I am compelled again to revisit one among the roundly abused and misused expressions in English construction, especially among some of the African writers, Nigeria not exempted in this case. Flip through the newspaper pages and listen to the broadcast stations, the exhaustively used phrase and callously becoming a cliché or spent sentence, “would go a long way in achieving an end” though wrongly used, for instance, is now assuming a standard and acceptable expression. Blame it on the hype given to it by the Nigerian media space, it is now conventional at every turn it dawns on the journalist or the reporter to tell the reading or listening publics that if the right course is taken by interest group or the government to change the situation of things it would augur or end well to the benefit of the masses. Just to expatiate a little bit on what the writer has at the back of his or her mind about the phrase, “it would go a long way…” sounds more like an agenda setting by the media for government, especially to do the needful to put things in order.
As the code of practice demands that the journalist should be objective, looks at the two sides of the debate or issue at stake, writes and allows the public to judge and make up their minds without bringing his or her opinion to the story or report, it equally asks of the writer to also go beyond mere reporting of events as they break but to force the authorities to see reasons to quench a looming or lurking disaster about to happen. We often saddle the media, or should I say the media core responsibility hinges, as we know traditionally, on three pillars; to inform, educate and entertain in carrying out its assigned duties. However, recently media professionals have been told to do more, not just to tell the news, but to be interested in carrying out surveillance and subtly find solutions to the report they generate or get from other sources, things and people. And so, the media personality is not just to be bothered about informing, educating, and entertaining the masses with incisive news reporting but do the policing job of surveillance by holding government officials, the ruling class and the politicians accountable to the people. In this case the subjects they represent, and of course, also proffer solutions to the plethora of issues that keeps Nigerians awake and thinking.
The Nigerian media, particularly the electronic media that broadcast instantaneously- radio and television are leading the way through special programmes creatively put in place to sensitise the people. Programmes such as special report, the big story, live telephone talk shows, commentaries and newspaper reviews have had so much impact in educating the masses to know their rights and make informed choices. The print media is not left out on this either, even as the newspaper pages are dedicated to news, editorials, special reports and in-depth analysis of events, while columnists write vivid account concerning politics, economy, social infrastructure, religion, the judiciary and the lingering insecurity in the country. This is where the statement, “it would go a long way in…” comes into focus whether indeed, the phrase is used in the right context. According to the language purist and masters, the standard usage and generally acceptable by the serious press- newspaper and the radio, journalist and reporter around the world, peculiar to English speaking mediums, I assume, is “would go a long way towards finding a lasting solution to the crises,” for example. Not what I may call the Nigerian or local coinage, and the un-dignifying statement, “would go a long way in finding a lasting solution to the crises,” as often reported by a section of the Nigerian press.
Some of the few media houses are living up to expectations though, in matters of standardizing the language of mass communication. If we all agree to the idea that the code of conducts and ethics are universal, without boundaries relating to the practice of journalism as a profession, whether as a practitioner in Africa, Israel, America, Europe, India among other English speaking nations then the challenge is on the editor, news manager and the media proprietor to hang on to the standard English. Never to be compromised. There are no excuses on the matter of standardization of the language. The profession has also given room for those who may differ, in order not to isolate or cut off the not-too-literate persons to follow events as they break around the world. Funny enough, I heard over an interview granted on radio with official of one of the broadcast content providers that live commentaries on the Qatar FIFA World Cup would not only be taken in Pidgin English but also in Igbo, Hausa, Yoruba, Fulani among other widely spoken languages around the world. Call it a master stroke and positive development in the world of entertainment using the media platform to get everyone involved in the business of information dissemination and assimilation without hindrance. Whether one is barely literate, in the sense of acquiring western education or not, one can still follow the gist in the language the individual understands. Period!
