My experience today while I drove down (late though due to the many road constructions by Gov Amaechi) was horrible. I was forced to tune to Radio Rivers 2, 99.1 FM due to the fact that all the other stations were playing songs with only the word SWAGGER (another result of a people who dont have much vocabulary - a story for another day). I met the programme CRIME WATCH. To say the caster was miserably is an understatement. From starting every sentence with the word "WELL" to the fact that for about 15 minutes that I listened with amazement, he used the street phrase "YOU KNOW" on nothing less that 50 occasions!!! In fact a friend that was riding with me started counting, and at a time lost count!
As if that was not enough, enter 2 female newscasters for the 12 noon news (I think). From Verbal mix-ups, Grammatical misrepresentations and errors to incomplete sentences and (rookie phenomenon’s) panicking on air, et al - the least things you expect from a radio station. I was forced to play my Yanni CD (something I only do in the evenings). But on a second thought, I tuned in again to finish the horror show. Then I was reminded that I should not blame only the casters, but also the writers and the producers that gave the final approval for the news to be broadcast on air.

I believe this is a direct result of not only a rotten education system, but also our social standard has been allowed to get too low.
I had on several instances pointed to the fact that it may get to a time we may begin to hire experts to do basic things here. But also i get troubled by the responses I get from people I thought would see reasons with me. Without wasting much time, I will go straight and say it again that the danger posed by our acceptance of pidgin English and its consequence on the society. Agreed its been one of our unofficial linguas, but in recent times, it has made the leap to almost being part of the officially allowed languages with its dangers manifesting by the day.

Not long ago, the NECO 70% failure rate was making headlines and we all were shocked. What do we do ? Gov Amaechi last Monday in Opobo town for a town hall meeting told tales of teachers who were caught copying and cheating in their training exams. TEACHERS!!! What do we do ?
Should we stand and watch our society rot ? How do we make sure this country is governed and inhabited by non-illiterates ?

If this is not a CLEAR AND PRESENT DANGER and an indication of a failed academic system, then nothing will. In fact it is heading for the rocks never to come back, not with radio stations like WAZOBIA.
Don’t get me wrong, I am not advocating that we make laws to abolish pidgin English, No. Though I will also not oppose it, but Im an advocate of not making laws that will be almost impossible to abide by, thereby making the entire populace law breakers. But my opinion is that we either reduce the entry requirements to schools and jobs to a pass or even fail in English and accept pidgin English as an official Language or we find a way to make sure that we dont give pidgin English an official status.
Before you say my second option is no more possible, I will remind you that critical problems require critical solutions. Pres Jonathan (congrats) was unlawfully made the Acting President by the National Assembly when the country was almost thrown into constitutional crisis by the imperfection of the laws of Nigeria (law of necessity they called it). Now by same means, if we accept that pidgin English is destroying the same people that govt spends so much to train in schools, then we can as well declare it a National crisis and treat it as such.

Like I have said over and over again, allowing radio stations like WAZOBIA FM to broadcast 24 hours pidgin English laced with entertaining comedy is 2 steps backward. We should draw a line between freedom and endangering a peoples way of life. I know there are many ways we pick up pidgin on daily basis, but these radio stations are eating into the fabrics of our spoken grammar. As much as we have not accepted pidgin as one of our lingua, and it is neither an internationally recognised language like French or Portuguese, we should do everything to ban it.

During my last discuss on this issue, a friend told me that I was advocating that someone's genuine business should be closed, but I reminded him that any business that endangered the lives and wellbeing of the entire citizens of a place deserves to be closed. Also someone said that if I dont like the station I should not tune-in. But again I made it known that the station is using a govt allocated frequency which is owned by all, and if I dont tune-in, there is no way of guaranteeing that our children cannot. I dont know of any radio censorship yet.

Lastly, while we all wait to see if Pres Jonathan will tackle the educational sector, I encourage you all to ban your children and loved ones from listening to such radio stations.
Thanks for your time.

OP,You lost it when u mixed up two entirely different notions.The ability to flow fluently in English or Pidgin should not and cannot hinder ones grasp of the other.
The trend today however especially for the youths is to use pidgin to hide their deficiencies in proper English.Then talk abt the sillly and highly annoying text/shorthand style of writing,I just cant understand that one.Go to the romance section,you can't make anything from what they are typing.

We all make mistakes,moreso when the language is s foreign one and for the radio presenters,it might be that the presenter is under stress,not well prepared or they just have no business working in the media industry.

Btw,OP,what is the way forward?Do you have a proposal ready?Do you think there's a need for everybody to be fluent in English lang.?

I don't understand your rants on WAZOBIA fm.They have a targeted audience and can't be faulted if everyone includin Harvard graduates decides on tuning in.