(Published in The PUNCH, on Friday, March 10, 2023)
Bitter, sweet and curious creature, the honeybee. When the honeybee stings, its abdomen tears up, its mouth opens and closes, hitting the ground in a final kiss of death. That is the fate of the honeybee and its stinger – a weapon it uses for protection and the harbinger of its ultimate death.
Hey, the next time you see a dead bee on the ground, you probably need to stoop, if you can’t pick it up, to see if it ‘bled’ to death in the abdomen.
Science has shown that when the honeybee sinks its stinger in flesh, for example, the stinger gets hooked. In an attempt to force the stinger out, the longer part of the stinger embedded inside the bee tears up the end of the abdomen, and the bee opens its mouth ‘in shock’, then closes it, and drops to kiss the ground in death.
Arguably America’s foremost Extension Apiculturist – Eric Mussen – lecturer at the University of California at Davis, devoted most of his 78-year life to research on bees and beekeeping before passing in June, last year. “When a honeybee stings, it dies a gruesome death…It is only the female honeybees, also known as the worker bees, that sting. Each hive contains some 60,000 workers..,” Mussen told the Public Broadcasting Service.
The honeybee, and the Malaysian Exploding Ant, which I referred to in the first part of this article, thus, suffer the same ghastly fate when defending their castes.
Like the honeybee and the Malaysian Exploding Ant, the APC and the PDP suffered self-amputation during the presidential and federal legislature elections held on February 25, 2023, bursting their abdomens, exposing their entrails – necessitating the ambulance rushing to the ER.
In Lagos, the headcount taken after the passover of February 25 shows that the days of political prisoners singing the slavish panegyric, “On Your Mandate We Shall Stand,” are numbered. Even the Architect of Modern Lagos, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, who wears a shackled cap instead of a helmet, was force-fed the humble pie before falling ‘yakata’ from construction scaffolding into the sinking sand on the Atlantic beach, and washed off into the Osun River!
With the loss the PDP suffered in its home states of the South-East, South-South and parts of the North during the election, former vice president and serial loser, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar, should, by now, have come to the painful realisation that the PDP salt has lost its taste, the lion has lost its mane. In the just concluded presidential election, the ‘largest party in Africa’ was torn into shreds in Lagos, and in its former strongholds of Abuja, Rivers, Edo, Delta, Anambra, Enugu, Imo etc.
Now, the coffin is ready for the expiring patient, who is ready for the grave, already dug by undertakers, who are teary but ready to bury. So, in flames goes the wish of a party whose dream of ruling for 60 years terminated in 16 years.
By the results of the February presidential and federal legislature elections, it’s crystal clear that ignoble age-long political practices such as godfatherism, money politics, ethnicity and religious divisiveness would be a thing of the past if the majority of the 93,522,272 Nigerian voter population participate in elections and vote their conscience. Sadly, only 23,377,466 Nigerians voted during the elections, which represent 24.9% of total voters.
Bemused, I watch as Lagos State Governor, Babajide Sanwo-Olu, has been running on hot coals since February 25 when the APC lost Lagos to Labour Party, knocking on residents’ doors, begging for votes and personally taking selfies with ordinary Lagosians, who ordinarily, could never get close to him if he wasn’t driven by the fear of impending electoral loss.
I can see the voter laugh, close his eyes, mount his horse and wish election comes every year to humble the vagabonds in power. Times are changing. The ground is dizzy. The voter was a beggar; he had a wish and a horse, but wasn’t allowed to ride. Now, he has whip of PVC and has mounted his horse en route to his dream, woe betide the voice of retrogression wailing in the wilderness, appealing to ethnic or religious sentiments.
I wish the Labour Party wins Lagos for democracy and the opposition to thrive. For eight years, Tinubu was a pain in the neck of President Olusegun Obasanjo who allegedly sought to perpetuate himself in government through a third term agenda. Let Gbadebo Rhodes-Vivour put a needle to Tinubu’s neck too – now that he will be president.
In 2006, I forced my way into the heavily guarded Osun State House of Assembly legislative chamber – venue of the South-West public hearing on constitution amendment which had the governors of the region in attendance.
Noble lawyer and courageous activist, Bamidele Aturu; may his gentle soul rest in peace, popular activist, Moshood Erubami; and many other activists across the South-West stormed the venue of the hearing, which many believed was orchestrated by Obasanjo to earn a third term.
The police and the DSS who mounted guard at the doors leading into the chambers barred activists from entering, precipitating a shouting and shoving match before the activists and many members of the public forced their way into the chamber.
An enraged Governor Ayodele Fayose climbed the table and ordered the police to flush out the ‘intruders’. Years later, Fayose accused Obasanjo of masterminding a third term agenda.
I learnt then on good authority that Tinubu as Lagos governor was in support of some of the activists that stormed the venue to stop the purported third term agenda. Does this good deed qualify Tinubu as a democrat? NO! In eight years, Tinubu had three deputy governors – Kofoworola Akerele-Bucknor, Femi Pedro and Sarah Sosan.
So, whenever Tinubu is tempted to go imperial, as is his wont, there should be a political force to repel him as he repelled the Ebora Owu who has the sole ownership of a university, controversial library and farm in Ota. The sauce distilled as pepper soup for the goose is simmering on the boil for the gander. After 24 unbroken years of APC administration, Lagos deserves another ‘last man’ standing.
I don’t like the way Rhodes-Vivour speaks Yoruba like a faulty pepper grinding machine but to say he’s unqualified to contest Lagos governorship on account of his mother being Igbo is a symptom of afternoon madness.
Remi, the beautiful wife of Tinubu, is Itshekiri. Is it then right to say that the daughters bore Tinubu by Remi aren’t Yoruba and Lagosians? Is it right to say the children bore Seyi, Tinubu’s son, by his Igbo wife, aren’t Yoruba and Lagosians? Osun State Governor, Ademola Adeleke, was born by an Igbo woman, today he’s the executive governor of Osun. Ondo State Governor, Arakunrin Rotimi Akeredolu ,married an Igbo. Does that stop their children from contesting elections in Ondo? The list goes on and on.
I think it’s ripe enough time to ask about the maternity of Seyi Tinubu, and that of Tinubu’s prominent daughter, Folashade Tinubu-Ojo, who is the Iyaloja General of Nigeria. Full disclosures on the mothers of all Tinubu’s children would put Nigerians in good perspective as to who should refund Lagos State billions of naira in contracts, perks and freebies raked under the Tinubu family name.
The letter ‘T’ is synonymous with Tinubu and Tortoise. When the insensitive Governor of Nigeria’s Central Bank, Godwin Emefiele, came up with his watercolour design of the naira, Tinubu and his disciples like Nasir el-Rufai, Abdullahi Ganduje and Adams Oshiomhole cried like malevolent spirits.
But since the APC won the presidential election, the once disconsolate defenders of the masses have withdrawn into their posh shells and abandoned suffering Nigerian masses to queue in the sun daily at banks, waiting to buy naira with naira. There is no human face to their shame and insensitivity.
A monk beds a prostitute at night and mounts the pulpit in the morning to condemn harlotry. I know the monk and his followers. Do you? Of course, you do. Then, vote your conscience on March 18, 2023.
Email: tundeodes2003@yahoo.com
Facebook: @tunde odesola
Twitter: @tunde_odesola
* Concluded.
