AGAINST THE CONTINUOUS AGGRESSIONS ON THE LANGUAGE AND LOGIC OF THE GOMINEROS

We are not just wherever our little corner is, but in the world that is now a global village rapidly shrinking to a neighborhood, at least information-wise. This is how we speak and write this way.

1. Bribery and Extortion:

Many people here and there and elsewhere seem to have heard so much about “bribe money” that they have pleasantly forgotten about the incentives and temptations of the recipient by the briber, so the giver is rightly said to bribe, induce and tempts the one who receives it. receiver. But where and when would-be takers are asking, demanding and insisting on what they want, we make a mistake if we report what is given and taken as a bribe.

Are we nullifying the effects of words or terms so really significant and practically significant, even legal, such as “extortion” and “extortion”? As it seems now, here we are used to reading and listening to officials high and low, in the field and at headquarters, “demanding bribes.” Are we too afraid or too confused to call them “extortionists” and what they do “extortion”? If we had called these crimes and delinquents by their correct names for a long time, many abusers of authority would have since given up on them; having learned that any act of “extortion” which means “obtaining things by coercion or intimidation” can border on and be called “theft”, if the extortionist is armed or applies physical force in any way. However, let’s not get carried away with this, lest we get bogged down in legalese.

But then, we worry about the accuracy or correctness of the language; and this borders on integrity and good intentions, for which we fervently plead:

Godly lawyers please help take it back from here.

2. Denial and Denial by Rebuttal and Rebuttal:

The misuse of this pair of words is perhaps the most persistent attack on global collective public intelligence by politicians, or rather, by reporters on behalf of politicians. Just imagine that: someone, usually a senior public official, simply denies some claim, report, or statement and the mere denial is widely reported as a rebuttal. No please ladies and gentlemen, you cannot and do not refute claims, reports or statements by simply denying them. He refutes them by showing some good evidence or evidence contrary to the claims, reports, statements or whatever. Allow our reporters to diligently separate these terms to make the issues much less confusing, and the diligence of our reporters will improve public understanding of many issues.

3. Nip it in the bud:

Have you noticed? -keep reading and listening- in the media even now that some people are still advising the government, regarding “Boko Haram”, to “nip it in the bud”? And when we’re done with it, or gotten rid of it, they’ll still say, “Yes, the government has nipped it in the bud.” Attention please! Note that “bud” really means a small bump on a plant stem that contains immature leaves and/or flowers. If a bud is saved, it will soon flower into full branches, leaf clusters, and/or flowers.

As a figure of speech, “nip it in the bud” means “to destroy something at an early stage of development”, as does destroying immature leaves and flowers while they are still in the bud, that is, before the bud breaks open and flowers.

If we loosely use “nip it in the bud” for such a deadly matter that has already blossomed and turned into leaves/branches/flowers and been cut off, propagated and transplanted somewhere else, so to speak, guess how embarrassing and annoying that sounds to those ladies? and gentlemen who may be oblivious to mistakes so common they amount to a lie taken so lightly by many others. And what is the effect of such a widely accepted free lie on our sensibilities? Your guess is as good as mine, or rather, just as bad.

However, on a more serious note, I personally believe that good language accuracy is one aspect of our personal and group integrity. As it is written, “Let your ‘yes’ be ‘yes’, and your ‘no’ be ‘no’.” Away with all vagueness, ambiguity, confusion, elusiveness, confusion and double meaning, they are all synonyms that tend to confusion. Please let us strive to use words deliberately and accurately.

4. Amnesty is the official pardon, generally for a group or person:

This is one of the most recently invented deadly vagueness by Nigerian government officials. Of course, it needs no explanation that genuine forgiveness is an option only when those being forgiven are firmly under the control of the government that forgives them. Then one could correctly say that the Government is exercising mercy. Like it or not, these Boko Haram insurgents and other militants were not at the mercy of the government when clemency was presumptuously offered. We now easily remember so many “cautious” people warning us then that the insurgents would simply take the opportunity to disparage the Federal Government. I considered and understood that some liked the scenario of a case of two guys (usually friends or business associates) who are still arguing about the wrongs that have been done and one says to the other: “I forgive you”. What do you think? The other will refuse such a “forgiveness”. The point is that you must humiliate them, having them “at your mercy” before you can magnanimously grant them mercy/pardon/amnesty. The “amnesty” that we persuade the supposed beneficiaries to accept may be as good and as desirable a deal as we pray for; but it is not properly called that. I plead with all governments and other leaders everywhere to see that political situations demand more precision and less ambiguity.

5. PERSISTENT INCORRECT USE OF THE WORD “POLITICAR”

This is equally encouraged by many politicians and their supporters everywhere. Here and there and elsewhere, we continue to hear and read about them, as they freely accuse anyone who disagrees with them or their positions of politicizing issues and events that are naturally inevitably political anyway. Let’s think of it as it really is: to politicize (Br.)/politicize (Am.) is to “give a political character to” some issue or event that would otherwise lack political character. A lot of political people are confused and confusing the public and fueling tensions everywhere. We should all be careful with them.

6. Themselves / Ourselves / Yourselves Vs. Against each other / With each other:

The widespread confusion of these words that I like to describe as “strict and specific terms indicating beneficiaries” has much more than grammatical and lexical implications. Confusing these terms is fraught with deadly dangers in practical relationships arising from our knowingly or unknowingly recommending and rendering services intended for others to ourselves.

Think of a well-intentioned well-intentioned person advising some newly inaugurated team members (for example, a newlywed couple) to “learn to love, know, understand, help, respect, trust, serve, and listen to themselves” (which is, “themselves”), when the well-wisher really means “to each other” or “to each other,” as the case may be. Mark it right, couples and teams cannot be successful as such if members keep hearing that they should be doing to themselves what they should be doing to each other and/or each other. Of course, it can be fairly or reasonably assumed that the parties involved derive their intended meanings. However, let us be mindful to clarify this point precisely, repairing our collective image before those who are not yet accustomed to such common confusions. Yes please speak nicely if you mean well for the team.

We all know (some don’t?) that many simple matters of facts (even figures!) and meanings are easily and freely confused in our contemporary culture. Therefore, we must be apt to fight for facts and meanings with adequate responses to the spurious claims and counterclaims that are rapidly infiltrating our culture, corrupting values. Our own collective culture is degenerating before us; and so many react to this only by romanticizing our history and antiquities, confusing them with our culture. We will dwell on this matter of culture in due course. In the meantime, think about it.