Its no news that the Nigerian First lady is not an enviable icon of hope in the public speaking department. It was one of my colleagues at work who drew my attention to the comedy/grammatical atrocities committed by our very own first lady – so today, I decided to check it out myself.
Its so panny that I have been raughing at her umblerra bideo ever since.
Our discussion at work today was about Patience Jonathan. Perhaps, her name speaks to Nigerians that we should have patience with her, her accent and lack of public delivery speech skills. My own opinion was that it is not a must that our first-lady should speak English; but that should she decide to do so, umblerra is not the way to go about it. If she doesn’t really understand English, she berra get an interpreter to do the Job. At least, our brothers in the middle-east don’t fool themselves on camera like Madam Patience is doing.
And then I advised that the ASOKORO presidential PR department berra call the attention of Honorable Patrick O, who is presently not occupied with Nigerian parrliamentary affiars. He could give Madam Umblerra some training.
Lets turn the table round:
Between Madam Patience Jonathan and Honorable Patrick Obahiagbon, who would I rather have as first lady(assuming honorable Patrick was female: Honorable Patricia(sounds like Patience) and was Nigeria’s first lady, at least we would be rest assured that her audiences would be well captivated by big grammars up to the point of total confusion; and instead of umblerra, she might have sought to obfuscate her audience with omnivorus verbs and adjectives.
First Lady Patricia Obahiagbon Goodluck Jonathan. She would really be a sensational first lady. what do you think!
Umblerra by Dame Patience Jonathan
The Preachments of Dame Patience Jonathan!
1st lady Nigeria Mrs. Patience Faka Jonathan
Hon Patrick Obahiagbon Grammer Session in the House of Representative Nigeria
Hon. Patrick Obahiagbon Speaks
chisom
June 5, 2011
please leave the woman alone. after all it is a borrowed language. whatever her tongue speech please bear with her at least God answered our prayer of jonathan being the president we want,
God bless Nigeria
uu
June 28, 2011
pls they should chose a good women affairs in nigeria for us not they one that we can talk to thanks uju
Frank Anietie
October 28, 2011
she’s the best of all first lady i,ve ever known
donatus peter
October 29, 2011
the problem is not the english, but the fact that she is communcating and the people what understand what she is saying which happens to be the most important thing. thanks. is there any body that Nigerians will not pick mistakes from their speech?
nylah
December 15, 2011
The issue is actually not the grammatical blunder. She’s just thick. I’m sorry to say that but that is just a plain fact. How can children who lose both parents be referred to as widows? When Obasanjo started, his grammer was quite bad and his acent was thick. But he worked on it. There are so many peronal development courses out there. What is wrong with her embarking on them since she must speak in public. She travels globally and should represent Nigeria well. She talks like she is retarded! again these things can be solved with going on personal development courses. Is she above it!! I’m very very embarrased for her.
Lindiwe
January 13, 2012
It is not a must that one must be an orator not every body that is gud in public speech so let her be.