The poor dictionary of Nigeria

I desire to equate Nigeria with the life of Samuel Johnson, who though blest with all the powers of genius and understanding, in a degree far above the ordinary state of human nature had human disorder that was so afflictive to him. Johnson was known to have suffered from horrible hypochondria. In fact he was a lived morbid melancholy which is not far from what Nigeria is suffering from. Wilhelm von Humboldt points out two things as necessary conditions for human development. These are freedom and variety of situations. Imbued in freedom is individuality which is one of the elements of well-being since human beings should be free to form opinions and express their opinions without reservation. That is why John Mill (1806-1873) asserted that no action should be as free as an opinion! What then is the nexus between action, and development; which of course we want to triangulate with the empty dictionary of Nigeria?To our mind the volume of the dictionary could be used to measure the level of development of a country. Similarly, the encyclopedia of a country could also be used to measure the developmental barometers of a given country. This assertion makes room for what lexicographers could argue for the place of loan words. In most cases, loan words cannot be more than two percent of the ordinary lexicon of a country sprouting out from the mental creativity of the citizens. The dictionary is dynamic and none can be considered complete especially in a fast technologically developing economics. A simple and close example is the invention of the computer.  The dictionary has life and breathes such that as a lexicographer is dropping his/her manuscript with the press, a newword is born in a virile laboratory or research centre. Since the invention of this phenomenal machine called the computer, tons upon tons of new words have been generated thereby creating monumental entries in the dictionary. Indeed, computer dictionary is in volumes now due to the frequency of new words following innovations in this field, a field a Nigerian living abroad has improved the speed. Infact, science and technology and recently Information and Communication Technology(ICT) have continued to enlarge the dictionaries of nations that are participating mentally and creatively; but not countries that are stupid consumers such as Nigeria.Statistics of word churned out every minute in developed economies will stun us. For instance, between 1220 and 1928, the Englishman perfected his dictionary to what is today known as Oxford English Dictionary (OED).The initial entries in GLOSSOGRAPHIA were entries with their etymologies and histories. In the OED today, due to advancement in science, technology and the ICT, it would take a single person 120 years to “key in” the 59 million words, 60 years to proof-read them and 540 megabytes to input them electronically.

Words do not come from the void. Linguists and indeed lexicographers follow inventors, scientists,technologists, and computer experts to their laboratories to handle the issue of onomatology or nomenclature when a new thing is given birth to. The more inventions a country can undertake, the fatter the size of their dictionary. Whatis the size of the Nigerian dictionary and what are the entries therein?

The first entry for Nigeria is the population size. Our women are very fertile and strong consequently they do not need the Egyptian midwives for them to deliver. Some are even made to get pregnant even when they are not matured and so our dictionary has IVVF entry. Similarly, Nigeria is a country where a head of state will enunciate the policy of four children while he has eleven children by his dining table thus giving falsehood entry to our dictionary. Our men can fire from all cylinders in bed leading to their exporting wives from all countries and islands around the world. Rather than encouraging produce/product export promotion they have created an entry in our dictionary called ‘bridal importation’. Thomas Robert Malthus theory on demography and its implications do not matter in Nigerian dictionary because high population is the heritage of Nigeria.

 On religion Nigeria has numerous entries in her dictionary. One is the current annoying believe that only Christianity and Islam should own Nigeria. We are ignorant of the fact that there are other religions such as Hinduism, Sikhism, Judaism, Bahai, Zoroastrianism, and many others. The country has posted religion to the status of political demagoguism. Just like the moral demagogue originally meant a “leader of the people” religion which is meant to enhance peaceful co-existence has become the pyrotechnics of our land. The entry in our dictionary is Boko Haram, Jihad, Christian agenda, Islamic agenda, intolerance. For instance,MantimBenkur, an undergraduate of University of Jos was slain being mistaken for an IPOB member because he was dressed in a suit. When the stepmother heard the news and called his number the boy who picked the call was quoted as saying (Sunday SUN October 8, 2017) “We’ve killed him: we thought he was an Igbo, but when we discovered he wasn’t, we still had to complete our mission because he was a Christian”. Why is the content of our dictionary as it relates to religion so cruel? Why are we more Papal than the Pope or more ‘Imamic’ than the Imam of the holy mosque in Saudi Arabia? Why and why?

Our political dictionary is the worse as it is difficult to see any positive entry. Chief Agoro was a presidential candidate on the platform of National Action Council (NAC) in the 2011 elections, and I would like toquote verbatim from his interview of Sunday Sun of 8th October 2017 thus; ‘the people that gave us independence…didn’t get us prepared mentally. We were schooled against ourselves. The thinking of some of our leaders was about domination, they were not thinking about progressive ideas but were only thinking about how to dominate politically…. By the time we realized…leaders were already at dagger drawn…ready to kill themselves’ At 57th years of our national life, we are debating whether to restructure our cognitive faculty, our socio-economic and political landscape. To my myopic mind, it is the three ‘majors’ intolerance and perpetual quest to occupy the highest office that is behind this poor political dictionary. I boast to say that but for the minorities, the three-major ethnic groups would have parted ways due to their cancerous intolerance.

It is worrisome that this long, our national dictionary is full of separatist ideology hence such lexemes and phrases as Ohaneze, Arewa Consultative Forum, Arewa Youth Vanguard, Afenifere, Yoruba Elders Council, Middle Belt Forum, Niger Delta Frontier Force, MOSSOB,IPOB and more divisive names. I tend to grudgingly agree that if our amalgamation is divine, it is therefore incumbent on our leaders to lead with equity, justice and fair play towards all minorities or majorities.  This is the channel to improving our poor dictionary.   

Dr Maiyanga is a Senior Lecturer with Nasarawa State University, Keffi [email protected]