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B N W: Biafra Nigeria World News |
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One report, too many errors
SIR: Mr. Chika Odinaka described himself as an avid reader of your paper in his article: "Too many gaffes" of Tuesday August 24 when he detailed the howlers in Mr. Olukayode Thomas's "The Premiership is here again".
I found Mr. Odinaka's letter indeed very interesting, as I read through the contents. Odinaka pointed out the errors made in the article: "The Premiership is here again", by giving examples of mistakes in spelling of names of footballers, that ply their trade in England. In the second paragraph for example, Mr. Odinaka claimed that 'Eric Catona' (former Manchester United veteran) was spelt 'Eric Cantana' among other examples.
I decided to investigate the claims made by Mr. Chika Odinaka by going to my archives of The Guardian Newspapers. I was excited to find the copy of the Saturday August 7 edition of your paper, where I read through the one-page article of Mr. Olukayode Thomas and I was very shocked at not only the existence of errors made in spellings of names of footballers, the very unpardonable grammatical errors and the poorly researched article, which supported the claim made by Mr. Chika Odinaka when he said ... "one wonders how much time the writer took to research the said article" ... For example, paragraph three, had the first howler where Mr. Thomas said ... "Thanks to Cable Television, and a good number of Nigerian footballer... "Paragraph five, also had: ... "Though his last three season for Arsenal are seasons 'kanu' will like to forget in hurry"...
To also support the claim that perhaps the article was poorly researched, paragraph seven had a statement that confused me further, as I tried to decipher what exactly Mr. Thomas meant when he said... "Kanu also looked forward to reliving his career which has recorded a lot of lows in the recent times at West Brom" ... This statement obviously contradicted the earlier claim that Kanu had been in Arsenal for five seasons throughout his Premiership career in England.
Mr. Thomas was not entirely convincing with reasons he gave as being responsible for the overwhelming popularity of the English Premiership. It is not just enough to talk about Nigerians that make up just a handful of Premiership teams as a reason why the league is the most popular among Nigerians. For example, Mr. Thomas may wish to know that Nigerian players are in such minority that reasons of popularity based on that assertion is faulty. The list includes Okocha and Blessing Kaku (Bolton), Kanu Nwakwo (West Brom), Celestine Babayaro (Chelsea), Joseph Yobo (Everton) and Yakubu Aiyegbeni ('pompey' Porthsmouth), and one or two others that are trying to get contracts like Osaze Odewinge (Aston Villa).
If the article of Mr. Thomas were well researched, he would have known that the Premiership was popular even before the exit of Daniel Amokachie from Everton F.C, the arrival of Kanu some five seasons ago and Finidi (Ipswich F.C.) and Okocha thereafter.
I sincerely believe that Mr. Thomas needs to be more careful next time, as there are many people that read The Guardian and are informed by its objective reporting. Such carelessness would only do more harm than good to whatever genuine intentions he has in informing and educating readers.
Chinemelum Uzo,
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