The Nation Newspaper

Tag: Errors

  • ANN faults board jobs errors

    One of the newly registered political parties The Alliance for New Nigeria (ANN), has chided the All Progressives Congress (APC) for “turning governance into one huge theatre of the absurd”.

    In a statement by national coordinator Dr. Jay Osi Samuels, the ANN said: “Board appointments everywhere are routine. It goes through checks after checks to ensure that persons of proven integrity are appointed. But above all, such persons must be alive. However, a situation whereby at least five dead persons were appointed into board positions showed how shoddy the government has become. They are simply making a mess of governance.”

    In its New Year message, the party urged Nigerians not to lose hope in the country in the face of daunting odds.

    “We know the times are hard and majority of Nigerians celebrated Christmas in distress as a result of fuel scarcity; but we urge them to believe in the nation and also in the sanctity of the democratic process.

  • A budget of errors

    The drama over the 2016 budget seems unending. As one act ends, another opens, making Nigerians wonder whether the government really worked on the appropriation bill before sending it to the National Assembly. It was with fanfare that President Muhammadu Buhari presented the budget to the National Assembly last December 22. Tagged ‘’Budget of Change’’, it is, according to the president, meant to restore Nigerians’  hope in their country after so many years in the wilderness.

    Sadly, the enthusiasm about the budget is waning. Nigerians cannot understand what is happening to the budget over one month after it was presented to the lawmakers. Rather than see their representatives progress with work on the budget, it has been one complaint after the other since the document got to them about two months ago. From the Senate, first came the allegation that the budget had ‘’disappeared’’. Disappear? Nigerians could not believe their ears. How could the budget disappear when it is not a piece of paper on which something was hurriedly scribbled?

    As the din over its whereabouts grew, the Presidency wrote to the National Assembly leadership, seeking to recall the budget for some corrections. Last January 19, it sent the corrected budget back to the lawmakers, with the figures, it said, ‘’remaining the same’’. Since the revised appropriation bill got to the lawmakers, our ears have been tingling from what we have been hearing from those coming to defend their budget. The impression they are creating is that they do not know anything about the document’s preparation. It sounds unbelievable that a minister will not know about his ministry’s budget until  he is confronted with the figures by the lawmakers.

    It all looks so comical, but it is not a laughing matter; no, not at all. Is it possible for a minister not to be in the know of his ministry’s budget until he and his team appear for its defence at the National Assembly? If this is so, who then prepared the budget? Was it prepared before the minister assumed office? If that is the case, was he not briefed about what was done before it was sent to the Budget Office for collation along with others? If we did not see the respective ministries working on their budgets, at least we saw the Minister of Budget and National Planning, Senator Udoma Udo Udoma, and his team working on the N6.08 trillion budget on national television.

    Udoma even invited Vice President Yemi Osinbajo ‘’to see what we are  doing’’. The vice president praised the team for what it was doing and Udoma said then that what remained was to dot the i’s and cross the t’s. Unfortunately, the budget defence has put a lie to the so-called enormous efforts said to have been put into the document’s preparation. Is this happening because the administration is in a hurry to meet the people’s expectation? It is good that the administration desires to fulfil its obligation to the people, but it will be better if it is thorough and painstaking in doing so because a country’s budget should be prepared by the finest minds around.

    No matter the hurry in drawing up the budget, every figure must be correct so that when the document comes under scrutiny, as it is now at the National Assembly, there will be no room for doubts. Doubts have been created with the disowning of the budget by some ministers and the discrepancies discovered by the lawmakers. The firing of Director-General of the Budget Office Yahaya Gusau on Monday shows that there is more to the matter than meets the eye. Last February 8, Health Minister Prof Isaac Adewole caused a stir when he told the Senate Committee on Health that his ministry’s original budget had been ‘’largely distorted’’. A bigger drama occurred at the House of Representatives Committee on Capital Market last Thursday when the Investment and Securities Tribunal (IST) represented its 2015 budget for 2016.

    ‘’The budget for IST in the 2016 budget proposal is just an exact copy of its 2015 appropriation. It is word for word; figure for figure. And items dealt with and completed in 2015 were repeated’’, the panel said. Are those who prepared the budget blind? Or was it done deliberately to perpetrate fraud? The seriousness of the matter should not be lost on us all. This is why I disagree with Udoma that the errors were ‘’overplayed’’. They were not overplayed. Rather, it is Udoma, with all due respect,  that wants to downplay a serious matter for which those responsible should be punished. A budget is not a document that should be treated in a slipshod manner the way some civil servants have attempted to do with the 2016 appropriation bill. I expect the minister to be angry that some people want to rubbish the first budget that will be prepared under his watch instead of him talking as if there is nothing to what has happened. There is a lot to it and in some countries it could have led to the resignation of the man in charge.

    To many Nigerians, the president’s probe of the ‘’budget padding’’ is welcome so that our people will know that it is no longer business as usual. We expect more heads to roll over this matter besides that of Gusau. That will be the only way for Buhari to live up to his promise that ‘’the 2016 budget will address the problems. We are here to serve Nigeria and indeed Nigerians will get the service they have longed for’’.

     

    See who’s PDP chair

    On Tuesday night, Senator Ali Modu Sheriff popularly known as SAS became Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) chairman after a lot of wheeling and dealing. Many never expected PDP to go for SAS, but the party has made its choice; so it should live with it. But what has SAS, a former Borno State governor, got to offer the party? We wait to see.

     

    The seven ‘wise men’

    The jury is still out on the Supreme Court verdict upholding the election of Nyesom Wike as Rivers State governor. Did the Supreme Court err? Was the full court of seven justices induced? I keep my gun powder dry for now. For the benefit of readers, who have been asking, the seven-man panel comprised Chief Justice Mahmud Mohammed, Justice Ibrahim Muhammad, Justice Nwali Ngwuta, Justice Kumai Aka’ahs, Justice Kudirat Kekere-Ekun, who delivered the lead judgement, Justice John Okoro and Justice Aminu Sanusi.

  • Haruna’s errors on Aregbesola

    SIR: Muhammed Haruna’s piece titled ‘Aregbesola’s predicament’ published on July 29 in your well respected newspaper refers. Haruna is a fine writer, who does his research very well, even if some people find his articles provocative and his argument sometimes non sequitur.

    His article on Governor Rauf Aregbesola was meant to be favourable, but in trying to be objective, he did more harm than good to him.

    His first barb was in siding with Punch on criticising the governor for building a religious worship centre for Christians. When Governor Aregbesola decided to build the centre, it was on the heel of the wild allegation that he was planning to Islamise Osun. What better show of goodwill than to build the worship centre for Christians?

    However, the governor explained that he was not even thinking of appeasing Christians. His motivation was the economic import of a religious centre for the state. He said he saw the crowds pulled at the various camp grounds of religious organisations and the economy built around them in accommodation, food, utilities and so on. He was just thinking of growing the state’s GDP.

    When Punch and the others so virulently criticised the governor for the venture, they were thinking less of separating state from religion, after all, the whole country was replete with other states that built churches and mosques for their people and we did not hear a whimper. What really pained and angered them about Aregbesola was that he had confronted them with an anomaly on their paradigm that portrayed the governor as a Christian-hating, sabre-rattling bearded mullah. They expected him to conform to this image and characterisation, not a church building, and evangelism crusade promoting governor.

    Secondly, Haruna did not get the facts right on the purchase of helicopter for security surveillance; and that is very uncharacteristic of him. He no doubt bought the falsehood being peddled by Osun PDP that the governor bought the helicopter for the use of himself and his family. This is far from the truth.

    The helicopter was acquired for security surveillance to complement armoured personnel carriers (APC) bought to fight crime. Before the chopper was purchased, the state government had built a state of the art call centre where it will be coordinated with ground forces but the centre needed a special security code which can only be supplied by NCC. Regrettably, NCC for political reason, refused to give this code and the chopper was grounded. For it not to be redundant, it was leased out for commercial purpose where it is making money for the state and is only recalled for use as the need arises. The government is still in hot pursuit of the security code and will still bring back the helicopter for surveillance. It therefore does not make to ask that it be sold.

    Thirdly, Muhammed Haruna’s unsolicited counsel that the governor travels out too frequently is uninformed. Aregbesola is the least travelled public official at his level. His unfailing attendance of the weekly state executive council meetings attends to this.

     

    • Michael Ogundele,

    Osogbo, Osun State

  • Errors, omissions, blunders

    Errors, omissions, blunders

    For your Sunday amusement, Taiwo Abiodun profiles some mind-boggling errors as committed on signboards, billboards, banners and even vehicles, and also prescribes punishment for offenders.

    Call it comedy of errors and you might just be right on point. We are talking about the crimes of errors of spelling, as committed by the litany of amateur sign writers that characterise our society.

    Some call it printer’s devil; others label it oversight errors, but some out-rightly call it what it is, blunders. And yet, no one seems left out. And yet they all defend themselves; be it in the academics, the military, government ministries, churches, banking institutions; and of course the artisans who, many agree may make excuses of their poor education.

    For the refined or educated mind, seeing some of these words wrongly or ignorantly inscribed on vehicles, billboards, walls, stickers, banners among others can be disgusting. For those who have a reasonable dose of sense of humour, these spectacles are opportunities for a good laugh. Many a times, you burst into laughter, especially because of the ignorance of the ‘culprits’. Grim-minded readers may however be drawn to tears, as they consider such calamitous errors tell-tales of the deplorable state of Nigeria’s education.

    While some may argue that it is due to the poor teaching of English in our schools, some would say it is due to the lackadaisical attitude of some sign writers or proof readers, who fail to spot the mistakes and correct them.

    This story took roots as this reporter and other passengers in a public transport on his way to Ilorin, Kwara State, argued over the correct version of a wrongly written expression on a 911 Mercedes Benz lorry. On it was inscribed “SHAVE ME OH GOD.” Of course the first reaction to this was to have a good laugh. Some of the passengers attempted to argue for the blunder, saying the writer meant ‘shave’ in the real sense of it; others who are used to the expression but who are compassionate argued that it is the devil’s printer and should have been ‘SAVE ME OH GOD’.

    Curious, this reporter caught up with the driver of the vehicle and made efforts to point out the very conspicuous error to him. But alas, he was quite adamant and replied full of confidence that “My oga don see am, he sabi book, it is correct.’ Things however turned a bit dangerous when this reporter made to take a shot of the inscription. ‘Sege barawo!’ He screamed in Hausa language, reaching simultaneously for is dagger and giving the reporter who had already taken to his heals a hot chase.

    While traveling from Owo to Benin, this writer also beheld another expression “SHAME UNTO ME ENEMIES,” as against “SHAME UNTO MY ENEMIES” on a vehicle. Again when this reporter confronted the driver, he got a big frown and a tell-off: “Go away. It is not your business.”

    Other instances on stickers include “JESUS IS LOD” (letter ‘R’ is missing from LORD); “REPARE YOUR TELEPHONE HERE” (as against “REPAIR YOUR TELEPHONE HERE”).

    A sign post at mechanic workshop in Ogbomosho in Oyo State read ‘MERCEDISE’ BENZ, instead of MERCEDES. For this error, someone suggested that the mechanic should be fined 200,000 naira.

    WE SELL ‘BEAR’ HERE. This was a part of a notice on an informal sign post that read WE SELL ‘BEAR’ AND SOFT DRINKS HERE (The key word of course should have read BEER rather than ‘BEAR.’ Bear is a wild animal that lives in the forest, while Beer is an alcoholic drink.

    ORILE ‘RAOD’ 107. This was part of the address on a sign board of a school located on Orile Road, Agege, Lagos. Note that the spelling of ROAD here has been twisted. Therefore the school has committed a big blunder and the proprietor is here by fined 250,000 naira. The money should be paid into The Nation’s Newspaper’s account today.

    ‘TECHER’

    WE NEED A PRIVATE ‘TECHER’ HERE (note that TEACHER is wrongly spelt.)

    What manner of teacher or school manager would like to be employed in this school? In fact, his school should be shut down!

    ‘BEUATY SALON IS HERE

    The word ‘BEUATY’ here has been murdered. The correct spelling should have been BEAUTY. The owner of this salon should be arrested and her salon shut down. She can commit graver errors on customers’ hair.

    ‘LOWYER’

    WE WANT A ‘LOWYER’ HERE, (The principal word here should have been LAWYER and ‘O’ has erroneously replaced ‘A’.) This was found at a sign-writer’s workshop, but one would expect the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA) to move in and arrest the sign-writer.

    ‘MEKANIC’ – THERE IS A ‘MEKANIC’ HERE

    This was captured on a wall at Ikeja Along bus stop. This wall should be pulled down as this big blunder is causing it to vibrating even as you read this.

    Churches, educational institutions not left out

    If one would excuse the mechanic, what becomes of churches, government ministries and the academic environment? Many lay the blame on the sign writers,’ accusing them of poor education; but what were those who commissioned the jobs doing? Didn’t they go through the finished work before hoisting or pasting them?

    Blunder at University of Ibadan!

    The big banner conspicuously hung on the University of Ibadan library in honour of  wait for it- Professor Wole Soyinka, winner of the prestigious Nobel Laureate in Literature. Two major errors: ‘UNIVERSITRY’ and ‘WEDNESSDAY’ stood out on the banner meant to announce the celebration of Prof. Wole Soyinka at 80. “ABADINA RESOURCE CENTRE celebrates Professor WOLE SOYINKA @80  VENUE: TRENCHARD HALL, UNVERSITRY  OF IBADAN, DATE: WEDNESSDAY, 12 NOVEMBER 2014, TIME: 3PM.

    These blunders reminded this writer of the Biblical verse, John 3:3; and the questions they evoked were: Does it mean no student or lecturer saw this blunders? Or were they spotted but overlooked because of cost of reproduction? How will Professor Soyinka himself feel seeing this blunders? We think Abadina Resource Centre should be fined 5,000 dollars!

    On a College of Education form

    At Oba-Akoko Junction, on the way to Imeri, this reporter witnessed multiple blunders on an advertisement of College of Education, Ikere-Ekiti.

    2. Education (‘Secretariat’ Studies option) – as against ‘ Secretarial.

    3. Computer Science/Intergrated (the second word should be Integrated’ not Intergrated.

    12. Mathematics/Computer (the second word should be ‘Computer Science, ‘ which is a course, and not Computer.

    17. Agriculture Education (wrong)

    20. Economics/Politics’Science (the second phrase should read: Political Science.

    With all these blunders on a college’s form, the Acting Registrar who signed this admission advertisement should pay a fine of 500,000 naira.

    Bank premises

    At the entrance of Skye Bank, Owo, Ondo State are about six handbills pasted on the walls .The handbills read:

    ‘ENROLEMENT! ENROLEMENT!! ENROLEMENT!!!’

    BANK CERTIFICATION NUMBER (BVN) ‘ENROLEMENT’ EXERCISE IS IN PROGRESS IN THE BANK…

    Observation: the bank repeated the wrongly spelt word ‘ENROLEMENT’ five times, but it should have been spelt ‘ENROLLMENT.’ Note that this notice has spent over three months on the wall

    Verdict: The Bank Manager should pay 100,000 naira as fine for blunder.

    DEVELOMENT’

    At the Oyo State Secretariat is an official van meant for the MINISTRY OF PHYSICAL PLANNING AND DEVELOPMENT, but the last word was spelt DEVELOMENT, with the letter P conspicuously missing. Oyo State Government should please correct this as it paints the state government in bad light. In the interim, the commissioner in charge should ask for a refund from the sign-writer and also pay a fine of 120,000 naira to The Nation, for helping them spot this error!

    AIR FORCE ‘BA2E’

    At the entrance of SAM ETHNAN AIR FORCE BASE IKEJA is this unpardonable error boldly embossed: ‘SAM ETHNAN ‘BA2E’, IKEJA.

    The letter S in BASE is erroneously written as BA2E, with figure 2 standing in for the S. This has been there for a very long time and we think the Air Force Officer responsible for this error should come to The Nation newspaper and pay a fine of 500,000,naira for helping to spot this long standing error.

    Churches- ‘ISREAL’ and ‘SHEPHARD’

    Church of ‘Isreal’, and ‘The Lord’s ‘Shephard,’  were both found at Adeyipo village in Ibadan and Toll Gate, Lagos – Abeokuta Road, Ogun State respectively.

    The correct words are ‘Israel’ and ‘Shepherd’.

    ‘People’ Democratic Party

    A Commercial Danfo bus has a poster of People’s Democratic Party (PDP) on it, and what was written on the poster is; ‘People’ Democratic Party’, with the writer omitting the very vital letter ‘s’.

    ‘SHOPING’ MALL

    Welcome to GSM VILLAGE, IHL ‘SHOPING MALL, IKEJA AIRPORT BUS STOP. The second ‘P’ in SHOPPING is missing.

    Verdict: All the workers at this mall should be made to trek 30 kilometres as punishment and gift this reporter an IPhone 6.

    ‘ACCOMODATION’

    ‘She second ‘m’ is missing. It should read Accommodation’. This error was spotted in Ipesi Akoko’ Guest House.

    Verdict: For spotting this error, this reporter should be allowed to spend two weeks as special guest at the guest house free of charge.

    No ‘PACKING’ here!

    It should be No ‘Parking’ (the letter ‘r’ was erroneously replaced with letter ‘c’).The company should be fined.

    ‘POUDED’ Yam instead of (Pounded yam)

    EXPAND YOUR SHOES NEATLY WITH ‘MARCHINE

    This blunder was spotted at a cobbler’s shop at Ajegunle bus stop. The sign writer obviously meant to write ‘Machine.’ The cobbler is sentenced to 10days of community work. And please correct the error!

    NO PEACE FOR THE ‘WEKIED’

    This was the graffiti on the bumper of a Lagos commercial bus. He definitely meant to write: ‘NO PEACE FOR THE WICKED.

    ‘GOD’ and SILVER

    Come and buy your ‘GOD’ and SILVER here read the amateur advert. The first word obviously should have been GOLD and not GOD, but the L is erroneously omitted.

    COME AND DO YOUR ‘HEIR’ IN THIS ‘BAEUTY’ SALON

    HAIR is wrongly spelt as HEIR. Please correct.

    WAIT & GET ‘DITITAL’ PASSPORT PHOTOGRAPH

    Note the big error in the word DIGITAL. This was spotted by Federal Road Safety Corps, Lagos – Abeokuta Toll gate expressway.

    Verdict: This photographer should be sentenced to two weeks imprisonment!

    ‘BABOONING’SALON is here

    This of course ought to be BARBING Salon, not ‘BABOONING’ salon. We all know that Baboon is an animal. What an insult on humanity! All effort to correct the Barber was futile, as he argued that his elder brother wrote it.

    SLOW DOWN, ‘BOMB’ AHEAD

    The word BOMB was mistakenly substituted for BUMP, which is the right word. The above was boldly written and placed as a sign by a roadside. Surely if there was a BOMB ahead, people will not just have to slow down, they will turn and run.

    Who’s to blame?

    Mr. Niyi Satimehin, a Computer Graphics designer said “the sign writers are not at fault, but the owners of the jobs because they are supposed to cross check.” He added that sign writers “commit errors not blunders.” He also said they “sometimes correct mistakes that emanated from customers.”

    Mr. Yemi Ajayi a Senior Graphic Artists said “Yes, there could be typographical errors or printers’ devil but when discovered the job should be returned to its owner. It is difficult to make such mistakes because with the advent of computer, you don’t need to make such grave mistakes because it will immediately underline the error; but the road sign writers should have their dictionaries by their sides to check out spellings. “

    Continuing, Ajayi said “Many of the so-called roadside graphics artists are not trained. They simply jumped into the profession. Imagine if Professor Wole Soyinka’s 80th birthday banner could have errors and the banner was still placed in the University environment for everybody to see. What message was it passing?”

    Akinyele Kehinde, the Director of Isaiah and Company who deals in painting and decoration said “The Professor Soyinka’s error really pissed me off. I can’t imagine what the old man would say.”

    A school teacher who begs for anonymity said “This simply shows the lackadaisical attitude towards one’s job. If you give out a job and you find errors in it on delivery, naturally the job should be returned. But it is like the owners of the jobs don’t care, as long as the occasion holds. Some also don’t want to spend money to effect the corrections while some would even use corrective fluid. Above all you will hardly see any corporate organisation with such damaging errors.”

    It should also be noted that this reporter was chased with cutlasses, abused and threatened while taking some of these pictures.

  • Eguma: we must correct our errors

    Eguma: we must correct our errors

    •Dolphins to miss injured Austin Festus

    Dolphins’ head coach,Stanley Eguma has informed SportingLife that he has told his players to correct all the mistakes that marred their 1-3 away loss to Warri Wolves in a Premier League Week 28 tango last Wednesday.

    The coach told SportingLife that individual errors contributed to their away loss to the Seasiders and that based on the chat he had with the players shortly after the game in Warri,he has instructed them to be willing to play with all their might both home and away.

    Eguma told SportingLife that the warning to the players became necessary ahead of their home game with Nasarawa United in Port Harcourt on Sunday.

    The former U-23 coach reckoned that the Solid Miners would give them a good run for their money based on their present position on the log and that being one of their direct rivals to the league title, he further cautioned them against playing to the gallery.

    Eguma opined that only the three points would be accepting if the Port Harcourt Dwellers do not want to falter in their attempt to win the league.

    “We are back from Warri and we have put behind us our unimpressive result which ensured that we lost the game by 3-1. Warri Wolves were able to beat us because of some individual errors which gifted Gbolahan Salami the opportunity to score two goals. It was a bad  game for us but we must forget about it because we have a tough game against Nasarawa United this weekend.

    “Nasarawa United have shown us over the course of the season that they mean business and we must do everything possible to pin them down and get all the three points at stake. It won’t be easy but we are very positive of our chances,” Eguma told SportingLife.

    The top tactician has also disclosed that besides losing their Week 28 league tie to Warri Wolves that they also have a player: Austin Festus who sustained a fracture during the course of the match and would be unavailable .

  • Ambrose: We Committed Too Many Errors

    Ambrose: We Committed Too Many Errors

    The man who opened scoring for the Super Eagles in their shock 2-3 loss to Congo in Saturday’s Africa Nations Cup qualifiers, Efe Ambrose, has said too many errors cost Nigeria the game.

    “We were not up to our standard and we committed too many errors that Congo profited from.” he told SL10.ng.

    “I won’t point accusing fingers at anybody as the reason why we lost because my philosophy is we win as a team and we lose as a team.”

    The Glasgow Celtic defender offered his apology to Nigerians who were hurt by the loss to Congo.

    “We disappointed a lot of people and ourselves as well,and I apologise to anybody who came to the stadium, watched on television,online or by whatever means,we are sorry.”

    Ambrose revealed that they had talks among themselves as players to prevent such kind of humiliation from happening again.

    “We as players have resolved to put in our best to make sure it doesn’t happen again and by the grace of God,it won’t happen again,we are committed to ensuring our fans smile and not cry,” he added.

    Despite his assuring words he refused to stick his neck out for an outright victory over South Africa in Wednesday’s game.

    “I won’t say we are going there to win or draw but we will approach the game with a mindset to do well and by the grace of God we won’t be disappointed at the end.”