By OKECHUKWU KESHI UKEGBU

The Bible strongly admonishes us not to lay our treasures where termites and all manner of devourers will tamper them. Simply put, we should endeavour to make heaven where no corruptible will partake.

Termites are known for destroying valuable documents, especially when those documents are not properly stored. Some people have lost their valuables, especially books and other important documents to the activities of termites. Termites destroyed the school certificate of Justice Tanko Mohammed beyond recovery when they invaded his home in 1998. Justice Tanko submitted an affidavit to this effect to the Senate during his screening to head the Supreme Court. Sometimes in the recent past, Ondo State House of Assembly legislators observed that termites had completely eaten several parts of their chamber.

If you want to know how destructive and troublesome termites could be, ask the Nigerian Social Insurance Trust Fund (NSITF). The unfriendly visitor had allegedly eaten up some documents containing expenditures worth N17.1 billion of the organization.

These documents are said to contain details of spending by the agency in 2013.The NSITF management made this startling revelation when it appeared before the Senate Public Accounts Committee (SPAC).The current Managing Director, Michael Akabogu, said the documents were in the organisation’s possession. According to him: “The container the said documents were kept by past management has not only been beaten by rains over the years but even possibly been eaten up by termites,” he told the panel. “I told the past management officers of the need for them to help us out in answering this query with necessary documents which have not been made available for us,” he said.

God instituted mortal enmity between man and snake during the first fall at the Garden of Eden thusly: "And I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and hers; he will crush your head, and you will strike his heel.” (Genesis 3:15).

Recently in Nigeria where the bizarre happens, snakes have over stepped their bounds of bruising our heels to swallowing our money.

We are acutely aware of how this reptile found its way to JAMB accounts department of the Benue State Branch of the Board in Makurdi and made away with N36million in cash. This was narrated by a salesclerk in the office, Philomena Chieshe. The revelation came on the heels of JAMB Registrar, Prof Ishaq Oloyede, to overhaul the corrupt system he inherited. The story which generated mixed reaction as Senator Shehu Sani to s in resolving the issue visited the headquarters of JAMB with anti-snake venom and snake charmers to catch the snake.

We know of Lucy in the Human Chimp, a new TV documentary from KEO Films and Channel 4. Lucy, a chimpanzee raised as a human, and Janis Carter, a graduate student hired to clean her cage. Through the late 1960s, Lucy was the subject of a high-profile study by psychologists Maurice and Jane Temerlin, ostensibly to explore the limits of nature versus nurture. The Temerlins brought Lucy up in their home, more or less as though she was a human child, to the point of teaching her to dress herself, eat with silverware and even fix a gin and tonic.

Despite our disposition to adopt monkeys and chimpanzees as our pets, they have always not proven to be good human companions. The story of mammologist, Henry Raven, who visited Africa in 1929 and brought an orphaned chimp named Meshie back to his home on Long Island is an obvious example.

Raven’s case was the first attempt to raise a chimp with a human family. The animal snuggled with the other children, held human babies and became the subject of many pictures and family videos. Meshie wasn’t really treated as a human. She slept in cage, away from the human children with whom she sometimes played. As Meshie grew older, she got hostile. Occasionally, she would bite people when she didn't get her way. She required a lot of attention, so much so that when Raven announced he was leaving on another extended business trip, his wife demanded that the chimp leaves too. So, in 1934, Meshie ended up at a Chicago zoo. Three years later.

Back here, the gorillas and monkeys have grown so wild in there hostilities up to a point that they are consuming our millions. In 2019, a gorilla allegedly swallowed N6.8 million in the Kano Zoological Gardens. A finance officer in the zoo was quoted as saying the gorilla sneaked into an office and carted away the money before swallowing it. This was confirmed by the Managing Director of the zoo, Umar Kobo.

In February 2018, Senator Shehu Sani stated the N70 million, which was given to the Northern Forum of Senators, was swallowed by monkeys at the leader’s farm, Sani revealed after Senator Abdullahi Adamu was deposed as Chairman of the Northern Senators Forum. Senator Adamu was accused of misusing N70 million belonging to the Northern Senators Forum. Sani said that according to the deposed Senator, some monkeys had allegedly swallowed the money.

Could this trend be linked to the reported interception of three consignments containing snakes and 660 other animals imported into Nigeria from Cameroon. It would be recalled that containers were reportedly brought in through the Calabar waterways to the National inland Waterways Authority jetty in Calabar, Cross River State. The other animals which were identified as geckos, millipedes, hairy frogs and spiders were said to be worth about N6.9 million. According to Customs officials in Calabar, the consignments which were Lagos bound, were prohibited items adding that there was no permit to bring live animals into the country. Government later handed over the consignment to the University of Uyo for a comprehensive expert report on the consignment.

The question begging for urgent resolution is, “have these unfriendly animals finally invaded our offices and proceeding to our homes, just like the bandits and gun men have unofficially occupied our forests and highways? We should endeavour to recover these ungoverned spaces from these reptiles before it becomes too late. Time to act is now!

•Okechukwu Keshi Ukegbu, a public policy analyst, writes from Aba, via keshiafrica@gmail.com

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