tried”. So why can you not give the same respect to our
first lady, a woman who was born and bred in Nigeria?
She made a few simple mistakes in a language that is not
her native tongue, and her own fellow Nigerians decided
to use it as a weapon against her.
Have you never heard Chinese Politicians attempting
the English language? You can’t even understand 99% of
what they’re saying and yet you will never see Chinese
people insulting their leaders over their command of the
English language. It is only amongst Nigerians that you
find people taking the proverbial “medicine for another
person’s sickness”.
We have become the self appointed international
watch dog for all things relating to the English language.
For all the English that Nigerians are speaking I can’t see
what they’re doing with it. Whilst they’re in their houses
speaking good “English” the Lebanese and the Chinese
are here speaking good “economics” and are taking over
the country. Foreigners have taken over corporate Nigeria, and yet all that doesn’t seem to bother us, all we are
concerned about is whether our leaders can speak English better than Queen Elizabeth. When you make it a
point of duty to constantly pick out peoples weaknesses
and shortcomings, they will become so discouraged to
the point of inactivity. They will simply shut down and
won’t bother to make a difference.
I
once heard a story about a Woman who was constantly abusing her husband and repeatedly used adjectives such as “useless” and “stupid” whilst addressing him. She kept describing him as someone who is
constantly making wrong decisions. One day she came
home and saw her husband looking through their wedding album, she looked at him and asked “what are you
doing”? He said “oh, I am just looking at our wedding
pictures and asking myself why I made such a stupid
decision such as marrying you”.
Perhaps she thought that by insulting her husband it
would cause him to change for the better, but the opposite effect was the outcome. Words are powerful and
if we concentrate on peoples strengths and praise and
encourage them instead of picking out their weaknesses
and amplifying those, we will get the very best out of
them.
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