A parliament of owls, by Mahmud Jega The Englishman who sat down and coined weird collective nouns for groups of animals, did they have Nigeria in mind? Were they helped in the task by a Junker of Germans, a vineyard of Frenchmen, a mob of Italians or a samurai of Japanese? Think of the collective noun a parliament of owls. Englishmen who coined it had the Nigerian National Assembly in mind. The large eyes of owls which resemble an MP’s eyesight for money, owls’ nocturnal habits which resemble rubber stamping...