COMMUNICATION WITHOUT COMMUNICATING, PART 2

NOTE: First published on September 2020. The “Published” date on the tab is the date that it was uploaded on this new site. 

This is “No Bullshiting,” by Harry Agina.

Greetings, folks!

Welcome to the second in my series on Communication Without Communicating series. You may want to read the maiden edition before you proceed on this. (If so, here is the link: https://nobullshiting.com/communication-without-communicating-in-nigeria-part-1/). Otherwise, the link is also at the end of this piece.

The first time that I ever saw the sign “Post No Bill” in Nigeria, I almost laughed my head off. Yes, indeed, it was so hilarious when I saw several advertisement posters posted all over the bold sign, which made a total mockery of the sign, meeeeeen!!!

     Of course, the mockery is quite natural, because the communication, “Post No Bill” is absolutely nonsensical to the targeted public? If you say “Post No Bill” in the USA, everybody understands what you mean, because the lingo is American. An average Nigerian understands what you mean if you tell him/her something like “Don’t put any poster here.” Or, better (for more effective mass communication), say “Abeg make you no put poster here oh,” because Pidgin English is what most Nigerians understand. But, you come to Nigeria and speak foreign lingo that majority of Nigerians don’t understand, and you expect them to comply with your request or order. You have not actually communicated to the public what you really wanted to say. Some of the people that post posters on walls with ‘Post No Bill” probably believe that the sign wants them to pest their posters, meeeeeeen!!!

As I started this blog, I called seven regular Nigerians that I could immediately reach, and asked them what “Post No Bill” means, and not even one of them knew it. With this, the rate of effective communication to the public is already apparently very low. Mind you, in a wide poll, the few Nigerians who are exposed enough to understand your foreign lingo, are not the people who go out there to post the bills on walls and other forbidden structures around town. The ones that do the posting, ain’t got the foggiest idea what the fuck you are talking about, with your “Post No Bill” bullshit, because you have communicated nothing to them, meeeeeeeen!!!

And, here once again is the link to the maiden edition of Communication Without Communicating: https://nobullshiting.com/communication-without-communicating-in-nigeria-part-1/

You may also want to visit a similar Enlightenment Series on this site, titled Commonly Misused Words, Phrases, & Terms. Here’s the link to one edition. Whe you get there, you may browse for more editions in the series: https://nobullshiting.com/commonly-misused-english-words-phrases-part-3/

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