Words do indeed matter. Some are habitually misused or misunderstood. In time, with time and varying cultural contexts, they may adapt local colouration and meaning. Those who are familiar with a wide range of poetry understand what I mean. Nor should we confine ourselves to precise dictionary meanings, because words can be more flexible/elastic than the connotative prisons in which you find them. Take the word cemetery, for example.
Obasanjo must have been rubbing his palms together happy with his own understanding of the word cantankerous, because no sane leader would like to work with a cantankerous somebody, especially not a smart & cantankerous military dude who would not want to obey orders. (Which does not mean to say that Egba Brother Obasanjo, a dear man of God, was or is insane.
In Jamaican English, "cantankerous" has a special ring of rebelliousness.
Autobiographies forward personal versions, mostly sell favourable versions of the gentle, righteous, humble self. Right now, thanks to the lockdown I'm reading Selected letters of D. H. Lawrence some of which reveal – surprise, surprise, elements of rabid anti-Semitism, directly from the horse's mouth, undeniable self-confession. Words matter, that's why we should be careful with what we say and understand what we are saying and to whom we are saying what we say. When the British Naval Commander says, "Make sure that you bring my daughter back home before midnight", he means what he says. I'm talking from direct personal experience.
When it comes to the anecdotal, journalists, hagiographers, ritual disparagers, and those who compose, construct and circulate their biographical heresies sometimes forget or make their specious reports as if oblivious to a rule of thumb in the trade: Check and verify your sources. You just can't go around believing everything that flies into your ear because it sounds good to your ears, not even in the Sierra Leone State House or in the dining room of His Excellency the Governor-General , considering that sometimes, he too or his wife, has an axe to grind, he, she have their own court favourites, fambul ( relatives) and are wittingly or unwittingly the target and victims of malicious talebearers, sycophants vying for favours such as promotions, appointments, in pursuit of which they are liable to cause grievous damage to the reputation of their potential rivals.
Check and verify your sources. John advises: "Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits, whether they are of God; because many false prophets have gone out into the world."
According to Galatians 5: 20-23: " idolatry and witchcraft; hatred, discord, jealousy, fits of rage, selfish ambition, dissensions, factions and envy; drunkenness, orgies, and the like. I warn you, as I did before, that those who live like this will not inherit the kingdom of God. But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law."
In the Acts of the Apostles, there is this story with this punchline: "Jesus I know, and Paul I know about, but who are you?"
My favourite: "A member of one synagogue said to a member of another,
" Our wonderful rabbi talks daily with the Almighty!"
"How do you know?" asked the other man.
"He told me!"
"He might have been lying"
"Nonsense - the Almighty wouldn't daily talk with a liar!"
When I come across the expression "Weapons of mass destruction" I think of Colin Powell
Music: Samuel Coleridge Taylor
--"Cantankerous": The Word that Got the Late Prof. Ayagi a Job
By Farooq A. Kperogi
Twitter:@farooqkperogi
When I worked in the Presidential Villa between the twilight of former President Olusegun Obasanjo's first term and the incipience of his second term, I was told the story, by a close Obasanjo aide, of how the late Professor Ibrahim Ayagi got appointed as chairman of the National Economic Intelligence Committee (NEIC) in 1999.
It was said that Obasanjo asked his close advisers to suggest suitable names for the position. They reeled out several names and mentioned their strong and weak points.
When they came to Ayagi, they said he was "brilliant but cantankerous." Obasanjo, who had never known or even heard about Ayagi, jumped up from his chair, interrupted the speaker, and asked, "Did you say he is cantankerous?"
The speaker answered in the affirmative and wondered why the president was particularly interested in that word. Then Obasanjo reportedly said, "I like cantankerous people! If he is brilliant and cantankerous, I want him. This meeting is over!"
Since I heard this story in 2002, I have always mentally associated the word "cantankerous" with Professor Ayagi whenever I encounter it. I don't know why.
When I read that Professor Ayagi died yesterday in Kano at the age of 80, I remembered the story again--and of, course, the word "cantankerous." Words do indeed matter.
May Professor Ayagi's soul rest in peace and in aljannah firdaus.Farooq A. Kperogi, Ph.D.School of Communication & MediaSocial Science BuildingRoom 5092 MD 2207402 Bartow Avenue
Kennesaw State UniversityKennesaw, Georgia, USA 30144
Cell: (+1) 404-573-9697
Personal website: www.farooqkperogi.comTwitter: @farooqkperogiNigeria's Digital Diaspora: Citizen Media, Democracy, and Participation
"The nice thing about pessimism is that you are constantly being either proven right or pleasantly surprised." G. F. Will
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