By Azuka Onwuka
At the point where air travellers leaving Nigeria step into the aeroplane at Murtala Mohammed International Airport, Lagos, Zenith Bank wishes them a safe journey in French (which has been adopted by the English) as well as in the top three Nigerian indigenous languages. That is good branding.
But the Igbo greeting (Ije oma) is wrongly written.
“Ijeoma” is not “safe journey” in Igbo. Ijeoma is somebody’s name.
“Safe journey” is “Ije ọma” in Igbo. It MUST be written as two words. It is a statement.
It should be noted that
“God’s will” is a phrase in English, but “Godswill” is someone’s name.
“Ọpẹ yẹ mi” is a statement in Yorùbá, but “Opeyemi” is a name.
Zenith Bank is a big brand that believes in professionalism and excellence. It should not be associated with this error. If this translation was done by a professional, this error would not have occurred.
A surgeon or an astronaut is a great professional, but both of them are not qualified to do the work of a carpenter, unless they have been trained as carpenters too.
As I always say: Whatever is worth doing is worth doing well, whether it is English or Igbo or Yoruba or Hausa or French or Spanish or sweeping or driving.
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