THE WISDOM OF BEES

With the current state of politics of Nigeria, finding words to describe the toils of Africa’s giants Nigeria has become as difficult finding a stream in a desert. Once we were super eagles soaring high above everyone else even Great Britain and America. Once we had no competition, now we can’t keep up. We are losing ourselves in the trails of dust that is left behind by western nations, always improving on their past and the blood trails from Africa’s new conquerors, Islam. Our footprints in the mud are now as visible as the moon at noon. To describe Nigeria as a pride of lion seeking to protect its interest and that of their future is a farce, considering the divide in Nigeria’s ruling and opposing parties.
How wise we must be, with the new measures of divide between the North and the Rest. While most governments are implementing new laws and measure to curb corruption and help foster growth, we are more concerned about homosexuality. How distracted we must be. My future is at stake, yours is at stake and I feel for my unborn children. Would they have to travel abroad for a decent education as well? What shame that would be.

With all the pollen available to us, I wonder why Nigeria is not making as much honey as the hive could. When the drones are dead and the Queen bee is back in her hive then maybe we could.

NEXT GENERATION

Childhood experiences are very difficult to forget. Science will largely attribute this to the state of the mind at such a tender age. Enedabojo, my elder brother will also be quick to use the word: ‘tabularasa’ to define this state (of course he was no exception to this enigma). It did really teach me much as I was the youngest of my six siblings. Learning was something I really had no choice about, it was just mandatory as I had many teachers. At a point I wished I was the first child, but when I recalled how mum always gave me an extra meat after the fair share and how I always won every misunderstanding between my siblings and I before my parents (maybe as the favourite child; don’t tell dad I told you this!), I just loved my position in the family. I also did not do much chores; the most difficult was rinsing the dishes while my ‘almost’ twin sister, Edǫ did the washing; we were best of friends and accomplices. Whenever we got caught, trust me, I was always first to cry: “mum, it was Edǫ that said we should do it”, even when I engineered most of the acts. The acts were usually going out to play with other kids in the neighbourhood and going to see a movie in my uncle’s house. We were living at the teachers’ quarter of the school where my dad worked. The residential area was popularly referred to as quarters. It was a big and united community and every parent would freely entrust his/her child to another without worrying about safety or whatsoever.

Living in the quarters was fun and adventurous. The playground was mobile depending on which of the parents was open to our disturbances at that period and also the players, depending on who is trying to escape from a particular task at home. If it was my sister and I, we always ensured the playground was at the extreme; far enough from our house. However, KB, somehow always got the majority in terms of decision making. He was undoubtedly the leader in most adventures. During the week, the playground opened at 4pm. The closing time was different for all and dependent on a number of factors: 1) if your parents had travelled 2) when your parents send for you 3) how many children were still around to play and 4) emergencies like injuries or natural occurrences like ‘heavy’ downpour.

We had different kinds of play which included: hide and seek, building huts with mud, singing, tug of war, and kpata-kpata/tinco-tinco. During the weekends, we went hunting for birds with our catapults. KB again was very good at this; he always killed big birds while the rest of us killed smaller ones. In the end we’ll roast the meat and share equally. It was something that kept us united; we always moved as a group. It was also during this era that the movie Isakaba was released. We tried to imitate the different characters. Who was Ebube dike? Sure! It was KB. The bond amongst us tightened after we read one of the series books by lantern series publishers: The Clique. It inspired us to define rules and learn some new habits like not dipping bread into tea. However, we did learn the bad habits too from home videos. One I can never forget was when I tried to act as doctor with KB and we ended up pushing a broom stick into the ears of one of the kids. It was really an awful scene which we regretted and learned from too.

I’m writing this from my laptop at my elder sister’s place; 17years after! Her children rarely go out of the house. The class of activities they undertake is now redefined. These include: reading on computer, surfing (internet), playing video games, using social applications like facebook , twitter and Blackberry. Technology has taken the place of the childhood experiences I had. I was privileged to visit the quarters (we relocated after my dad got transferred) and it was wearing a different look. The kids hardly come out or even know each other; our then playgrounds have been turned to green areas and satellite dish stand points; the only thing left were the birds we hunted. I was not born in the early 60’s but I know the experiences of the children born in that era are absolutely different from mine as mine was different from that of the present generation.  And by inference, that of the next generation will be different from the present. But what could this be? Beyond our imaginations…within the limits of existence!


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