Making merry out of media mischief- Bala Ibrahim

A clip is currently trending/circulating in the social media space, planted to portray mischief against the person of the minister of defence, Gen Salihu Magashi rtd.

The clip was given the widest sharing, purportedly to present the minister as a man with poor phonetics. There was a gaffe in the speech of the minister at the burial ceremony of late Chief of Army Staff, Lt Gen Ibrahim Attahiru and other military officers on Saturday, May 22/2021, and mischief-makers were quick to capitalize on it, rushing to make merry on the media.

Prominent amongst those making such merry and jest of Gen. Magashi is the former Minister of Aviation, Femi Fani-Kayode, who tweeted thus, “First our President refuses to attend the COAS’ burial even though he was in Abuja. The Minister of Defence was there & instead of talking sense he said he had “come to express” his “HEARTLESS felt condolences”. Talking about a Freudian slip!!! How much worse can this show get?”.

Femi Fani Kayode of all people, who loves bashing the media, is seeking the support of the media to make jest of someone.

Certainly, Gen. Magashi is not the first high profile public figure to be so contemptuously treated. It had happened to the former Inspector General of Police, Idris Kpotum Ibrahim, whose speech was mischievously edited to portray him as being incapable of differentiating between transition and transmission. A simple slip of tongue in the pronunciation of transition, at a public function in Kano, which made him to pronounce transition as transmission, was absurdly turned into an issue of mockery, by repeating the pronouncement of the word, in a way that depicted him as one with a dismissive language or poor phonetic control.

Even President Muhammadu Buhari is not spared from the mischief of these kinds of people, who see themselves as perfectionists and therefore cannot make mistake, whatever the type, including misspellings or outright mispronunciations.

In the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, when the President was compelled to address the nation, he spoke in sober mood, at the end of which the press went agog with negative comments about his pronunciation of the virus. His pronunciation of covid 1-9 sounded like covik 1-9.

Popular actress, Uche Jumbo, took to tweeter calling for the replacement of the social media team of the President, over that address to the nation, saying he pronounced the dreaded COVID-19 as Covik one nine.

While it is absolutely needless to go into an individual’s system of releasing the sound of words in a speech of any language, it would not be out of place to take note of the failure of some speechwriters, in meeting certain standards when it comes to writing speeches or addresses for their principals.

Sometimes, perhaps out of the tightness of the principal’s schedule, the speechwriter and the principal may not have had time for a face-to-face meeting, which is extremely important. It is through such meetings that the speechwriter can more carefully study Oga’s nonverbal cues and speaking patterns, which will factor into his thinking on how to craft the speech. It also permits him to study speaking patterns, especially on the use of metaphors and catchphrases.

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For a public presentation that comes suddenly or unexpectedly, like a funeral after an accident, not enough time is gotten for much research and rehearsals, because sometimes, even the venue and the type of audience are kept secret.

Because everyone has his/her own writing and reading styles, it means one’s approach may work different from another. Also, the initial draft of the speech may have something missing, which may eventually find their way into it at the last minute.

Some speechwriters, tend to forget that they are writing for live delivery. As a result, they burden the boss with long and complex sentences, multi-syllabic words that could easily trip him up, or too much names of closely related associations and jargon.

At a public function, of the burial ground, on a mourning mood for the loss of army chief of staff, it would take more than a man with extraordinary composure, to pass the test of the emotional distress of mixing names, especially names with similarities in meaning.

Police officers wives association, Army officers wives association, Air force officers wives association, chief of staff to the President, chief of defence staff, could all be mistaken for each other, when in such an unprecedented mourning mood.

Gen. Magashi is a Human being that cannot escape the accident of honest mistakes, as such his gaffe must not be turned into a goof, by those who take delight in making merry out of media mischief

Ibrahim, a media advisor writes from Abuja.