GREED IS DANGEROUS--AJAO KAMORUDEEN

Once upon a time in the animal kingdom, the tortoise and the snail were best of friends. They were so intimate that no one was able to come between them. Though the duo were close friends, each had its own peculiar nature-while the snail was known for its truthfulness and straight forwardness, the tortoise was well known   for its craftiness and slyness. Yet, they moved on very well.     

At a point in  the friendship not-withstanding, quarrel broke out between them and so, the tortoise, having felt too bad, decided to punish the snail for what the tortoise assumed as the latter’s   “effrontery”. To achieve his intention, Mr. Tortoise decided to implicate his friend by bringing it into a murder case. To make the punishment heavy, tortoise set the snail against the king by killing the palace head attendant and dumped his corpse at the backyard of his friend, the snail. Tortoise then quickly went to the palace to inform the king of the incident. The tortoise then took some palace guards to snail’s house from where the head attendant’s corpse was brought back to the palace.     

The snail was arrested immediately  and was brought to the palace for the king’s pronouncement. Having sensed  that the tortoise was behind the crime and its involvement, the snail appealed to the king to allow them get to the root of the case. He then advised that to  get the actual killer the king should send the town-crier to inform everybody that because the snail had killed the head attendant, it would be publicly honoured for helping the king to overcome his arch-enemy. On the day of the award, the king as advised by the snail set the snail on his best horse and dressed in his ceremonial outfit and had him taken around the kingdom amidst heavy drumming and praise singing. The crowd sang thus:

Lead:           Igbin pabuke osin                    The snail murdered the king’s servant

Chorus:       Gbongudugbon                        Gbongudugbon

Lead:           Oba da igbin lola                     The king honours the snail

Chorus:       Gbongudugbon                        Gbongudugbon

Lead:           Igbin gesin roboto                             The snail rides on the king’s horse

Chorus:       Gbongudugbon                        Gbongudugbon

The tortoise got wind of the celebration and felt it had undone itself by making the snail be the killer. Being moved by greed, the tortoise quickly ran to the palace to confess and admit to killing the head attendant and planting his corpse on the snail. It even went as far as showing the club with which it killed the man. After all convictions, the king pronounced a death  penalty on  the  tortoise and so, the tortoise was executed on the third day.