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The change had been
swift. From an early apprehension that peaked following the
postponement of the National Assembly polls and its subsequent acclaim
as one of Africa’s best in years, according to foreign observers, the
2011 elections have gained rapidly rising reputation in just weeks.

Now, after two
polls that earned it praise, the exercise, in its final lap, faces the
prospect of losing the bulk of its workforce – the youth corps members
– who have threatened to boycott the governorship and state assembly
elections scheduled for Tuesday following last week’s riots in which
many of them were targeted in some northern states.

For most of last
week, the National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) and the Independent
National Electoral Commission (INEC) played down the possibility of the
withdrawal, and officials sought to de-emphasize its impact on the
local elections.

“The chairman has
said the commission is doing all it can to make sure, if there are
shortfall in manpower, they will be made up for,” said Kayode Idowu, a
spokesperson of the commission on Friday, a day after a televised press
conference where the chairman, Attahiru Jega, displayed similar
optimism.

The electoral body
maintained that besides Kaduna and Bauchi states, where elections have
been moved by two days for security concerns, it does not expect the
exercise to be marred by shortage of personnel in the other states
where there had been violence.

Earlier on
Thursday, Mr Jega himself, said the commission had trained more hands
than needed for the elections and would deploy the extra ad hoc staff
to fill in at locations without sufficient electoral officials. He said
while the commission would be hopeful about the participation of corps
members in the elections for the remaining states on Tuesday,
provisions were however made for alternative personnel.

“Our hope is that
many of them (corps members) will recognize what these people want to
achieve. They want to scuttle the effort that we have made in the past
elections,” he said in condemnation of the violence that followed the
outcome of the presidential election, dismissing reports that members
of the corps had decided to withdraw their services as electoral
officers.

NYSC officials too
have denied corps members were pulling out and said the situation would
be clearer after a tour of the affected states by the director general,
Mahara Tsiga.

As at Friday
evening, the deputy director, Public Affairs, Chinwe Ojukwu, told NEXT
by phone that a position was being expected from Mr Tsiga.

Beneath the public
façade however, officials speaking confidentially, say the speculated
boycott of the exercise by the corps members has spawned mounting
concerns within the leadership of the INEC and the NYSC.

“With what is going
on, we all hope things will be fine, but naturally they may not be the
same again as with the other elections,” a staff of the electoral body
said.

A Kaduna-based
group, the Civil Rights Congress (CRC), also on Friday, said the total
number of deaths has surpassed 200 while the wounded passed 500.

“In Kaduna alone, we have more than 20 deaths,” Shehu Sani, executive director of the group told NEXT by phone.

No specific figures
could be obtained of the actual number of corps members killed or
injured in the crisis, as authorities appear keen on keeping public
passion within control. The NYSC spokesperson said only Mr Tsiga, who
could not be reached Friday, can give the actual numbers, if at all
there was any. Rights groups such as CRC, said it is challenging to
ascertain which victim was a corps member and which was not.

Earlier reports say
four died in Bauchi State, which is one of the worst-hit states. In
Kano State, although deaths of corps members could not be confirmed,
serving members have narrated at least two incidents where rioters
attacked their lodges before they were rescued by armed soldiers.

Officials say there
are worries the impact of the attacks may transcend the northern region
where it originated and may be felt elsewhere, as anxious parents
dissuade their wards from taking a role in the remaining elections.

“Many people have
travelled and don’t plan to come back for the election,” said Nty Ben,
a serving member in Osun State. The state is reportedly calm, yet some
corps members are apprehensive about the final elections expected to be
more passionate and have left on the orders of their parents.

Much-praised youth

Accused of aiding
election rigging by their attackers, and coming after the Suleja
bombing the killed at least 10 of their colleagues, the recent violence
has been particularly hard on the youth corps members who have been
lavishly praised by foreign election observers.

After the
presidential election, the European Union said as electoral officers,
the corps members performed their duties with “courage and to the best
of their capacity.” The Commonwealth said they showed “dedication and
courage that helped deliver a transparent process, often in difficult
conditions. They are a source of pride and hope for Nigeria,” the group
said.

The National
Democratic Institute applauded the corps members for their “dedication
and neutrality” while the International Republican Institute commended
them for their “dedication and hard work.”

Despite the
assurances that all is well, nothing illustrates the electoral body’s
frustration with the development as Mr Jega’s remark that the
commission will understand if the horror-stricken corps members stay
off the exercise.

“Obviously people in that kind of situation should be afraid,” he
said. “If some of them are scared enough to stay away, we will
understand. If they don’t come out, we will understand.” Mr Jega said
while INEC feels their pains and sympathizes with the families
affected; it will “understand should they choose not to participate
again.”

Femi Gbajabiamila is the current minority leader of the House of
Representatives. With the recent increase in the number of minority
parties in the house, Mr Gbajabiamila hopes for more qualitative
legislation.

Do you see yourself coming back as the minority leader?

In politics, you
don’t plan too far ahead because a lot of things can happen but all
things being equal, I should be coming back as the leader of my party
and invariably, the leader of other minority parties as well.

What are those things you would have change if the opposition had more numbers?

Rightly, PDP
(People’s Democratic Party) was like a super majority in the House,
with more than 260 members. So, it was difficult getting anything done.
There is a cliché in the House that, “You can have your say but we will
have our way.” I would love to see a situation where people will be
true to the oath they swore, to do the bidding of Nigerians and not the
wish of a party. With the new trend, I hope that minority parties will
unite because our biggest problem has been lack of cohesion. But if we
can come under one strong umbrella with one voice as opposition, we
will get a lot more done, especially in the area of budgeting because
the majority party, the PDP, must talk to us now.

How will the increase in the rank of the opposition affect the engagement among legislators?

First, the cliché
of ‘You can have your say but we will have our way’ will be a thing of
the past. Nothing will be rammed down our throats anymore and there
will be a lot more lobbying and confrontation. This eventually will
affect the quality of government’s policies and laws. The interest of a
particular party will no longer be supreme; there will be more robust
debate. It will be a House of many colours. Before, there was no rule
of engagement because our number is negligible and they can afford to
ride roughshod over us. It’s all PDP affair. But that will surely
change now. However, for that to change, the opposition must marry its
numbers with unity. If we still have more than one opposition, rather
than one opposition, the swell in number will not make any difference

But some legislators are new in the business; won’t their inexperience affect your work?

We all know that
being a good legislator takes years of training and experience. It is a
serious business. In advanced democracies, you see people who have been
legislators for more than twenty years. Legislation involves a lot of
intrigues and, unfortunately, we are going to suffer for that lack of
experience. However, that case is not peculiar to the opposition alone;
the PDP also has many new comers, who are equally inexperienced. So, it
means those of us with relatively longer experience have a big task of
carrying others along.

If you come
back as the minority leader, do you think you have the mien to unify
Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN) and Congress for Progressive Change
(CPC) legislators, now that the alliance talk has broken down?

First, the alliance
talk has not broken down. It may be a post-election alliance. But we
have been at this effort of having a united opposition and our seed is
beginning to grow. What we have done is to reshuffle the structure of
the opposition in a way that the ACN, which has the highest number of
the opposition members, did not take all the positions. Before, ANPP
(All Nigerian Peoples Party), which was the leading opposition party,
took three of the positions and gave one to ACN. I made sure that each
party is represented. This has paid off in that we now have better
understanding among ourselves and I hope we can continue the trend.

What, exactly, will be the agenda of the opposition members in the House?

I am going to be
pushing for issues that will ensure the growth of our democracy. The
first is the independence of the legislative arm of the government. We
know that gone are the days of ‘rubber stamping’ whatever comes from
the executive arm of government. I will be pushing vigorously for true
federalism where we will have a weaker centre and stronger states. We
have many legislators who do not understand that they do not represent
the federal government. We work at the federal level but we actually
represent our respective states. So, states should actually be
stronger. This will call for further constitutional amendments,
especially the exclusive legislative list. We should not have more than
10 items, at most, on that list. But we have 53 items. Many of our
problems will disappear if we substitute this unitary system of
government for true federalism. Federal government has no business
setting minimum wage for states, for example.

Recently, a
bill to increase VAT rate and reduce that of personal income tax was
mooted. Lagos stands to be the worst victim because it relies heavily
on PAYE, while the VAT it generates goes to the federal government.
What are your thoughts on this?

That is another
example of the many lapses that exist in our constitution. States
should be the one to raise taxes. But this issue is one of the issues
we will definitely take up. The most important thing is for members of
the House to hold the interest of their states foremost. That is
paramount. About minimum wage, where will the states get money to pay
if the federal government is collecting all the taxes? I think this
issue may end up being resolved by the judiciary.

The quality of
support staff for federal legislators has been reportedly poor. It is
said that fund meant to hiring quality staff end up in the pockets of
legislators.

Do you see this as a big issue that will eventually affect the quality of legislation the country enjoys?

Money meant for
legislative staff does not end up in legislators’ pocket. It is paid
directly to the staff by the National Assembly Service Commission. I
don’t pay a single member of my staff. But let me agree with you that
the quality of legislative staff needs to be seriously considered. In
the US, after which we modelled our democracy, if you are not from an
Ivy League university, your chances of working for a legislator are
very slim. So they have the best hands and they therefore get the best
results. In Nigeria, most of us end up employing people who have run
our campaigns for us and who do not even have an idea of legislative
business. So, there has to be a legislation that will standardise the
level and capacity of legislative staff. I don’t know why a legislator
cannot employ a lawyer or an accountant who will be well paid.

Will you be pushing for such a legislation?

Yes. It has to be
done either by legislation or regulation for us to have better output.
And I think there is a standard defined under the civil service rule.
May be an enforcement of that standard is what we need.

The Speaker, Dimeji Bankole, is not coming back to the House. What is your relationship with him?

He is a personal
friend and we will remain friends. He is a good man. He has been
magnanimous in defeat. And I think Nigerians appreciate that. He is
young and I am sure he will continue to be relevant to Nigeria’s
development.

What are you going to miss about him?

I have so many
colleagues that are not coming back, both from ACN and other parties. I
know I’m going to miss them but what exactly I will miss is what I
haven’t really thought about.

What is your assessment of the national assembly election?

It went well but I
won’t be one of those who will start rejoicing that it is perfect.
First, the standard has been set so low that any little improvement,
which is what we have now, becomes so big. But compared with what
obtains in advanced democracies, we are not yet there. A lot more has
to be done.

Opposition
parties in Lagos have alleged several irregularities said to be
perpetrated by the ACN. Will you say ACN also benefitted from our
imperfect electoral conduct?

It is a cultural
thing for Nigerians to cry foul where there is none. If you lose, you
are rigged out. If you allege, then bring the evidence. Camera phones
were allowed to monitor the election. I will be glad if they can
provide evidence.

There is a
new fear that some people who won election on ACN’s platform will
defect to PDP. Is there a structure or strategy to prevent that?

At the end of the
day, this is something that may resort to lawsuits. The fear is there.
We tried to prevent that during the last constitutional amendment by
proposing that cross-carpeting be banned outrightly. But the PDP argued
otherwise. They said everyone has freedom of association, which I don’t
think is an absolute freedom. But I think it is high time the people
woke up and began to use the power of recall, which they have under the
constitution.

What is
your reaction to the belief that Governor Fashola’s sterling
performance is a boost to the chances of other ACN contestants in Lagos?

Without taking away
anything from Fashola, who has done very well, I must say that there
were ACN elective office holders in Lagos before Fashola came on board.
It is not like another party was holding sway before Fashola came.

But the local councils have not received the same admiration that Fashola has got.

I have to agree
with you that the local governments’ structure is complex and
inefficient but that is not peculiar to Lagos alone. It may be a
constitutional issue or lack of fund, I don’t know. I think a local
government conference needs to be called so can they analyse their
problems and proffer solutions. But local governments must be up and
doing because they made my campaign very difficult. People do not know
the job of a legislator yet, so when I go for campaign, people complain
about their roads, gutters, etc. Those are not my job but how do I
explain that to them? So I have to accept the responsibility.

The issue of legislators’ allowances will not go away. Do you think it is deserving or should it be reduced?

First, let me say
again that there is no such thing as constituency allowance. And
journalists should know if they do their work. There was a day the
finance minister came to the floor of the House and one of my
colleagues asked the minister to clarify the issue of constituency
allowance in the presence of the media. The minister said he has heard
about it but that there is actually no such thing. I told my colleagues
that I was ready to bet my last kobo that no newspaper would carry such
vital information. The next day, I bought about 10 newspapers and none
carried it. Our allowances have been compared with those of legislators
in other climes. But I always say that I would rather be an American
legislator and keep all of my money than a Nigerian legislator who ends
up spending most of his earnings on constituents. American legislators
do not do poverty eradication programme. They do not sink boreholes,
construct roads, pay school fees, buy motorcycles or sewing machines.
Nigerian legislators do all of these. So, there is no basis for
comparison. Everybody in your constituency as a Nigerian legislator
comes to you for one problem or the other and you have to meet their
needs. On the other hand, everybody in the executive government also
has allowances, which is the running cost of their offices. We do not
regard such allowance as part of their take home pay but we do that for
legislators. So, when the CBN (Central Bank of Nigeria) governor said
the national assembly spends 25 percent of national budget, which is
totally wrong, we failed to ask where the remaining 75 percent goes. If
we truly want to stop the economy from bleeding, we have to look at all
arms of government and not single out the legislature.

But doesn’t the legislature have the oversight function of stopping the bleeding?

Well, we know where
the 75 percent is going but journalists will not look at issues
holistically. It is no secret. How do you oversee the 75 percent when
the 25 percent they are selling to you is even wrong? CBN’s budget,
which is just an agency out of so many agencies of the executive
government, is even more than the budget of the national assembly,
which is an arm of the government, by 100 percent. How much is the
allowance of the CBN governor? How much is his travel and hotel
allowance? We should look into all that.

But don’t you think the national assembly could have prevented this attack if it had been proactive in its oversight function?

We have saved so
much money for the country that is not even reported, money that could
have ended up in pockets of some political appointees of government.
So, if the motivation is to help the country rather than vilify a set
of people, we should look at everything holistically. You would be
shocked to know where the economy bleeds most.

What influence does Bola Tinubu have on you?

He is somebody I
have learnt a lot from and I continue to learn from the great man.
Fashola, who we all acclaim, has also learnt a lot from Tinubu. Don’t
forget he was Tinubu’s chief of staff.

People say that godfathers make overbearing demands.

I haven’t had that experience. A couple of times, he (Tinubu) has
made his position known about issues being discussed on the floor (of
the House). But, honestly, he doesn’t ram it down your neck. He just
states his own opinion. We look at issues and debate. Frankly, nine
times out of 10, he has a more compelling argument. He is a very
intelligent man. He was a legislator and a governor, so he is more
experienced and sees things from a better angle.

As the rampaging
youth pursued the woman into the street, men dragged their wives and
children inside and locked their doors. The rioters finally caught up
with the screaming woman and began to beat her; they tore up her
clothes and pushed her to the ground. Then they raised her up again and
were dragging her off when a slightly built man in caftan and skull cap
approached, shouting at them to stop, his arms flailing. Men looked out
from inside their rooms in amazement.

“They said later
that they thought I was out of my mind, approaching these boys, all
drugged on something, carrying petrol and burning down buildings,” said
Adamu Bologi.

Mr. Bologi himself
had not thought of the consequences of his action. He dragged the woman
away from the boys and took her to a nearby mosque, hiding her by a
side entrance through which the Ladan usually enters. Of course, he
made sure she took off her shoes first.

When he came out,
he saw another harassed woman running with two children, stumbling
along the road. Her husband is the pastor of a church, the Conqueror’s
House, around the same area where the Christian Corpers Lodge and a
church were burnt last Monday in Minna.

Mr Bologi looked around him. There was no one else apart from the rioters in the street.

“It was suddenly
like midnight,” he said. “The whole place was so quiet, not even a
child could be heard, although it was just about 2pm. The world seemed
empty and these boys were in charge.”

He saw smoke from a
burning church behind the crying woman on the opposite street; he saw
some other miscreants approach; and he saw that soon she would run into
them. Mr Bologi ran towards her and took one of the children. He tried
to lead her to his house, but she was inconsolable.

“She kept screaming
about her husband, saying, ‘They are too many. They are beating him,
please help him before they kill him.’ She finally agreed to follow me
home after I promised to go for the pastor afterward.”

After he took her
home, where another victim he took there earlier was already settled,
watching a movie, he went back to check on the pastor but the place was
unapproachable. The boys were breaking windows, destroying the building
and stealing church equipment. How to approach such a scene?

Mr Bologi said the
pastor fought valiantly; there was blood on his hands where he kept
blocking the blows from the cutlass wielded by one of the boys as the
rest hit him with hockey sticks. The whole place was full of smoke.

“I was alone,” said Mr Bologi. “There was no way I could handle those boys. I had no stick, no knife, nothing.”

Suddenly, someone pointed at him, asking where the woman was and some in the gang began to spread around to look for her.

“So I went back to
look after my family and the woman. But when she saw me she started
screaming about her husband again, asking me if he was dead already,
begging me to help him. So I got out again.”

But by the time he
went back, the pastor was no longer there. The boys were still
screaming, still stealing, still vandalising but there was nothing he
could do. He went past the church searching for the pastor. The streets
were deserted save for the urchins, and he was about to return home
when he saw a man walking through some kind of haze.

“He had obviously
been looking for his family,” said Mr Bologi. “When I approached him,
he stood there with bandaged hands, still defiant. ‘Are you the pastor
of the burnt church?’ I asked. He said, ‘So what if I am?’ So I told
him his family was in my home and that I could take him to them.”

But that took a
while because Mr Bologi couldn’t just walk the bleeding pastor to his
home – they would be seen. So they devised a way to get to the house by
indirection, going sideways, like a crab’s walk.

“When the woman saw her husband, I have never seen such joy,” he said.

There was a police
barracks near the place, perhaps 300 metres away. Mr Bologi told the
pastor that soon the boys would come to look for him there and he won’t
be able to stop them, alone. He had to get them to the barracks; the
pastor’s family, and the woman he had ensconced in the mosque. On the
way, they heard sirens, a vehicle filled with policemen approached and
the motley crew of victims and their surrogate looked up in hope, but
the policemen were on their way to the governor’s residence nearby.

When Mr Bologi returned from the barracks, he saw that the boys have all gathered by his house.

“I thought, ‘well, this is it.’ The only thing standing between me and harm was my long dress,” he said.

They were not after him, however.

“There is a
building opposite where I stay and the whole people there are Ibos. The
boys were attacking the place. They were breaking the windows,
television, everything,” he said.

The example to follow

Earlier on, the people had met Mr Bologi to seek permission to move into his compound, but there were too many of them.

“I suggested they
all move to the police barracks and I followed them there to scout the
road. They had to wait at the junction while I checked if the boys were
around,” he said.

When he saw that
their rooms were under attack, Mr Bologi again pleaded with the boys to
move on, that there was no one there. They ignored him. By this time,
his brave efforts and constant imprecations had brought four other men
from their homes and they helped in urging the boys to desist.

“That was when this
man came running out of his room and they caught him. They began to
beat him up but we went closer. We were shouting, ‘don’t kill him,
don’t kill him.’ They said they would kill him unless he said, ‘Laila
la’ilallah.’

“The man tried, but
he couldn’t say the words. I told them this was unIslamic and they got
more angry, accusing me of conniving with unbelievers, threatening me.

“It was during this
back and forth that one of those wielding a machete went behind and hit
the man on the neck, leaving a wide gash as the man crumbled to the
floor…”

At this point in his narration, Mr Bologi’s voice crumbled, and he couldn’t go on. His eyes misted over.

“It is not right,”
he said. “It is not right to do that to another human being, and no
religion I know permits such a thing. No religion says that for no
reason you can machete an innocent man.”

I asked Mr Bologi what happened after this.

“I started crying,” he said.

“It was all too
much. I saw the blow and for a second, the collar-bones were all white
and then the blood started gushing. I became so weak.”

When he rallied, Mr
Bologi had attempted to push the man into the Mosque but the boys
stopped him. So he dragged the man to his house.

“There was all this
blood and my wife wasn’t finding it funny. She said, “What are you
doing? You bring some and you take them out and you go and bring
others?”

So why did Mr
Bologi, a young librarian at the state newspaper house, Newsline, a man
without any obvious physical strength stand up to over 30 vicious young
men, holding clubs and machetes?

“I kept remembering
the prophet, Mohammed,” he said. “He urged us to live our lives in such
a way that other people would come to admire our way of life and become
Muslims themselves. Is anyone going to become a Muslim with the kind of
violence shown by those boys?”

And why did the rioters not learn the same lesson?

“They are mostly
boys, you know, without families, without the kind of home training we
got. Many of them are twelve, fourteen and fifteen-year-olds.”

Afterward, Mr
Bologi and some other neighbours, mostly Muslims, joined hands to put
out the fires in the churches and to take all the injured to the
hospital. Mr. Bologi still looked exhausted the day after.

“I kept thinking of
the prophet,” he said. “One day some men came to kill him and failed.
As they fled, the prophet noticed that they were going in the direction
of his more militant supporters, Saidi na Ali and such. So, he told
them not to go that way, to avoid the route because they might get
themselves killed. He helped them make good their escape. That is my
example. That should be our example as Muslims.”