” Mrs. Buhari puzzlingly referred to
her husband’s administration as “the recent
regime.” Here is the context: After thanking
the “international community” for its military
and financial support that led to the defeat of
Boko Haram, in a rather awkward transition,
the Wife of the President said, “In which the
recent regime has done so far considering
what we inherited—the level of insecurity
in the country—we can now say that we
successfully fought the Boko Haram
insurgency.”

Apart from the weak, messy transition, that’s
some really dizzyingly incoherent verbal
blizzard!

But the bigger issue is that she called the
current administration “a recent regime.”
There are two problems with that. First, the
word “recent,” especially when it is applied to
administrations, implies an immediate past,
that is, that which precedes the present. It is
both ungrammatical and illogical to speak of an
incumbent administration as “recent.”

Second, there is always a tone of disapproval
when a government is referred to as a
“regime.” That is why the word is often
reserved for military and other totalitarian
governments. Even the Associated Press
Stylebook defines “regime” as “the period in
which a person or system was in power, often
with a negative connotation. For example,
Saddam Hussein’s regime, the Nazi regime.” I
hope Mrs. Buhari doesn’t consider her husband
as the honcho of a regime.

5. “Academicians.” Mrs. Buhari called
university lecturers in the audience
“academicians.” Well, it’s OK to refer to
university teachers as “academicians” in
Nigeria and in other non-native English-
speaking countries, but it doesn’t hurt to learn
the proper form when you address native
speakers in their own territory. Educated
native English speakers call university teachers
“academics,” not “academicians.”








www.farooqkperogi.com/2016/08/aisha-buharis-embarrassing-grammatical.html?m=1#.V6bvtF5HOXV.facebook

KEEP KWAYET!

But I am never one to shy away from embarking on what I’m convinced is a just and fair undertaking because of a fear of backlash from mawkish, hypersensitive crybabies.

Oh my goodness!
Hypersensitive crybabies??


The Edo Prosti.tute Halliburton 'Hermes' crooner never disappoints

Aisha na illiterate


Na only bring 40 million i wanna buy bag she sabi

Illiterate family