POLITICS: LETS LEARN POLITICS FROM TERMITES.

 LETS LEARN POLITICS FROM TERMITES.

Can you remember ever seeing some insects with transparent wings always going about especially around a light source after a heavy rainfall? Those are the reproductive nymphs of termites. How about we learn a whole lot from them as youths of Nigeria?

The truth is I have always been fascinated with insects and at some point in my life, I wanted to be an entomologist but Veterinary Parasitology happened (hahahh. I’m sure you know what I’m talking about so let’s move on). So, when I was younger, I looked out for them. A prominent group of insect I studied quite a lot were termites. And sincerely, there's so much to learn from them as they live just like we do. And as a wise king once said, “We should go to such creatures to learn wisdom”. There are about 4 social classes in a termite colony. The king and queen, let's call them the royals, the workers, and soldiers and the reproductive nymph.

Let us start with the workers to give a more graphic picture of what we can get from them.

The workers: The workers are just like the bees (which I believe we might be more familiar with), they are very hard working because they are always working. They get the food ready, take care of the fungi garden, they are assigned with the building of the structures etc. Workers also take part in the social life of the colony and have certain other tasks to accomplish such as foraging, building or maintaining the nest or tending to the queen.

The soldiers, you can easily distinguish them with their more orange-like, sometimes bigger heads with strong mandibles for fighting off invaders. Some of them often stand alongside the workers especially if the workers are closer to the surface while reconstructing part of their broken anthill.

 One striking thing is this, both the soldiers and the workers are blind. They do not have eyes but they communicate via pheromones. They also do not reproduce, they are sterile.

The King and Queen: The king and Queen are in a very "secured" chamber. It's not very easy to get to them in an established termite "kingdom", I mean anthill. They are deep in the anthill and well secured from outside hazards. They are much bigger than the rest of the termites. The "royals" have tiny eyes. 

The Reproductive nymphs are the ones that come out after a rainy day. They are males and females. They have the potential to become the new king or queen and they can form new coloniies after undergoing what is called the "nuptial flight". They have transparent wings, and they lose the wings only after mating. However, there is a lot of huddle on their way, birds, lizards, humans, and a whole lot of enemies that are ready to stop them from achieving great things. The ones that survive, goes on to mate, loose their wings and become king and queen of a new colony.

Now, how does that in any way pertain to our dear country? Well, isn't it very glaring??

There are 'blind' soldiers who are dying every now and then fighting against threats while our leaders are very secured in their chambers with their needs being provided for them.

There are a lot of workers, working hard night and day for the government, isn't it?? 

And have they not grown to adapt to it?? Are they not blind?? Just like the queen produces pheromones to supress the reproductive capabilities of other workers, are the leaders not supressing the citizens in every way? Yet, don't they have a longer lifespan just like the queen (with the longest insect lifespan?

Well... Imagine that I call a conference of soldiers and termites together, and set up a slide show. Would that be very wise of me, have I forgotten that they have no eyes so that they can’t see??

But, what if I call on the reproductive nymphs instead, who I can liken to the youths of this country They are potential king and queens. They can stand their ground to do their best to be successful. To establish a colony for themselves and have a family and all that stuff. However, I am afraid it doesn't work exactly that way. From what can be clearly seen, it has been ingrained in them also, some of them already have their mind made up to enter into the same service. Others seek to leave their colonies to go to more established colonies only to be workers there too, shall we construct a new class and call it "foreign workers" or "foreign slaves" seems to capture it more.

Some have based their lives on and limit themselves to 'pheromones' and ideaologies of foreign colonies they have found mostly on Twitter without evidence to establish what is actually true. Aren't they slaves to such foreign colonies in their minds? Can such ever be queen?

Then, can't I say that they are not any better?? They are also going to construct a colony where old practices are all the same or most likely worse because they have their eyes currently opened to the worse things.

I think they will be worse. And I think we won't even have all of them, a large number of them will be eaten off by different predators. All I can say is that, what predators do you have in mind and which do you prefer to cut short your life? After all, you are just a reproductive nymph in this Kingdom but don’t mind me, the decision is still yours to make. Will you join the system(be a worker) or form your own colony? If you form one, will it be different from the kings' and queens' we have now? think about it.