The X (formerly Twitter) handles of Special Adviser on Public Communication to President Bola Tinubu, Bayo Onanuga, and Senior Special Assistant to former Vice President Atiku Abubakar, Phrank Shaibu, on Sunday, became a theatre of heated exchanges over grammar and the propriety of public statements.
The drama followed Onanuga’s reaction to reports of vandalism affecting rehabilitation work on the Ilesha–Ibadan Expressway.
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Responding via his X handle @aoanuga1956 on Sunday, the presidential adviser called for severe action against those he described as vandals, stating that they should be shot at sight.
“Just shoot these unconscionable vandals/thieves at sight. They are worst species of citizenships,” Onanuga wrote in a post shared at 8:09 am.
Hours later, Akiku’s aide, posting from his handle @phrankangel at 1:43 pm, condemned the statement, describing it as an endorsement of lawlessness.
“As a government spokesman, you cannot call for citizens to be ‘shot at sight.’ That is not law enforcement; it is lawlessness. Anyone who talks like this has no business in public office,” Shaibu wrote.
He added, “Nigeria is not a killing field. Crimes are handled through arrest, investigation and the courts – not instant death orders from reckless statements.
“Today it is ‘vandals.’ Tomorrow it could be protesters, critics, or anyone who disagrees. Honestly, this is worrying. I just hope you haven’t joined the smoking gang.”
Later that night, at about 9:37 pm, Shaibu returned to the exchange, this time drawing attention to what he described as a grammatical error in Onanuga’s post. He argued that the correct expression should be “shoot on sight,” not “shoot at sight.”
By the following morning, at 9:12 am, Onanuga responded, dismissing the criticism and insisting that both expressions were acceptable.
“Foolish boy. Both usages are correct. Upgrade your grammar,” he wrote.
Shaibu swiftly fired back with a lengthy rejoinder that doubled as a lecture on English language usage.
“As a teacher, I will not answer insult with insult. I am here to teach you, not to bully you; I was not trained that way,” he said.
He continued, “‘Shoot on sight’ is a fixed idiom. Fixed idioms are not open to distortion or creative rearrangement. Neither you nor your principal has the poetic, literary, or presidential licence to tamper with them.
“‘Shoot at sight,’ like ‘you cannot eat your cake and have it,’ ‘more grease to your elbow,’ ‘first come, first serve,’ or ‘crack your brain,’ is a manifestation of weak heads. These are errors, not stylistic variants.
“It therefore smacks of wretched illiteracy to argue that such expressions can be used interchangeably. For clarity going forward, I recommend Brighter Grammar (Books 1–3).”