NYSC, 2015 ELECTIONS AND MATTERS ARISING

Alot has been said on the just concluded March 28 presidential and National Assembly elections which saw the dogged politician, Gen Muhammadu Buhari (rtd) as the winner and the president-elect. Among what characterised its success is the Jonathan’s concession of defeat which saved the country from imminent collapse against the highly predicted doom and cataclysm. However, the last election was not without flaws. The last election was that wind that has uncovered Attahiru Jega’s Independent National Electoral Commission’s shoddy preparation even when given so much time to do so. Let me categorically say that my concern is not on failed card readers which many had adjudged as embarrassing, for not identifying many Nigerians including the president. Must election like the presidential election be conducted in a day? Can’t INEC explore other alternatives of conducting elections according to geo-political zones? These are serious questions begging for answers and the earlier we answer the questions the better and readier we are to conducting peaceful poll. Secondly, in response to a clarion call to serve their country, graduates of different tertiary institutions are deployed to 36 states including FCT for the National Youth Service oblivious of what fate and sometimes fortune that await them. Most of these youths had been used for several purposes including serving as INEC ad hoc staff for elections and the last election was not an exception.

But contrary to what was preached and canvassed for their safety and welfare, a lot of wrongs had been done to these ones mainly because majority of them are hopeful of crumbs that will fall from the master’s table. In the just concluded election, some corpers were maltreated. For instance, somewhere in the North, corpers slept on the night before election day without mattresses and without food. Also, in the height of insecurity in the North, one could not imagine that INEC in its preparation would deploy poororiented and lazy security personnel including some members of Federal Road Safety officials to some polling units to serve as “watchmen”. I hope you can guess the outcome. They did not bark let alone bite. Some of them choose to retire under trees, others engaged in cheap conversation, still others suddenly embarked on unadvertised eating competition leaving these corpers alone to grapple with the endless threats of violence attack from the people of the communities.