OUR PROBLEM HAS NOTHING TO DO WITH GRAMMAR.
Vannesa Ekeke.

Nigeria is one of the few West African countries that made a fairly successful transition from military to civilian rule. Although the accelerated growth and development of our country is still plagued by many woes, we cannot deny that there is hope in the offing. At this point in history, Nigeria is going through a series of political and economic reforms; one being the 2011 presidential election which is just round corner. This calls for serious involvement by every Nigerian citizen to ensure that a free and fair election is achieved. That registered voters get to vote so that the best candidate wins.

This is what our concern should be but no, the media and supporters of rival political parties have rather shifted their attention on the grammatical blunders of Dame Patience Jonathan. The first lady has become more of a comic relief and an object of ridicule amongst the old and young. She now dominates the topics of most tweets, newspapers, blogs, black berry messages (bbms), Facebook status and other social media forums. Her only offence being, her inability to express herself correctly in English language. It is appalling to know that as soon as the first lady picks up a microphone, whispers take over and instead of listening to what she has to say, the so-called audience is eagerly anticipating a blunder that would keep them laughing for the next few days. Team  

And this makes me ask the question; ‘’ Is grammar the solution to Nigeria’s problem’’? For the past fifty years since independence how has the learned population contributed to the growth of the country by merely being articulate? Is there a correlation between government looting of funds and blunder in verbal expression? How do we explain the failure of the Power Holding Corporation of Nigeria with being fluent in English or do we attribute our poor medical, educational and transportation system to poor grammatical errors? Yes it is obvious that she does have a problem constructing sentences but we must admit that she still communicates. At the end of the day, people can relate to what she is saying or meant to have said. With all due respect, Senator Patrick Obahiagbon is one sesquipedalian I truly admire for his courage to continue in a fashion that is almost unbelievable. However, as comical or intellectual as he may appear, truth be told that he fails to communicate effectively. About ninety percent of his listeners cannot understand him, and yet he is one of our lawmakers and an eloquent speaker of the house. Obahiagbon listeners in this case do not have a problem with grammatical blunders but with his verbosity and it is advised to have a dictionary handy to make sense of whatever he says.

I know a lot of learned people who despite their strong educational back grounds never have the nerves to make a public statement even if it means reading from a paper. Some at universities level would faint at the mere mention of public speaking, yet you see people who are not even half as read or nearly as eloquent display great confidence on stage. Dame Patience Jonathan I believe has someone appointed to write her speeches but the times she erred were probably when she dared to make impromptu statements that were off the paper. Fellow Nigerians, the problems facing our country is too enormous to be taken for granted, and they have nothing to do with ‘’grammar’’. Dame Patience Jonathan is not the problem. It is true that she represents a people but she is also not running for any office nor does she hold any statutory position. She is only a first lady on a personal mission to serve her motherland and to lend her husband support.

By Vanessa Ekeke

http://www.nigeriavillagesquare.com/articles/guest-articles/nigerians-our-problem-has-nothing-to-do-with-grammar.html

otokx:

Let me try and play 3rd party advocate.

First

The type of English you speak is a reflection of how good your teachers were at Primary and Secondary education so let us not point fingers at UNIPORT yet.

naijaking1:

Your camparison with Turai pales.
However, I agree with you that 1st Ladies are indeed public figures and deserve some degree of scrutiny. When you begin to compare her and evaluate her to the same level as people who are directly seeking elective offices, then you miss the point.

As to her campaigning for her husband and having a say, I tell you, its simply cultural if not religious---you undersatnd what I mean.
Women in the south, especially the eastern part have a say in their husband affairs and openly too.

She communicates very well with her peers, and that's all that matters. She says umblerra like 99% of the women in Aba and PH markets, they understand her, and even love her----that's why she's a dynamic campaign machine for her husband.

Let's wait until she goes to give a speech at Harvard, but for now, she's doing excellent

naijaking1:

Umblerra, Umbrera, umbrella, wambrela, or whatever she's alleged to call it is irrelevant unless you're a trained and licensed linguist who would understand the influence of vernacular on secondary languages.

I mean, you wouldn't undersatnd why the average Yoruba would always miss pronouncing the first "h" in any word. Not only do Yorubas pronounce "house" as "ouse". I have seen many N/L write "his" as "is"

Also, the Hausas, because of their own native tongue mispronouce words begining with "v"
Imagine sitting in an English class by an Hausa Youth corper who began the first day:
"By the end of this class, e[i]w[/i]ery one of you will understand the f[/i]roper use of [i]w[/i]erbs and pro[i]w[/i]erbs"

The Igbos too, have their languistic idiosyncracy such as placing a vowel at the end of every name, such as [i]bucket[/i]i for bucket, [i]cupu for cup, and of course having difficulty with such tongue twister as umbrella.


Like to hear from some linguist in the H--ouse, not some cheap political operatives.

Remii:

some words are difficult for some people in some areas to pronounce.

With all due respects, not mocking any tribe:

Lagos kids have problem with "r" "oi e o pe" instead of "ori e o pe".
Ibadan have theirs with "sh" that is why you hear jokes like , kini soo (show) soo suo (show sure)
Delta (Urhobo in particular) don't call  "L" well, they call "Nateef" instead of Lateef
Hausa /Fulani cant call "P" , "feople" instead of people.
Some Calabar guys call "Younson" instead of Johnson

I have heard Ibos call  "umbllera" instead of Umbrella.

so its just accents,

Even there are American and British pronunciations. Anti is called as written by British while Americans call it 'antai". It is preventive in British and preventative in America

dremoney:

1. The Bombers who born them?wasn't it not a woman? They were once a Children now a adult now they are bombing women and children making some children a widow

2. The President was once a Child and the Senators were once a Children

3. A Good Mother takes care of his Children

4. My Heart feels sorry for these Children who havee become Widows by losing their Parents for one reason or another

5. My Husband and Sambo is a good people

6. The people sitting before you here were once a Children

7. Yes we are all happy for the effort,it is not easy to carry second in an international competition like this one - Addressing Press men after Female Under 19 Fifa World Cup


Now,she is a target until her miserable life is not funded by our money!

klear:

we better prepare our ears if Jonathan wins & she has 2 address the international community ( because that will surely happen)

EzeUche_:

Why are you people continuing to insult her, when English is not even her first language?

For the most part, reading some of your post give me a headache, because you all cannot even write "proper" English.

Ericology:

Ezeuche, u disappoint me,  i ve always admired your doggedness with certain issues here but well, this constant defense of madam GEJ by some nairalanders by reminding us that English aint her mother tongue have started sounding like broken records, I tell u, we all make mistakes but if after several years in primary, sec school, and getting an NCE dat qualifies one as a teacher, then a university degree she still doesnt know when to use a child and children to qualify people, then shes is TOTALLY DUMB, take it or leave it

strangest:

THE INTERNATIONAL COMMUNITIES DONT EVEN RECOGNIZE A DEGREE FROM A NIGERIAN UNIVERSITY, SO ITS NOT JUST PH,   NOT FROM THERE TOUGH

                                                                              WHAT WE NEED IS "ACTION" NOT "WORDS"


PATIENCE ROCKS  

passyjango:

She probably got adult education, the type that they use their salary to bribe their way through school.

eku_bear:

Yep. It is pretty much impossible to spend four years at an English-speaking institution and come out talking like an illiterate.

That is my own hypothesis at this point. . . her UniPort degrees are fake or purchased.

babyoy:

Instead of castigating her, why don't someone volunteer to teach her

oyb:

naija unis

i remeber during nyc at camp - i was reading a novel and some dude was like u never read enough book for school?