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Yetunde Adekoje’s mother last
Thursday called her with a warning that she should return home when the
election starts. The woman told her daughter, a member of the National
Youth Service Corps serving in Borno State, that she just heard on the
radio that INEC would rely on the corps for the conduct of the election.

Mrs Adekoje, a divorcee selling
kerosene at Sango market, Ibadan, said no parent who witnessed what
happened during the 2007 elections in Ibadan would allow their child to
be exposed to such.

“How much money would they give
them that will be equal to their lives? Since her father abandoned me,
I sponsored her through schools with my little proceeds from the
kerosene business,” she said in Yoruba. “I know how I slept on empty
stomach to make sure I paid her school fees. So, they should please
help me, let me eat the fruits of my labour.” Attahiru Jega, the
Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), last
week met with the Director-General of the NYSC, Maharazu Tsiga during
which he announced a partnership with NYSC in conduct of compiling a
new voters register and conduct of next year’s election.

He said Nigerians desired free,
fair and credible elections. “But you know that for us to succeed, we
need credible partners and there is no doubt that the NYSC has been a
credible partner to INEC,” he said. “I, therefore, use this opportunity
to inform you of our desire to recruit all our ad-hoc staff for the
purpose of the voters’ registration exercise as well as the 2011
elections from the NYSC.” Mr Tsiga appealled to INEC to provide
security operatives for corps members engaged in electoral activities.
He also identified non-payment of corps members’ honorarium and
conveying corps members to their duty posts, as part of challenges over
the years.

Security of corps members

“Among all the experiences we have
had, the one that comes up most and is so important to us and parents,
is the security of corps members,” Mr Tsiga said. “It is our wish that
we will broaden frontiers of co-operation by exploring possibilities,
including training of corps members on election duties during our
orientation course.” Some groups also warned the Independent National
Electoral Commission not to base its plan on total reliance on members
of the National Youth Service Corps, alleging that some of them already
have political inclinations from their days in the universities.

Femi Oluokun, the coordinator of
Elect Force Mission, a religious group that has mobilized Nigerian
youths for humanitarian and Christian religious services since 2007,
said: “thinking that they are the last hope amounts to digging a
dangerous pit. Some of them can do anything for money.” He however said
the NYSC authority can also help to coordinate the corps members better
rather than handing them completely to the community where they could
be exposed to manipulation.

“We have heard of corpers being
killed in many parts of the country, especially when they are opened to
ethnic or religious differences of their environment, so it will take a
serious work by the police to guarantee their safety. Also, some of
them do not understand the languages of the people they are working
with. I am afraid, using them as ad-hoc staff will open them to
intimidation,” he said.

During last year’s Ekiti State
re-run election, one of our correspondents observed a female corps
member burst into tears when sporadic gunshots rent the air during the
voting process. Reports from other polling stations during the same
election had it that two male corps members were manhandled by
suspected thugs. Till date, the police has not brought anybody to
justice for the attack.

Politicised students

The Human Rights Watch Report of
the 2007 election, “Nigeria-Criminal Politics-Violence, “Godfathers”
and Corruption in Nigeria,’ also stated how politicians use students,
mostly members of student gangs, to perpetrates evil acts during
elections and campaigns.

The group says it interviewed more
than 20 current and former members of such gangs and ordinary criminal
gangs not associated with cult organizations that had been recruited by
politicians, either during the 2003 elections or in the run-up to the
2007 polls in Oyo, Anambra and Rivers States.

“Many spoke candidly about being
paid to target the political opponents of their sponsors or to attack
and intimidate ordinary voters,” the report states.

Buhari Abiodun, a lecturer at the
Federal Polytechnic, Ede, Osun State, said the impact of politics on
the campuses is even more tense than what happens outside the campuses.

“In the school here, we have
witnessed students raping colleagues in the name of taking vengeance
after losing an election,” he said.

“We have heard of students burning
the properties of political aspirants because of their opposition to
his style of campaign. So, how do I now blame parents that are saying
their children should not be part of the INEC job. Life is more sacred
than sacrificing it for an election that might end up not making any
meaning to them.” Recently, the leadership of the National Association
of Nigerian Students (NANS) said it would use its huge population to
return Goodluck Jonathan to power in 2011. Jude Imagwe, president of
the association, recently led the inauguration of campus clubs in
support of Jonathan’s candidacy for the election.

“We have already spotted our
candidate; efforts are on to convince him to step out in a grand style
and grab our collective mandate. We must choose a man that is a youth
in heart, by action and who is prepared to offer 26 per cent budget
allocation to the education sector,” he said.

What do you think you have to offer in politics?

I will bring
honesty and good character to politics. People of good credibility
offer themselves to serve the people of Lagos State.

Lagos residents believe Fashola has performed well in Lagos, what chances do you have against him in the 2011 elections?

This question is
subjective; it depends on the benchmark of performance. If we all agree
that Lagos is the city of excellence, we will have to push the
benchmark up. If the benchmark is not pushed up we will have to come to
conclusion that you have just performed below average, compared to past
governors like Tinubu. The benchmark is to compare Lagos to beautiful
cities like Singapore, Dubai, which with the same resources perform
better. Look at the infrastructures; dilapidated, education system has
falling most of the classrooms has collapsed, state government lacks
formal economic policy.

Having been outside
the country for a long time. Do you think you are in touch with the
masses in the state? Do you know their needs?

The fact that I am
based abroad does not mean I do not come in contact with the people. I
come home regularly, my experience with people that reside in Nigeria
is not better off. I have been to Ejigbo, Oshodi and so any other
places. Most of these people reside in GRA, and do not bother about
people that live in these areas.

What do you want to change in the state if you are elected?

You have given me
the opportunity to access the 12 years continuous governance of AC
government. The government has been entrusted with people’s mandate has
shown with it. If we take a look at the quality of Infrastructure of
schools is it better? If am given the opportunity to get the PDP ticket
to run for the governorship election, I will change the trend of Ac
government that is bringing us down and liberate of Lagos from slavery.
I will bring honesty to government and bring Lagos State to shape. But
mind you we need to access the 12 years of the AC government.

You attempted in
2007 to pick the party’s ticket but was unsuccessful, what chances do
you think you stand now to emerge as PDP’s candidate?

I think PDP Lagos
as human beings should have learnt from the mistakes we made during the
last election, and be ready to correct it. Those mistakes were obvious;
we are also working towards solving the problems and create an
atmosphere so that we can have the opportunity to govern the state.

What should Lagosians except from you if you are elected?

They should be
excepting a listening governor, a man with track record, a man who is
celebrated abroad as one of great minds of our time. They should be
proud to have me as their brother, as a governor and expect a better
Lagos State.

Parents
and drivers who flout child safety while driving will soon be arrested
by officers of the Federal Road Safety Corps (FRSC).

The sector
commander of the Lagos State Command of the Corps, Jonas Agwu during a
visit to NEXT on Wednesday said that though the command has launched
several awareness programmes to teach many Lagos motorists on the
proper safety procedures that apply when there is a child in a vehicle,
it has observed that a large percentage of parents and motorists still
carry children in the front seat, on their laps while driving and
without recommended car carriers.

Mr. Jonas announced that from Monday, August 23, such drivers and parents will be arrested.

“By next week
Monday we will arrest any motorist in Lagos that we see carrying a
child under the age of 12 in the front seat, on the lap.” He said.

He stated that the
reason the Command has decided to move to enforcement was because of
the large number of drivers who flout Child safety rules.

“With the Child
Passenger Safety campaign, the law provides that every occupant of the
vehicle should be strapped with a seat belt and we discovered that the
safety priorities of Lagos residents are not there. What we see on the
road is terrible. A pathetic case was on Sunday, a man who was just
leaving church and had his little daughter between his legs and he was
driving as if that kid were a co-pilot driving the vehicle.” He said,

“That is worse that
when the mother in the passenger seat laps the child. And we noticed
that this has become a vogue in Lagos, motorist don’t care for the
safety of the baby. The issue of car seats and booster seats seem
foreign to most Lagos drivers.” He added that despite several awareness
campaigns the occurrence was still high.

“We have done a lot
of talking and talking, done road shows, we’ve been to churches and
mosques but now it is obvious that awareness does not really stick to
Lagosians until when you take action. Call it ‘Operation Buckle Up’
directed towards the safety of the child passenger. Any motorist we see
private, commercial, government carrying a baby under twelve, or the
father turns the baby into an air bag. We will impound that vehicle. We
will not allow these kids to be exposed to danger by their parents. And
after the arrest we will impound the vehicles too. When we remain tight
with that enforcement, as school resume, most parents will complain but
we will impound such vehicles. That’s the new stand we want to take
concerning the safety of child passengers in Lagos. Most parents get
very rude telling you “Is it your baby?” By Monday we are not talking
awareness, we are biting.” He said.

Last Sunday tragedy

The sector
commander said it was regrettable, the accident that took place last
week Sunday which claimed 16 lives at Berger. Rather than trading
blame, traffic, safety and road management agencies should work in
synergy to forestall such tragedy again in Lagos.

“Our heart bleeds
at what happened on Sunday because our job is to prevent such accidents
but it’s a not a one man thing, it is difficult if you are saying
something and the public is not listening. When it happened on Sunday
our men could not could not do their jobs because motorists were too
aggrieved. My men got their in good time but the reaction of other
aggrieved motorists affected the response time. Once there is a crash
our first concern is not who caused it, but that can we save one life,
can we clear this hazard so that no other one happens.” Said Mr. Agwu.

The Deputy Corps Commander Sector and head of operation, H.U. Omeje
urged motorists in the State to take the issue of road safety serious,
obey traffic codes and avoid over speeding.

China
has become the second largest economy in the world, but not without
help from Nigeria which ironically occupies the 44th position in world
economy rankings. Having spent a total of N208 billion in the first
quarter of the year to import commodities from China, Nigeria is
currently running a very imbalanced trade relation with China and other
countries, a situation which experts find disconcerting.

“Such an imbalance
implies that Nigeria is not doing enough in the agro-industry and other
productive fields to develop a balanced trade with China. It is
dangerous to continue to exchange our natural resources for industrial
consumer goods, some of inferior quality,” Raufu Mustapha, an expert on
Nigerian foreign policy and a lecturer at the University of Oxford,
said.

China occupies the
number two position, US being the first, on Nigeria’s imports list.
Between January and March 2010, Nigeria imported about 2000 commodities
from China. In the same period, our country exported about 70 products
to China, earning N42 billion, more than half of which came from the
sale of petroleum products.

Other experts blame this trade imbalance on policy makers.

“Some of the
failure to ensure more mutually beneficial trade relations must be
attributed to the failure of Nigerian policy makers to build upon more
localised Nigerian-Chinese business networks, which in turn could
encourage growth in domestic industry and export production,” said
Sharath Srinivasan, who teaches African Politics at the University of
Cambridge.

Nigerian
government officials take a different stance. Josephine Tapgun, the
Minister of State for Commerce and Industry absolves the government of
Nigeria of any blame on this; but rather blames the citizenry, whom she
says prefer to buy foreign goods than patronize Nigerian manufacturers.

“Most of our
products are of high quality, but Nigerians would rather buy
sub-standard goods. If the Chinese do not find the market in Nigeria,
they wont be bringing in their products,” she said.

Ms Tapgun insists
that the bilateral trade agreement between the two countries does not
permit Nigeria to restrict the number of goods brought into the country
from China.

“There are no
restrictions. How do you force restrictions when we have a global
market? The issue is that Nigerians should patronise our own products.
It is a matter of national interests,” Ms Tapgun said in Abuja over the
weekend.

Curbing imbalance

A cursory look at
Nigeria’s imports from China shows that the goods are mostly finished
products while the exports are largely raw materials. For example,
Nigeria exported cotton seeds worth about N160 million, but spent
almost three times that to import finished products, spending as much
as N153 million on sewing thread.

In three months,
Nigeria spent N131 million on toothbrushes; N38 million on buttons; N54
million on pencils and crayons; and N33 million on plastic combs.

The minister of
state for Commerce and Industry says that Nigerians may be patronising
the Chinese market more than the Nigerian market because Nigerian goods
are not properly packaged.

“There are a lot of problems with our packaging, so much so that our goods are not acceptable to foreigners,” Ms Tapgun.

Experts believe
that the first step to causing a shift in the trade imbalance is to
address the current trade policies affecting the production and
exportation of Nigerian products, while looking to taking advantage of
the existing trade relations between China and Nigeria, and ultimately
Africa.

Mr Mustapha said
that while the trade imbalance is worrisome, the Nigeria-China trade
relations could be used to Nigeria’s advantage or a more mutually
beneficial relationship.

“China gives us an
opportunity to develop our country the way the west has not offered.
The new opening with China should be used to leverage transformation in
some productive and infrastructure sectors of our economy. If this is
done systematically, it should gradually bring down the trade
imbalance. We should place emphasis on the terms of trade. For
instance, insist on value for money. If we give them oil, we should ask
for things like a fast train from Lagos to Kano in return,” Mr Mustapha
said.

Meanwhile, the
minister of state says that the federal government is currently working
to review trade tariffs on imported goods, as a means to encourage the
patronage of locally produced goods.

“The government is
trying to review the tariffs on all imported goods, all with the aim of
discouraging the importation of goods and also to encourage local
manufacturers,” Ms Tapgun said.

The commercial attache of the Chinese embassy in Nigeria declined to comment on this article.

Part of what Nigeria bought from China in past three months:

Toothbrushes – N131 million

Buttons – N38 million

Pencils and crayons – N54 million

Plastic combs – N33 million

Resolution of zoning controversy

The distribution of positions in
the country is to ensure fairness and equitable distribution. It is to
ensure that people from every part of the country have a sense of
belonging, so that people are not unnecessarily marginalized. So it is
something that is there.

I am sure the kind of zoning you
are talking about is as it relates to the next presidential election. I
believe people are just overheating the polity by their continuous
debate over the matter and that is the position of the party on the
matter too. The other parties are not discussing it. They pick their
candidates from wherever they feel they have the best candidates to
represent them. So why are people trying to tie the hands of PDP in
terms of what it should do?

The chairman of the party has spoken and his words are the words of the party.

Anybody who is saying something
outside that is just trying to heat up the polity. It is clear that the
PDP rules have nothing against President Jonathan from running. By the
same token, the PDP constitution allows anybody from any part of the
country to run. So, why are people trying to restrict Nigerians to a
particular zone? The chairman has revealed that we have an arrangement
at the beginning in 1998/1999 and after that people have been running
for our presidential tickets from different parts of the country. We
are tired of all these debates .

PDP’s electoral challenges in Ondo State

A number of my people in the state
have been downcast since the last by-election in the riverine area of
the state. They feel cheated. They feel like they have been raped and
robbed. However, I have been talking to most of our leaders in the
state to see happened as a blessing. Eyes marvels at the person who
sees in every cloud some silver lining. I have said that sweet are the
uses of adversity. We lost there and our reaction is to see it as a
challenge, to see it as a process from which we should learn lessons
and ensure that those areas where doors were not properly locked and we
allowed thieves to come, we will now put double padlocks. We are going
to have series of meetings and re-strategize to guard against the
recurrence of things like this. If you are familiar with what has
happened over the last one year, in terms of history of rural elections
in the state, you’ll find out that the Labour Party went massively with
thugs and government machineries and with huge sums of money, bribing
people left and right and they totally over-ran the system there I
don’t remember the exact results there but, according to the official
results, PDP did not get up to 20 percent in that constituency. This,
of course, was a sham. We knew it was not right. By the time we went
for the House of Representatives elections in Akoko South- west and
Akoko South -east, we fared a little better and it was a tough fight.
The result was even still close, it was about 60 per cent to 40 per
cent.

We took that experience to Ilaje
in this last election. Again, we won squarely except for these seven or
eight units where they were able to sneak in. Of course, the result
came out very close again. So we are taking this as a process of
learning. We will learn as much as possible from whatever lapses there
were in this last election, so that we can be very strong in the
elections early next year.

His senatorial ambitions

I have said it to people several
times that, since February 2009 when we had this judgement, I have made
up mind that I was going to just be the leader of the party –
supporting the party and members to get back to power in Ondo State. I
have made up my mind that I have had enough of it and I will just go
back home and help and that is still the position. The truth of the
matter is that people have been calling me on phone and even physically
to try to encourage me to run. If I have the intention to contest to go
the senate, it is also too late right now because the primaries are in
about one month. I ought to be on the street campaigning now while my
posters ought to have been everywhere.

Nothing like that has happened.

Crisis within the state chapter of the PDP

There is no problem in the party
as such. The purported rift between Alasoadura and myself is not true.
What I have said is that there is a subsisting court order that brought
Mimiko into office. The gubernatorial election in Ondo State is in 2013
and it is rather too early to put gubernatorial ambitions on the front
burner now because it will be too divisive. There are about seven,
eight people who want to be governor. The party would be temporarily
divided along those lines, but don’t want to take such divisions to the
next set of elections. It is different from what will happen in Oyo
State or Osun State where may people want to be governors and they will
have primaries in the next three months and one person will emerge. In
our own case, we don’t have any primaries and if we allow the divisions
to prevail, then we will go into next year’s elections divided into
eight places and that will not augur well for us . So I have always
preached that people should temper down their ambitions so that we can
go into these elections with common purpose and strength. This has not
gone down well with some people and it has caused some minor friction
which is being overblown in some quarters.

On electoral reforms

Reforms are desirable and they
will always be desirable. We must not run away from the fact that our
democracy is still young, compared to other democracies like that of
the USA. We will continue to reform. My prayer is that in 2011, the
elections will be better than those in the past. Right now, the issue
of settling litigations before the swearing in of election winners are
very much desirable. Six months to the next elections, a number of
governorship cases are still in court. It is ridiculous and it should
embarrass any set of people.

New voters register

People have expressed misgivings
about the costs put forward by INEC. You cannot put a cost to things
that will benefit the people of the state. However, the exercise must
be technologically correct and efficient. We need electronic voting
machines in all the over 17,000 polling units in the country and
commensurate effective security apparatus must be deployed to prevent
stealing and vandalisation of the machines.

It really is
difficult sometimes when we pay attention to issues that would have
been insignificant. This is not because they are not important, but
because we should have been so used to doing them that the entire world
would be saying “it is their culture” or “that is how they behave”.

Unfortunately, what
the world refers to as our culture is heart rendering. This includes:
corruption, 419 and Italian prostitution, amongst other vices. I have
three sisters and I remember my mother telling them, “Please, close
your legs; sit like a woman” or “If you don’t want to come to the
kitchen, your husband will get satisfaction in another woman’s
kitchen”, “A dirty woman must definitely drive her husband out of the
house” and so on.

This is our culture
and they form part of what I looked out for in my wife, guided by these
noble lines from the Bible: “a wife of noble character who can find,
she is worth more than rubies.” So I can confidently say it is the
culture of women the world over. It is the way God created women, to be
in charge of the home, to be virtuous women, wives and mothers.

Unfortunately, a
lot of our girls these days do not mirror the above noble qualities and
a friend of mine, who is yet to be married, said, “Men, there are no
wives around anymore, only girlfriends” while trying to explain away
his unmarried state. Another jokingly said, “Senator Yerima could not
find virgins in Nigeria anymore, that is why he went to Egypt”.

Well, I had to
quickly point to him that, in spite of the gloomy picture, there are
still women of noble character around. But I must confess, they may go
into extinction if we do not make deliberate efforts to retrace our
steps; we are not Americans.

A lot of women and
to my amazement, some men inclusive, are “taking Panadol for another
man’s headache” with this women liberation and girl power programmes.
Liberate the women from where or whom?

For Christ’s sake,
a woman is a woman and a man is a man. You cannot undo what God has
done. Some women have neglected their duties, pursued careers, selling
themselves in the process to different men and now end up buying one
lazy, shameless boy and really wed and weld him down. The boy is not
able to play the role of the man because he is not the bread winner. He
now, in turn, engages in extra-marital activities. He now satisfies
himself with other young girls outside and the vicious circle continues
– he does not stay at home, to avoid being hen-pecked; the wife too is
busy trying to maintain her status. With house helps, DSTV, Internet
and wild friends, our children are becoming American-Nigerians, a
confused race, lacking proper home training.

One woman, however,
provided a counterpoint recently, while I was trying to ginger her to
donate during a launching programme after a man had donated. I reminded
the audience that “what a man can do, a woman can do better.” But when
she took the microphone, she said she was taught that “what a man can
do, a woman should not bother”. I treat my wife like a queen because
she treats me as a king and we are teaching our children exactly these
same attributes. Girls should be trained to be wives and mothers, while
the boys should be disciplined into responsible fathers.

I remember a lecturer discussing a book where one author insisted
that if you buy a ball for your male child, buy a ball for the female
too and that if you asked the girls to join their mothers in the
kitchen, do the same to the boys. The teacher ended her lecture that
day with these very wise saying to the ladies in the class: “if you
want to pass this course, give me back exactly what you have in this
book. But if you want to maintain, retain and sustain your homes,
please do not follow these oyibo people.”