Sea ports of grammatical confusion!

SAMPLE 1: “The people on daily basis pass through agonizing experiences, importers are in cacophony of tears for the delay of their cargoes on the sea with high demurrage cost…Investigations revealed that when the Apapa port started operation in 1970, it was only made for 30,000 cargoes, but as of today it harbours about 80,000 cargoes, yet the infrastructural facilities to make it run effectively is zero… There is no light in Apapa and the initial agreement was that the government will provide them electricity to do their business, but they were now running on generator on daily basis…To a first time visitor, who perhaps has experienced the hustling and bustling of Western ports in Lagos with the attendants traffic jam, he will probably wonder why there was a graveyard silence in the Eastern ports. When The Nation visited the Delta port in Warri, aside the good road network inside the empty ports, majority of the big warehouses which supposed to be a beehive of activities were under lock and key…The situation at Calabar was worst…Majority of the big warehouses that littered the port was locked…He lamented that poor parade of the sea on twenty four basis is a threat to any business in the area…the issue of security has chased away intending exporters who cannot risk their vessels to berth at there…He regretted that if everybody knew where the problems lies why is it difficult for the people of the area to take the bull by the horns…He explained that the contract for the repair of the Apapa road had been approved and work will commence on it in earnest, nothing (noting?) that clearing agents have been ordered to have a holding bay where their empty containers can be deposited. He added that the option of using Ikorodu terminal is underway and that importers can take their vessels there to offload…Though, The Nation found out that of the said dry ports established, Kano, Kaduna, Oyo, Imo and Onitsha, only that of Kaduna is operational…Aside this he advocates for urgent dialogue with the militants.”(Nigeria’s Sea Ports of Confusion, The Nation, Sunday, 3 June, 2018)

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The excerpt is overwhelmed by all sorts of errors. We start with sequence of tense. By sequence of tense is meant consistent choice of a particular tense as reflected in the verb-forms throughout a sentence. That is, once we start a sentence with the choice of the past or present form of the verb, that tense has to be selected consistently through the sentence unless logic dictates otherwise.

The following sentences glaringly breach the rule of sequence of tense: “He explained that the contract for the repair of the Apapa road had been approved and work will commence on it in earnest, noting that clearing agents have been ordered to have a holding bay where their empty containers can be deposited. He added that the option of using Ikorodu terminal is underway and that importers can take their vessels there to offload.”

In the first sentence, the main verbs/heads of the verbal groups are: explained; had (been approved); will (commence); have (been ordered); can (be deposited). Readers should please note that of the five (5) verbal heads in this sentence, two (explained and had) are in their past forms and the remaining three (will, have and can) are in their present forms. It should be noted that there is nothing in the structural logic of the construction dictating this hiatus. To correct this error, we would need to change the three verbs in their present forms to their past forms: would; had; can. In other words, the sentence should read: “He explained that the contract for the repair of the Apapa road had been approved and work would commence on it in earnest, noting that clearing agents had been ordered to have a holding bay where their empty containers could be deposited.”

The second sentence contains the following verbs: added; is; can. Of the three verbs, only one of them (added) is in its past form; the remaining two are in their present forms: is; can. Again, there is nothing in the logic of the construction suggesting the difference we find in the verb-forms. To correct this error, we change the verbs in their present forms to their past: was; could. The sentence should read: “He added that the option of using Ikorodu terminal was underway and that importers could take their vessels there to offload.”

Next, we consider the following structure: “Though The Nation found out that out of the said dry ports established, (Kano, Kaduna, Oyo Imo and Onitsha) only that of Kaduna is operational.” Not only is this construction presented as a sentence, it is offered as a paragraph in the report under consideration. Is this a sentence? No. It is not a sentence. The structure is introduced by a subordinating adjunct: though. The subordinating conjunction means that the structure it introduces is a subordinate clause. Of course, a subordinate/dependent clause cannot stand alone; it requires the support of a main/principal clause to make grammatical sense. As the structure stands, it does not make complete sense.

There are two ways of making the construction a better sentence. The simpler option is to delete the subordinating adjunct, though: “The Nation found out that out of the said dry ports…only that of Kaduna is operational.” The alternative is to retain the adjunct and add a main clause to the structure. Here is an example: “Though The Nation found out that out of the said dry ports established…only that of Kaduna is operational, the Federal Government is making efforts to make all the dry ports in the country functional before the end of the year.” Here is another example: “Though The Nation found out that out of the said dry ports established…only that of Kaduna is operational, five new dry ports are being established across all the geo-political zones of the country.”

Let’s have this third example: “Though The Nation found out that out of the said dry ports established…only that of Kaduna is operational, plans are afoot to rejuvenate the comatose ones in different parts of the country.”