But for Biblical attempts to explain its existence,, not many know why the protrusion in the neck region, especially in men is known as the Adam’s Apple.
The dictionary defines the Adam’s Apple as “a projection at the front of the neck formed by the thyroid cartilage of the larynx, often prominent in men.”
The Medical News Today offers what may be more of a scientific explanation. According to it, “The Adam’s apple, also known as the laryngeal prominence, is made of cartilage. This is a connective tissue present throughout the body.
It further explains, “Cartilage is strong, but softer and more flexible than bone, and it makes up several other areas of the neck.
“The Adam’s apple develops during puberty. It grows around the front of the larynx, just above the thyroid.”
Nonetheless, studies show that the origin of the word, Adam’s apple, might be traceable to the mid 18 century, just about the time the first Biblical translation was made in Greek.
Man had made the mistake of disobeying his Creator at the Garden of Eden, the Bible reveals. According to that account, a piece of the forbidden apple Adam ate with Eve stuck in his throat.
It is strange that Eve, used as an instrument by the serpent to convince Adam to eat of the forbidden fruit escaped the retribution of the Adam’s apple.
It may be that this might be the way the author of life has designed it. Remember, Adam as the tender of the garden was supposed to adhere strictly to the bidding of the master.
So, the one who was carved from his rib while he slept was not intended to have dominion over him.
Thus, Adam and his male descendants to this day bear the mark of an act of disobedience which was born in the beginning.
Somehow, the All Progressives Congress, APC, may not have been there when the Master of the universe made the world. It was not even there at the beginning of Nigerian politics.
Its advent, prior to the 2015 election, was a product of political struggle; a product of the internal contradictions that had enveloped the polity; and an attempt by a segment of the political class to defeat the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP.
In other words, it was expected to be a purer, much more transparent political creature, distinct from the PDP, that would restore faith among the people and transform itself into a positive game changer.
Apparently sure of its historic mission, its founders armed the new party with a broom and unleashed its torchbearers on the Nigerian people.
They were expected to sweep away those tendencies that had made Nigerian politics an engine room for mind boggling bitterness and a password for failure.
Of course, the APC in 2015 seized power through a process that was considered free and fair. For the first time in Nigeria’s politics, an opposition party defeated an incumbent government.
John Odigie Oyegun, a former governor of Edo State was at the head of the pack, and many remember that the party he led was stable, self respecting and peaceful.
But for doing things right, Oyegun had a painful reward when the time came. He was thrown out, ostensibly to create room for someone considered young and dynamic.
The rest is history.
How far the APC has faired remains a matter of great conjuncture. So, Nigerians are witnesses to ‘jumps surprise’. They are equally witnesses to the fiery, combative words that are proof of the activism of a former labour warlord.
It appears for now that the APC has something stuck in its Adam’s apple. It is a huge problem posed by another Adam.
Unlike the Biblical Adam, this Adam goes by the name of Adams. Unlike the old Adams of the NLC, he has supposedly dumped what used to be seen as his distinct labour wear.
It would seem that Adams Oshiomhole’s middle name is controversy. Don’t ask me why!
Adams has made different rules for different persons and different states, depending on his mood.
The APC under his watch has similarly lost grounds in states that it controlled, and states in which it was projected to win prior to the 2019 general election.
States like Zamfara and Rivers offer great examples of a misguided perception that Adams Oshiomhole, a short but brief gentleman from a State of lion hearts, has brought to the table.
While the world, caught off guard, rallied to encounter the Coronavirus headlong, a segment of the APC, worried by the advent of what I see as the “Adam’svirus” fought to keep Oshiomhole at bay.
Even the PDP, seen in some political circles as the devil’s incarnate as far as Nigeria’s politics is concerned, is having a good laugh as agents of change engage in a deadly fight.
To say that Adams’ presence in the saddle has acted as a soothing balm within his party is to tell a complete white lie.
The APC hasn’t known peace since the arrival of the man of steel. It has rather been embroiled in endless crisis.
Such is the extent of the like or dislike of Adams’ style that the party he now leads is struggling to find its footing.
Differences that are raging within the APC are helping in so many ways to rebrand the PDP as the Buhari years turn the bend.
The intervention of President Muhammadu Buhari may have stabilized the party on the surface.
To install or sustain a leadership within the party for the sake of maintaining the status quo may prove costly for the APC if the President does very little to get to the bottom of the crisis which is holding the APC by its Adam’s apple.
From all indications, Adams is back in charge. He is in the saddle. What will he do? What will happen next?
Many in Nigeria are beginning to see the APC as a pack of jokers and a group of strange bed fellows who simply got together without principles to win election.
There is simply no ideology, and given what is playing out, no direction.
Words inscribed in the party constitution and its manifesto have remained mere words transferred on paper and stapled together after a printer had knocked out an appetizing cover design.
Party discipline has since evaporated while the princes and princesses of the APC, since the arrival of Adams, have preferred settlements in court which do not appear to travel the path of natural justice instead of painstakingly resolving internal conflicts through mechanisms set up by the party for such purposes.
What kind of party throws away canons meant for conflict resolution the way the APC has done?
What has been the benefit or benefits of such action in a game that men are supposed to reason and work together?
In so far, as the eyes can see, this is not the change that many who gravitated in the direction of the APC desired.
On the contrary, lovers of change are being short-changed by events that are playing out within the ruling party.
But the President who realized his ambition to govern Nigeria on the platform of the APC certainly has more work to do.
Emperor Nero cried while Rome was set ablaze. In these time of unlimited skirmishes, this is not the expectation of Nigerians from their president.
This president has to place his hand firmly on the plough and call a spade by its name. It is not good politics to watch those who are presumably close to you fight like hyneas.
It isn’t decent.
It isn’t even a measure by which good men are known. Good men are made of sterner stuff. For them, face no dey fear face na!
Good men are known to speak to truth without fear; known to speak to reason at all times; and known to galvanize others like them to action whenever they have the opportunity.
In the days ahead as the world fights COVID 19, the APC must be seen to confront the virus that is ravaging it from within.
It must exorcize the evil plot of the one with tentacles that are spread everywhere, who like an octupus, is responsible for the unrest in the house.
Oshiomhole jabbed at the press Monday and posed for the camera when he said his fellow party men had forgiven him.
For added measure, he said he had forgiven all who had crossed his path and offended him in cause of his work as chairman of the party.
His comments obviously made good copy and we simply jumped at it in the newsroom as the news broke, but did those comments really mean peace had returned just like that?
This may explain why most people think that politicians are like magicians who say one thing and do another.
Oshiomhole is not certainly the one wearing the mask. Someone else is. Hideously, the one with a finger in every pie holds unto the Adam’s apple of the APC, squeezing and tugging.
In time, the APC’s windpipe might go burst if he succeeds in cutting off the supply of oxygen. May God forbid!
Never has man succeeded in playing God. Those who have, have paid a great price for their folly. The Americans built Challenger. It crashed before it could orbit the earth.
The Titanic sank on its first expedition after the builder had said “not even God can sink this ship”.
The PDP laughed at the quest of the five Governors in 2015 who stood against the great injustice that was being done under the watch of President Goodluck Jonathan. It paid a huge price for its arrogance and distrust of persons who meant well for the party.
So shall it be with the master or masters of the mystery webs that are being spurn. Those webs spurn behind the scene; sometimes in the open; are turning APC members against one another.
They are destroying the very trust which existed and destroying the hard earned reputation of others.
Without thinking about the consequences of their actions, they are pushing men to the wall and claiming that their gossips, brazen lies, and evil manipulations are all part of politics.
I am worried not because of the fact that I am involved. I am worried that the foundation of a party whose survival is inadvertently linked to the stability of democracy in Nigeria may be traveling the route to self destruction.
It is sad but true that the movers and shakers within the party might shrug it off and chart a new course when the time comes. What would happen to the rest of us when that time comes? Shall we also move on as prostitutes do?