Definition : Ghana-must-go

Prologue :-  in 1983  about a million Ghanaians were evicted from Nigeria –mostly Lagos.  In the rush to ‘cut-out’ of Naija , the refugees used cheap plastic bags with a distinctive ‘ghana-must-go’ checker pattern to pack their luggage and thus the word Ghana must go became associated with that type of plastic bag.

Fast-forward a couple of decades... mass looting and corruption is on the rampage; bags are now used to haul wads of cash to and from Abuja (from the briber’s jeep to the bribee’s  office)

The term Ghana-must-go has now  evolved  to have other meanings.

Today on Naija Words we will examine the different forms, colours and definitions of Ghana-must-go

Ghana-must-go (noun phrase) plural Ghana-must-gos.

1. A Large plastic bag used to carry luggage, usually with large distinctive checker boxes

Usage

 The bus touts stole the man’s Ghana-must-go at the car park; he was miserable.

 The boy kicked his cheating girlfriend out of the house and threw her Ghana-must-go in the gutter.

2. A term denoting a bribe, a container that a bribe or illicit/suspicious property is carried in.

Synonym : Brown envelope, Bribe , illegal money

        Usage

        The irate journalist smiled out of the senator’s office with a small sized Ghana-must-go in hand.

        No ransom was paid: only Ghana-must-gos changed hands.

        The national cake is best severed in black Ghana-must-gos.

Definition: Octopus

Word :Octopus

Prologue:- even if you just crawled out of some remote ravine on mars, you would have known that for a month or so, the eyes of the world were trained on Africa as all the stars in the galaxy of football descended on Africa to be part of the FiFa World Cup.

 Sha sha no long thing!

This  is not about the players rather it is about the tentacled German mollusc that is paul; the octopus that predicted eight straight match winners, a feat that the Kaduna born crocodile ,Musa couldn’t rival as he became a trendy wallet before the kick off of the first match! {Ps that last statement was a product of my over active imagination}.

Some people have even canvassed that paul picks Nigeria’s next president instead of PDP  INEC the people and some say we make it the new president of the Nigerian Football Federation while others think we should change replace the eagle in the Nigerian Coat of arms with an octopus (don’t quote me)

For the wonder that is paul, the word octopus has been added to the Naijawords lexicon

oc·to·pus [óktəpəss]

(plural oc·to·pus·es or oc·to·pi or oc·to·pus)

Noun  :- a lucky/fortunate person or a talisman that is impacts good luck;

 one that appears to have the Midas touch in every endeavour.

*note* usage does not include juju and yahoo boys**

Verb :- to guess , to take a chance that works out.

verb (past and past participle octopus-ed, present participle octopus·ing, 3rd person present singular octopus-es)

Usage :-

1.      1.   The boy was clueless about the MCQ exam; he ocotpused it and made a C.

2.      2.   Ol’ boy that guy na octopus , he won the raffle draw with only one entry.

3.      3.  Who says you cannot octopus your way to the top ? our president did it.

4.       4. To be an octopus, one must take risks

definition: Boko

Word : Boko

boko

Prologue: - Today(28^th July ,2010 for those who don’t own a calendar or are too stoned to know what day it is-yes it’s a Wednesday) makes it exactly one year two days since the horrific inhumanities(Boko Haram crisis) that occurred in Brono state in northern Nigeria, which led to the loss of about 800 lives and more livelihoods.

 Therefore on a very sad note we add the word boko to the Naijawords lexicon . And pray for solace to those who lost friend,brothers,uncles,sisters,fathers and mothers in the maniacal religions attacks 

Boko /ɓóoko/

(verb) (past and past participle boko-ed, present participle boko-ing, 3rd person present singular bokos)

1.To destroy, to kill a living organism or a person or to sabotage an idea or a cause.

Usage:  

             ol’boy, the next time you try me, e no go easy i go boko you!

 The police would have bokoed the thieves had the fuel in their patrol vehicle not finished.

 Dora and soludo are bokoing each others political ambitions.

 The food was so delicious that the boy bokoed it all.

             The dog chased the child and bokoed his shorts.  

Origin – Hausa language ; from English meaning book.

**pls this is the first post..tell us what you think . O dabọ!**

image: philadelphia-reflections.com