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If anyone thinks
America has a particularly peaceful or passive president, the commando
raid that killed Osama bin Laden is one more reminder they’re wrong.

Unlike his
predecessor, George W. Bush, Barack Obama avoids calling his security
policy a “war on terrorism,” but from Kabul to Cuba, Mr Obama is still
fighting it hard.

“He was able to
have a strong foundation of anti-terrorist efforts,” said former Bush
spokesman, Ari Fleischer. “All that is what Barack Obama continued,
that George Bush started.”

For the mission
against bin Laden, Mr Obama decided to send US troops into Pakistan
without its government’s approval, on the basis of intelligence that
may have been collected through torture.

Mr Obama has
escalated the US effort in Afghanistan with an additional 30,000
troops, so that there are now 100,000 Americans fighting the longest
war in US history.

There are roughly
47,000 troops still in Iraq. They are being gradually withdrawn, but no
faster than the pace planned before Mr Obama was president.

Mr Obama brought
America into its third overseas conflict with its air strikes in Libya,
a country that posed no immediate threat to American security or
interests, but has a long history of support for terrorism.

Mr Obama has also
decided to maintain the US prison for terrorism suspects at Guantanamo
Bay and increase drone attacks against suspects in Yemen and Pakistan
as well.

The muscular
tactics aren’t all popular inside the US or out of it either, but at
least for now Mr Obama is profiting politically.

A new CNN/Opinion
Research Corporation poll conducted right after the bin Laden raid
found that two-thirds of respondents approve of how the president is
handling terrorism. In fact, they like it better than the rest of his
work in the White House. The poll indicates that just over half of
respondents express approval for his performance as president.

Mr Obama is not a bellicose leader, and even won the Nobel Peace prize for his efforts at better international relations.

In fact, before bin Laden’s death, some of Mr Obama’s opponents questioned his commitment to fighting terrorism.

Now both they and
his supporters are reminded that Mr Obama isn’t especially gentle when
he believes America’s security is at risk.

Jonathan Mann
presents Political Mann on CNN International each Friday at 18:30
(CAT), Saturday at 3pm and 9pm (CAT), and Sunday at 10am (CAT).

Pakistani security
officials reacted with skepticism on Sunday to a U.S. assertion that
Osama bin Laden was actively engaged in directing his far-flung network
from his compound in Abbottabad where he was killed on May 2.

Washington said on
Saturday that, based on a trove of documents and computer equipment
seized in the raid, bin Laden’s hideout north of Islamabad was an
“active command and control center” for al Qaeda where he was involved
in plotting future attacks on the United States.

“It sounds ridiculous,” said a senior intelligence official. “It doesn’t sound like he was running a terror network.”

Pakistan, heavily
dependent on billions of dollars in U.S. aid, is under intense pressure
to explain how the al Qaeda leader could have spent so many years
undetected just a few hours’ drive from its intelligence headquarters
in the capital.

Suspicion has
deepened that Pakistan’s pervasive Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI)
spy agency, which has a long history of contacts with militant groups,
may have had ties with bin Laden — or that at least some of its agents
did. The agency has been described as a state within a state.

Pakistan has
dismissed such suggestions and says it has paid the highest price in
human life and money supporting the U.S. war on militancy launched
after bin Laden’s followers staged the September 11, 2001, attacks on
America.

The Obama administration

has seen no
evidence Pakistan’s government knew bin Laden was living in that
country before his killing, the U.S. national security adviser said on
Sunday.

Prime Minister
Yusuf Raza Gilani is scheduled to “take the nation into confidence” in
parliament on Monday, his first statement to the people more than a
week after the incident embarrassed the country.

Pakistani officials
said the fact that there was no internet connection or even phone line
into the compound where the world’s most-wanted man was

hiding raised doubts about his centrality to al Qaeda.

Analysts have long
maintained that, years before bin Laden’s death, al Qaeda had
fragmented into a decentralized group that operated tactically without
him.

“It’s bullshit,”
said a senior Pakistani security official, when quizzed on a U.S.
intelligence official’s assertion that bin Laden had been “active in
operational planning and in driving tactical decisions” of the Islamist
militant group from his secret home in the town of Abbottabad.

On Saturday, the
White House released five video clips of bin Laden taken from the
compound, most of them showing the al Qaeda leader, his beard dyed
black, evidently rehearsing the videotaped speeches he sometimes
distributed to his followers.

None of the videos was released with sound. A U.S. intelligence
official said it had been removed because the United States did not
want to transmit bin Laden’s propaganda. But he said they contained the
usual criticism of the United States as well as capitalism.

Forces loyal to
Libya’s Muammar Gaddafi are hiding tanks and artillery and using “shoot
and scoot” tactics in Misrata, frustrating NATO air efforts to break a
weeks-long siege of the rebel-held Libyan city.

Despite repeated
bombing raids by the Western alliance, Gaddafi loyalists continue to
lay siege to the city and its vital port — making it one of the
bloodiest battlefields of Libya’s two-month-old conflict.

Rebels say
pro-Gaddafi forces are concealing tanks in buildings and artillery
beneath trees, firing from civilian-populated areas and near mosques.
“NATO can’t strike those places,” said Safieddin, a rebel spokesman in
the city.

Government forces
have abandoned the city centre to the rebels, but are entrenched in the
built-up outskirts, sometimes firing from the open and scuttling for
cover between buildings.

“There are houses
there. It’s not as densely populated as downtown Misrata but still it’s
the city,” said NATO’s senior military officer, Admiral Giampaolo di
Paula.

“So therefore they
are still continuing to use the tactics of shoot and scoot and that’s
why we need to continue to systematically degrade their military
firepower,” he said.

Two graphic examples came earlier this week.

After after two
days of NATO bombing raids, pro-Gaddafi forces rained artillery on the
port as an aid ship docked to evacuate hundreds of African migrant
workers and wounded Libyan civilians. Five people were killed, rebels
said, and hundreds were left stranded on the dock.

On Saturday,
pro-Gaddafi artillery strikes destroyed four fuel storage tanks in
Misrata, insurgents said, leaving the city facing fuel shortages.

“NATO is working, but Gaddafi’s forces are also working,” said a second rebel spokesman in Misrata, named Abdelsalam.

“Piece by piece”

“NATO has been more successful at destroying troops and military vehicles on the move than static forces,” he said.

“Every tank or
rocket battery destroyed by NATO is immediately replaced. Add to this
that they have been hiding tanks in the sand and inside buildings and
that they fire artillery rounds from under trees.” Rebels and residents
say the government forces’ snipers and mercenaries, many of them
sub-Saharan African migrants forced to fight, are holed up in
buildings, firing freely.

Libyan officials
deny that government forces are attacking civilians in Misrata, and say
they are fighting armed gangs linked al Qaeda. Media access is limited,
making it difficult to verify reports from battle zones.

Human rights groups
say hundreds of people, including many civilians, have been killed in
the fighting in Misrata, about 200 km (130 miles) east of the Libyan
capital, Tripoli.

Much of the city centre is in ruins.

Critics say NATO’s
inability so far to silence the guns demonstrates the limits of waging
war from the skies — amply demonstrated in the 1999 NATO bombing
campaign in then-Yugoslavia to force the withdrawal of Serb forces from
Kosovo. It took 78 days, and the credible threat of ground forces,
before Slobodan Milosevic’s forces retreated.

Members of the
Election Petition Tribunal for Ogun State are expected to arrive
Abeokuta, the Ogun State capital, today to look into some petitions
which have been submitted by aggrieved losers and their parties at the
just concluded general elections in the state.

NEXT gathered at
the weekend that about six petitions have been received by the
tribunal, which is expected to use the magistrate court complex located
in the Isabo area of the town as its operational base.

Incumbent senator
for Ogun Central, Iyabo Obasanjo-Bello who contested under the platform
of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) but lost to the candidate of the
Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN), Gbenga Obadara, was among the
petitioners who were seeking redress at the tribunal. Also, the Peoples
Democratic Party (PDP) filed a suit against the Independent National
Electoral Commission (INEC) and candidates of both the Peoples Party of
Nigeria (PPN) and the Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN) before the
tribunal over the April 9, 2011 national assembly election.

Although the
current speaker of the house of representatives, Dimeji Bankole, said
he had accepted his loss at the last election in good faith, his party
still went ahead to file a petition on his behalf to challenge the
victory of his opponent, Segun Williams of the Action Congress of
Nigeria (ACN), who won the seat to represent Abeokuta South federal
constituency at the house of representatives.

The PDP filed a
total of five petitions, while the ACN and its candidate in Yewa
North/Imeko-Afon federal constituency, Adeniyi Akanbi filed only one
petition to challenge INEC and the candidate of Peoples Party of
Nigeria (PPN} Rasaq Adewusi, who was declared winner of the election in
that constituency.

The PDP candidates
who joined the suit with their party at the tribunal include Mohammed
Odunowo, who contested for the Ogun East senatorial seat and lost to
the ACN’s Gbenga Kaka; Babatrunde Fadun who contested for the Ogun West
senatorial seat but lost to the ACN’s candidate Babalola Odunsi and Mr
Ajibade, who lost the house of representatives election to Mr Adewusi.

The PDP filed its
petitions on April 29 while the ACN filed its petition on April 30,
2011. The concerned parties to the various suits were said to have been
served.

Information pasted
at the premises of the tribunal showed that all the petitioners had to
pay N400,000 as security cost before filing their petitions.

However, efforts to speak with the secretary of the tribunal, Mr Eze, did not yield positive results as he declined comment.

“I was not authorized to talk to the press,” he said.

The National
Assembly election petitions tribunal in Kwara State has received three
petitions from candidates challenging the result of the April 9
elections results in the state, secretary of the tribunal, Uju
Mesiobi-Emeto has said.

Although many
political parties earlier threatened to challenge election results,
only three were able to meet up with the May 1 deadline for filing of
the petitions.

Mrs Mesiobi-Emeto
however said at the weekend in Ilorin, that the tribunal was ready to
ensure free hearing for all political parties involved in the cases.

The first petition
was filed by the Kwara Central senatorial district candidate of the
Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN), Oloriegbe Ibrahim Yahaya and others
against the winner, Abubakar Bukola Saraki of the Peoples Democratic
Party (PDP) and the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).

The second petition
was filed by the Kwara South senatorial district candidate of the ACN,
Ibitoye Anu Ayodeji and others against winner and incumbent senator,
Simeon Sule Ajibola of the PDP and INEC.

The third petition
was also filed by the Kwara Central senatorial district candidate of
the Congress for Progressive Change (CPC), Bilkisu Tinuola Gambari
against INEC and Mr Saraki of the PDP, who won the election in the
district.

Mrs Mesiobi-Emeto
said although the tribunal had expected more petitions, only the three
petitioners were able to comply with the deadline given by law. She
said whoever did not bring their petition before May 1 did not meet the
deadline and would not have their petitions accepted.

“The petitioners
were given 21 days by law to file their petitions, while the respondent
have seven days within which to respond, while the petitioners also
have seven days to reply to the response,” she said. “The tribunal has
a period of 180 days from the day of the commencement of the hearing of
the petition to deliver its judgment on the matter before it.”

Two teams

On the governorship
election petitions, Mrs Mesiobi-Emeto said the tribunal has not
received any complaints, noting that there is still time for the
petitioners to tidy their papers and file them for adjudication.

The election
petition tribunal in Kwara State has two batches of justices sworn in
to adjudicate on election matters in the state.

The members of the
four-man batch ‘A’ of the tribunal, who are expected to adjudicate on
the senatorial, federal house of representatives and state House of
Assembly elections petitions, include A.A. Adebara, E.B. Mohammad, M.A.
Akoja and H.A. Saleeman.

The members of the
two-man batch ‘B’ of the tribunal who will oversee the governorship
elections petition, are H.O. Ajayi and I.B. Garba.

No date has been fixed for the inaugural sitting of the tribunals in Kwara State .

Olusegun Mimiko,
the Ondo State Governor, has called on the state’s Direct Labour Agency
to intensify efforts towards completing the ₦150 million Moferere
market in Ondo town.

The Governor, who
made the call at the weekend during an inspection tour of the first
phase of the market, reiterated his administration’s commitment to
providing conducive environment for the people of the state.

The state
government had, in the last two years, constructed new markets in
Akure, Ikare, Owo, Okitipupa, Iju/Ita-Ogbolu among others – in order to
avert the dangers of road-side trading and create conducive environment
with necessary modern amenities for business transaction.

Mr Mimiko thanked
the traditional ruler of the town, the Osemawe of Ondo, Victor Kiladejo
for mobilising the market women to cooperate with the agency so that
the project can be completed on schedule.

“As you can see,
our people are very happy, they are excited because they know that this
government is a government that stands by its words. Let me use this
opportunity to appreciate the team that is working on this site for the
job well done. I want to appeal to you to put in more efforts and
ensure that this project is completed on schedule,” he said.

The Senior Special
Assistant to the governor on Direct Labour, Mobolaji Tunde-Suara, who
conducted other top officials of government round, said the Moferere
market had over 600 open stalls for traders, administrative offices,
security posts and conveniences.

She explained that 110 stalls had been allocated for goat sellers,
and 150 stalls for fowl sellers. The yam section gets 100 stalls while
sellers of used cloths and perishable items got about 250 stalls.

The readiness of
the incumbent governor of Imo State, Ikedi Ohakim, to accept defeat and
his pledge not to challenge the victory of Rochas Okorocha in last
Friday’s governorship election is a commendable gesture from a patriot
who wants the best for his state. The Imo State commissioner for
information and strategy, Elvis Agukwe, has said.

According to Mr Agukwe, “It takes maturity for Ohakim to offer a hand of fellowship to the governor-elect.”

Major roads and
streets in Owerri, the Imo state capital, were shut down on Saturday by
jubilant residents of the state following the declaration of Mr
Okorocha as governor-elect for the state by the Independent National
Electoral Commission (INEC).

Mr Okorocha’s
victory followed the eventual conclusion of the governorship election
in the state that went into supplementary polling.

Apparently,
reactions to Mr Okorocha’s victory reflected the expectations of the
people as several bottles of champagne were freely popped by roadsides
and commercial taxi drivers and tricycle operators offered free rides
to jubilant commuters. Not to be left out of the celebration, popular
restaurants, and even local food joints, dished out free food and
drinks in the spirit of the moment.

‘The sanctity of agreements’

To win the
election, Rochas Okorocha, who ran under the platform of the All
Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA), polled a total of 336,859 votes to
defeat Ikedi Ohakim of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), who garnered
290,496 votes and Ifeanyi Araraume of the Action Congress of Nigeria
(ACN) who bagged 107,068 votes.

In the first
official reaction after Mr Ohakim congratulated Mr Okorocha and pledged
not to pursue the matter in court, the state commissioner noted that
the governor’s gesture was a testimony to the fact that the election
was beyond him as a person.

“I said it before,
and I repeat it now, the election was beyond Ohakim as a person. It was
about the future of Imo State and the sanctity of agreements. The
people have spoken, we have accepted the verdict,” he said.

He made it clear
that in days to come the people of Imo would miss Mr Ohakim as,
according to him, the country still yearned for his leadership.

“Nigeria has not
heard the last of Ohakim. He may have finished with the task of being a
governor, but I believe we still need his services in the future,” he
said.

Man of peace and destiny

Mr Agukwe said he
disagreed with the notion that Imo people rejected Mr Ohakim, noting
that the margin of victory, about 46,000 votes, did not confirm that
assertion. He said what happened was that godfathers, whom he described
as “political deities”, conspired to scuttle the second term ambition
of the governor because they were refused the key to the treasury of
Imo State.

“These were people
used to squandering the state’s resources and they refused to come to
terms with Ohakim’s resolve to ensure that Imo people benefit from
their sweat,” he said.

The official
however commended Imo people for remaining calm and peaceful throughout
the period of election, noting that the fact that no blood was shed was
due to the peaceful disposition of the governor.

“Ohakim as a man of
peace and destiny demonstrated that he was not desperate to remain
governor. That’s why he restrained his supporters in the face of
extreme provocation,” he said.

He called on the people to extend the same cooperation to the
incoming governor to ensure the sustenance of the “legacy of peace”
left by Mr Ohakim.

The Delta State
chapter of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has told the
gubernatorial candidate of the Democratic Peoples’ Party (DPP) in the
just concluded general election in the state, Great Ogboru, to
challenge the outcome of the polls won by the incumbent governor,
Emmanuel Uduaghan, if he is dissatisfied with the result.

Chairman of the PDP
in Delta State, Peter Nwoboshi told newsmen at the Benin Airport over
the weekend that the victory of the incumbent governor was a clear
testimony of the wish and will of the electorate.

“This is the fourth
time that PDP has defeated Ogboru, not the third time and I think it is
a clear statement to him that he is not wanted by the people of Delta
state,” Mr Nwoboshi said.

He challenged Mr
Ogboru and all others who are opposed to the Independent National
Electoral Commission’s (INEC) announcement of Mr Uduaghan as governor
to prepare their legal arsenal and meet the party in court. Mr Nwoboshi
added that the PDP was not afraid of any of its opponents.

“I think twice
beaten, twice shy. But this one is not twice beaten. This is four times
beaten, four times shy,” the party chairman said. “PDP is rooted in the
state and whatever you are having represents the wish of the people and
the will of the people. Ogboru has tested his might four times and he
had lost four times. So it is the acceptability of PDP in Delta state
that is in place.”

Nothing to fear

On the criticism
trailing the gubernatorial election, which some opposition politicians
said were rigged, Mr Nwoboshi said it was a case of a bad workman
blaming his tools.

“Politics is a
profession. You have to be grounded in it. You have to learn the
intricacies of politics,” he said. “In every election, these people are
bound to be quarreling with their tools that this person rigged, this
person did not rig. These are people who are not strong.”

Mr Nwoboshi also
condemned militants in the Niger-Delta region who threatened to disrupt
oil installations because of what they viewed as the imposition of Mr
Uduaghan on the people of the state. He said majority of the militants
in the Niger-Delta are with the state government, same as the ordinary
residents of the state.

“We are all
Deltans. Nobody was brought from outside, so nobody is afraid of the
other person,” he said. “There is no cause for alarm.”

The senator elect
for the Delta North senatorial district, Ifeanyi Arthur Okowa,
attributed the secret of the PDP’s victory in the state to hard work
and an ability to reach out to the people.

“We have worked
very hard, reaching out to the people during the elections and the
campaigns. Our opponents usually run,” he said.

Mr Okowa urged those who lost in the polls to take it as “the way God wants it”.

“We thank Deltans
for what they are doing. We hope that as they have chosen us, we will
continue to do our best to meet their yearning and we hope that we are
able to develop our state and leave a better state for us all,” Mr
Okowa said.

The presence of an
opposition in a legislature makes the process of lawmaking thorough.
this is because it will always provide a check to the excesses of the
majority in the house. This is what adds to the beauty of democracy.
But going by the results of the just concluded general election in the
country, this will be lacking in many houses of assembly. A run down of
the results as released by the Independent National Electoral
Commission (INEC) shows that the ACN took all the 40 seats in the Lagos
State House of Assembly as well as all the 26 seats in Osun State.
Labour party which is the ruling and dominant party in Ondo state also
won all of the the seats in the state’s assembly. This trend in which
ruling parties completely dominate state houses of assembly has been
the trend since the country returned to democratic rule in 1999.

Bad for democracy

A gubernatorial
candidate of the National Conscience Party of Nigeria (NCP)in the just
concluded election; Ayodele Atele told NEXT that this trend is
dangerous for the nation’s democracy. “It is not good and it is
suspect” he said. “It is not good for the development of democracy
because once the house is polarised, there will be a vibrant
democracy,” he noted.

According to Mr
Atele, “what obtains in the Southwest after the 2011 election is the
irony of the ACN as a party which wants a polarised National Assembly
but sees nothing wrong in it having 100 percent state Houses of
Assembly in the states it is controlling.” The former labour leader
noted that in other parts of the world, no matter how popular a ruling
party is, the opposition parties still win some level of offices where
it is popular “even if it is in one local government area. But that is
different in Nigeria.” Mr Atele further pointed out the danger for the
democratic experience if the opposition is fizzled out saying “where
there is no opposition, there is immense danger being portrayed that
the people will be highly short-changed at the expense of the ruling
class and its cohorts, ” However, the national publicity secretary of
the ACN; Lai Muhammed, disagrees with this postulation and claims it is
the will of the people that is being displayed. The party’s
spokesperson emphasised that “we (ACN) never clamoured for a polarised
National Assembly. What we clamoured for and still call for is that let
the will of people count.” “In your area of popularity, let there be no
rigging or intimidation of voters so that the people can truly make
their choice.” Mr Muhammed noted that “given the plural nature of
Nigeria in terms of values, religion and ethnicity, if there are only
ten parties in the National Assembly as dictated by the electorate,
then so be it.” He further attributed the massive success of his party
in the Southwest region on the voting pattern of people voting for
personalities and track-record. Sighting the presidential election
where the presidential candidate of the PDP scored massive gains in the
Southwest, Mr Mohammed stated that “people voted for the personality
and never gave thought to political parties or ideology.”

Rigging and some exceptional cases

Speaking on the
issue, a Professor of Constitutional law; Itse Sagay, told NEXT that a
one party House of Assembly is not good for democracy. “The ideology of
a party dominating a state is not a good catalyst for governance and it
is anathema to democracy, it turns the state into a one party state”
said Mr Sagay. He added that“in most of those states there were rigging
that are yet to be identified.”

Agnes Ezennadozie had called her
husband, Peter, to alert him of what looked like trouble. “She called
me and said ‘Honey, it’s like a riot is taking place’,” recalled Mr
Ezennadozie, barely holding back tears. “I asked her how safe she was
and she said they were at a police station. Later, she called to say
the hoodlums were surrounding the station and I told her to run from
there. As we were talking, I heard a scream and then nothing,” he added.

He called her line
repeatedly without reply. Some two hours later, a male voice came on
the line to tell him that the owner of the phone was seriously injured.
He later learnt that his wife of three months had been taken to the
Federal Medical Centre in Bauchi. He prevailed on the hospital staff to
take his wife to a particular hospital in downtown Bauchi. From there
she was moved to Abuja for further treatment. She died 12 days later.

Good programme gone awry

It was dreamed up
as a scheme to engender unity among Nigeria’s youth fresh from the
nation’s higher institutions. But the fate of the National Youth
Service Corps (NYSC) currently hangs in the balance as recent events
threaten to undermine its continued existence.

Established in 1973
by the Yakubu Gowon administration, the scheme was also aimed at
healing the wounds of a 30-month civil war which the nation had
survived three years earlier. The scheme offered the fresh graduates
the opportunity of serving the country outside of their states of
origin. There is no doubt that many would not have known about the
different cultures in the country if not for the scheme.

However, in recent
times religious and now political crises in parts of the country,
especially the north, have turned what was supposed to unite Nigerians
into an objectionable venture.

This latter
development was poignantly brought to the fore by the senseless killing
of many innocent youth corps members in some northern states,
especially Bauchi and Kaduna, by gangs of youth protesting the loss of
their favoured candidate, Muhammadu Buhari, at the just concluded
general elections.

The protesters
descended on the hapless corps members who served as ad hoc staff for
the nation’s electoral umpire, the Independent National Electoral
Commission. When the dust settled, there was general weeping and
anguish by a shocked nation. Many of its youth had been slaughtered
like animals in the course of serving their fatherland.

In the midst of all
this is the very heart-rending case of Mrs Ezennadozie, who was
carrying a six-week old pregnancy after her wedding in February this
year. Mrs Ezennadozie, who hailed from Achina in Anambra State, died as
a result of the first degree burns she sustained in Bauchi when the
hoodlums invaded and set fire to a police station where the corps
members had fled to for safety.

Indescribable pain

Mr Ezennadozie
wondered what his wife had done to those who murdered her to deserve
such a fate. He wondered why Nigerians, especially northerners, had no
wish to, in his words, “Stop the rubbish act of killing innocent people
because of religion and politics.”

“How can someone
just kill an innocent girl? The federal government should stop this act
of northerners,” he said. As a solution to that, Mr Ezennadozie is of
the opinion that those from the north should serve in the north while
their southern counterparts should serve in the south. That way, he
said, “if the north wants to kill its own children, it would be their
choice.”

While receiving the
remains of Mrs Ezennadozie at Government House last Thursday, the state
governor, Peter Obi, said, “Today casts a pall of darkness over Anambra
State as we receive the corpse of Mrs Ezennadozie who as you know was
among the corps members hacked down in their prime during the
post-presidential election crisis that engulfed parts of northern
Nigeria.” He regretted that the late Agnes Ezennadozie paid the supreme
price while answering a call to national service.

“Unfortunately, a
programme designed as a veritable instrument for national integration
turned disastrous when uninformed youths hiding behind the veil of
politics visited violence on fellow Nigerians,” Mr Obi lamented.

He called on the
federal government to henceforth assure corps members outside the
northern zone of adequate protection or nobody would be willing to
serve again. “We will serve the nation but not at the expense of our
lives. We must serve the nation but the nation must protect us, if not
we will not serve. We must negotiate before you (corpers) get back,”
the governor said, noting that he had asked the federal government to
ensure that those behind the act do not go free.

He promised that
his government would not allow the deceased’s family to walk alone and
pointed out that the state government had fully taken over the funeral
expenses of the slain corps member.

To scrap or not to scrap

Some who spoke to
NEXT after the short reception expressed worry over the incessant
killings in the North and called on the federal government to either
review the NYSC scheme or scrap it. They echoed the widower’s line that
those from the various zones should serve in their zones.

“The NYSC should not be abolished but that corps members should serve in their zones,” said Nkiru Orji, a journalist.

Tony Anyanwu, also
a journalist with the Nigerian Television Authority, said that much as
he sympathised with the deceased’s family, he would still insist that
the scheme should be modified rather than scrapped. He however said
that if the country was desirous of keeping the scheme, it must
urgently deal with factors causing what he called “the incessant
crises” and that offenders should face the law.

For Shadrack Nnanna
of the National Orientation Agency, corps members should be allowed to
choose where they would prefer to serve in order for them to accept
their fate whatever happens. He suggested that, alternatively,
graduates should be subjected to military training in lieu of national
service and afterwards helped to settle down in society afterwards as
is the practice in Egypt.

Given that many parents would not want to give up their children to
another horror similar to the post-election violence, the likelihood of
the runaway corps members across the nation returning to their host
states in the north continues to look bleak as the programme totters on
the brink of total rejection by Nigerians.