Cease, Seize, Accuse, Allege

Sample 1: “Curiously, none of the gladiators laying claims to the leadership of the ruling party was on the ground despite the seize-fire appeals from stakeholders and President Muhammadu Buhari.” (Breaking: Again, police take over APC National Secretariat, Opera News,14 March, 2022)

I draw readers’ attention to the compound word: seize-fire. Specifically, there is a problem with the first morpheme: seize. That morpheme ought to be: cease. There is a significant difference between the forms cease and seize. The word in contemplation here is cease-fire which means stoppage of war/hostilities by a mutual agreement. People are said to seize opportunities and not cease them. It should be obvious to sufficiently literate readers that the writer has mixed up the usage of seize and cease. The problem here, manifest in many Nigerian users of English, is at once that of pronunciation, spelling and grammar.

It should be helpful, at this point, to illustrate the respective usage of seize and cease.

When you seize a thing, you take it by force or by law.

The following sentences illustrate how the verb is used:

The army first seized power in Nigeria in 1966.

The police have seized the contraband.

They seized the thief by the hand.

The manager seized the opportunity of the industrial action to appoint people close to him into key positions.

The handsets were seized by the teacher because the pupils were playing with them while the class was in progress.

Acting on a court order, the EFCC has commenced the process of seizing the politician’s properties.

The boys seized the opportunity of their father’s absence to use his car.

The students should have seized the opportunity of the long strike to learn some trades.

The noun form of seize is seizure e.g.  The frequent seizure of power by the army has truncated the growth of democracy in developing countries.

Now we illustrate the usage of the word cease:

To cease is to stop or come to an end or go out of existence. Read the following sentences:

The law has ceased to exist.

The College has ceased offering courses in management.

He ceased coming to school last week.

The shenanigans of the politicians do not cease to intrigue international observers.

Lack of regular supply of electricity has forced many factories to cease operations.

The government’s involvement in the funding of such businesses will cease as from the next fiscal year.

Education ceases when life ceases.

The noise went on for hours without ceasing.

When hope ceases, life ceases.

I stopped writing when ideas ceased to flow.

The word can also be used as a noun as shown in the sentences that follow:

He has been working without cease.

John has been writing without cease

The eminent writer has been churning out poetry without cease.

The complaints have been going on without cease.

For weeks, they were quarrelling without cease.

Another noun form of the word is cessation. Read the following sentences:

Death is cessation of life.

He appealed for cessation of war.

We look forward to cessation of insurgency in the North East of Nigeria.

The UNO is working towards the cessation of hunger in the Third World countries.

Peace does not necessarily mean cessation of misunderstanding.

Size:

The noun size has to do with dimension or measurement. Read the following sentences:

That shirt is not my size.

The blouse is a size or two too large.

That building is about the size of ours.

Ready-made dresses come in different sizes.

The size of a family should correspond to the size of the building it occupies.

It does not seem that the size of our economy is proportionate to the size of our population.

Do not judge a shop by its size but by the value of the merchandise inside it.

The size of a human head has nothing to do with the quality of the brains it contains.

The quality of your meal is more important than the size of your meal.

I’m trying to size him up.

Sentences (1) – (9) are about measurement or dimension.  In sentence (10),   the word size is used as a verb.  In that sense, it is a colloquial expression meaning to form a judgment or opinion about.

Please read my own sentences again and form sentences of your own using the word size.  Note the spelling and meanings.

At any rate, the word cease should replace seize in the context under review.

Sample 2: “Justin was alleged of sexually harassing a 17-year old boy in his apartment in Maryland, USA, in March, 1998.” (Three Nigerian footballers who committed suicide, Opera News, 9 July, 2021)

We pay attention to the expression “alleged…of” which occurs in the following context: “Justin was alleged of sexually harassing…” The particle of, attached to the verb alleged, properly collocates with the verb accuse: accuse of. The expression “alleged…of” is clearly unidiomatic. In addition, it is important to note that the syntactic structure in which the verb allege occurs is different from that in which accuse occurs, even though they have similar meanings.

Equally important is the fact that the particle for does not go with the verb accuse. The appropriate particle is: of.

Please read the following sentences: 1) The man and his wife accused each other of infidelity. 2) The APC and the PDP accused each other of manipulating the electoral process in certain parts of the country. 3) Nobody in good conscience could accuse General Muhammadu Buhari of stealing public funds. 4) When a party fails to win an election, it tends to accuse INEC of colluding with the other party to commit electoral fraud. 5) The governor accused his deputy of scheming to unseat him. 6) Voters accused soldiers of intimidating them on the day of the election.

Now the verb allege:  The following sentences, produced by some Nigerians, are defective: 1a)* We quarrel often because he keeps alleging me of things I know nothing about. Better: 1b) We quarrel often because he keeps accusing me of things I know nothing about. 2a) *The parties are alleging each other of manipulating the electoral process. Better: 2b) The parties are accusing each other of manipulating the electoral process.  3a) *The man alleged his lawyer of colluding with his opponent. Better: 3b) The man accused his lawyer of colluding with his opponent. 4a) *The old woman alleged the lady running the mill of stealing some of her pepper and grains. Better: 4b) The old woman accused the lady running the mill of stealing some of her pepper and grains. 5a) *The man alleged his wife of cheating on him. Better: 5b) The man accused his wife of cheating on him. 6a) *The union alleged the company of failing to fulfil its promise. Better: 6b) The union accused the company of failing to fulfil its promise.

Readers may be interested in knowing that there is a proper way of using the word allege. Please read the following sentences: 1) Members of the president’s cabinet were alleged to have sabotaged his efforts to improve electricity supply. 2) The reports of the outcome of the election were alleged to have been written before the election took place. 3) Members of the ruling party alleged that INEC was partial in favour of a particular party. 4) The suspect alleged that the deceased was sleeping with his (the suspect’s) wife. 5) The lawyer alleged that the judge had been compromised. 6) It was alleged that a particular landlord had links with the armed robbers terrorizing the neighbourhood. 7) It was alleged that the coach was taking bribes before admitting the players into the camp. 8) Soldiers were alleged to have killed several peaceful protesters at the Lekki Toll Gate. 9) It was alleged that the leadership did not act promptly enough. 10) It is alleged that workers’ contributory retirement funds are being embezzled by government officials.

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