INEC – NYSC Partnership: Is it really working
It was the eve of the National Assembly elections scheduled to hold nationwide on the 9th of April 2011. As preparations were in full gear with the deployment of security agents, INEC officials, and observers from different groups local and international, a bomb blast shook Suleja town in Niger state with an initial unconfirmed […]
It was the eve of the National Assembly elections scheduled to hold nationwide on the 9th of April 2011.
As preparations were in full gear with the deployment of security agents, INEC officials, and observers from different groups local and international, a bomb blast shook Suleja town in Niger state with an initial unconfirmed report of 25 dead and several others wounded. The strike was at the INEC office Suleja, Niger state at between 5pm and 5.30pm. It wasn’t the first time a bomb will go off since the electioneering and campaigns of that year began.
The explosion occurred barely 2 hours after electoral materials had arrived the INEC office and the place was a beehive of activity. Youth Corps members, INEC officials, party agents and security operatives were among the crowd of people present at the time of the blast. In all, a total of 9 National Youth Service Corps members lost their lives.
Shortly after, 10 corps members were also killed in violence that followed the April 16th presidential elections in Bauchi state. An unspecified number of the female corps members were also raped, molested and assaulted by irate youths. According to the police, the corps members were killed at different locations in the state including Giade, Itas\Gadau, Katagum and Alkaleri local government areas while participating in the conduct of the presidential election as electoral officials.
As compensation, the president, at what can be described as a ceremony, presented N5 million to families of those who lost their lives. He also promised to give jobs to the other affected corps members immediately after the mandatory one year service to the nation.
A former Director General of the NYSC, Brigadier General Maharazu Ismaila Tsiga described the killing of the corps members, who participated in the 2011 general elections as the ‘worst moment’ in his life which he, would live to remember. According to Tsiga, “The cold-blooded murder of some corps members during the 2011 election was the worst moment of my career. It is one moment I will never forget in a hurry, one in which promising youths giving selfless service were innocently attacked and murdered.”
As another election year beckons, Daily Trust sought the views of a cross section of corps members on whether they would be willing to participate as ad-hoc staff for the Independent National Electoral Commission if the need arises. Expectedly, this has caused unnecessary anxiety among corps members.
A female graduate of the University of Lagos Bisi Thomas said though it is meant to be a patriotic service, the security and welfare of volunteers should be paramount.
According to her, “the government should not fold its arm and watch innocent citizens sent to their untimely graves by unscrupulous elements while serving their fatherland. Of what gain is it when a child is killed in national service when the parents must have spent so much training him or her from primary school to the university,” she queried.
To Chukwuma Obiora, another corps member, the 2011 electoral violence was pathetic and uncalled for. “The essence of youth service is to bring national unity, our services as INEC electoral officers were supposed to be complimenting a national service. But the objective of the exercise has been defeated, instead of unity we see hatred, instead of love, we see separation”, he said.
Interestingly, a coalition of election observers who monitored the 2011 April elections recently expressed doubts over the use of Corps members as presiding officers by INEC during the 2015 general elections.
The Coordinator of the Coalition of National Election Observers (CNEO) that monitored the presidential elections in the South- South and South-East zones of the country, Dr. Ifedi Okwenna, who spoke at a press conference in Abuja said with the killing of NYSC members in some northern parts of the country in 2011, he doubts if any corps member would agree to participate in the 2015 election.
But INEC, while reacting to the concerns expressed in several quarters has assured corps members and indeed the entire nation of maximum security of lives and properties during the forthcoming 2015 general elections.
Mr Kayode Idowu the spokesman of the INEC boss Professor Attahiru Jega while speaking exclusively to Daily Trust said the security situation has improved since 2011.
“The security challenge that you referred to happened post-election of 2011. Like the chairman of the Commission has often said, lessons have been learnt. A recommendation by the Interagency Consultative Committee on Electoral Security (ICCES) is that security would be provided for the youth corps members even at their lodges, and not only at INEC centres.”
Kayode Idowu said further that ICCES would look at the peculiarity of every election situation to design security operational orders. “If there are peculiar apprehensions about the 2015 elections, ICCES is already factoring that into its security plans and they would make security provisions based on that. As such, I am sure that with what is in place, INEC working with the security agencies through the platform of ICCES, the youth corps members who would offer this patriotic service are secured ” he said.
Whether this promise by INEC to the corps members who will wish to offer their service as ad-hoc staff for the 2015 elections will be taken to heart, is only but a matter of time.