Nigeria Content Online

Aminu Mojid, 26,
sat on his bed at the dilapidated Suleja general hospital, dazed from
the bomb blast that put him there. He kept asking me to repeat myself.

“I am sorry, I
used to hear better,” he said. His ear drums were hurt in the blast
that ripped off part of the office of the Independent National
Electoral Commission (INEC) where he had gone to check his name on the
list of those scheduled to participate in the National Assembly polls.

Victims in pains

Around him, other
corps members wailed in agony as the medical staff struggled to prepare
them for the ambulance journey to Abuja where they could get better
treatment – if they get there alive. There had already been too much
delay. Blood from ripped flesh and bones flow ceaselessly from wounds
that defied the doctors valiant efforts; efforts that were bound to
fail because of the poor state of the hospital. Mr Mojid looked at
them, his colleagues, and sighed, “I am lucky,” he said. “I can talk, I
can walk. I just saw somebody died right here.” Actually, by 9.30pm
shortly before I met Mr Mojid, I had met the harassed compound nurse,
Martins Dawo who told me that 10 people had already died. She said 39
people were rushed there immediately after the blast, more than the
hospital could cope with, more than the hospital had ever seen. The
injuries were horrendous, her gloves were all covered with blood, as
were her shoes and she knew that more will die if they were not moved
immediately: but there were only a few ambulances available.

“How could they do
this to us?” Mr Mojid asked me. “We are just corpers trying to assist
in the elections.” I tried to say that they were the innocent victims
of a horrible crime but he disagreed. “No sir. We are the target. They
planted the bomb at the place where corpers were checking their names.
Nobody was there apart from us. They meant to kill us.” I asked who he
thought they were, “these people who planted the bombs.” “Politicians,”
he said promptly. “They should kill each other if they have to, but why
involve us?”

Corpers are Nigerians

I asked the
Director General of the NYSC, Muharazu Tsiga during his visit to the
hospital the next day why youth corps members should continue to be
drafted for election duties after this debacle. “Corps members are
Nigerians,” he said. “And we must continuously give them the
opportunity to ensure that Nigeria remains united. Besides, they will
soon be the policy makers themselves.” Mr Mojid said a similar thing
when I asked if he had any regrets for donning the NYSC uniform and
serving as a polling officer. “I will never regret serving my country,”
he said proudly. “Never. But the people need reorientation. Why kill
corpers? Why, why?” A graduate of Osun State polytechnic, Mr Mojid said
he arrived Suleja for his primary assignment less than two weeks ago.
“I thought it was an opportunity to serve. But as I sit here now, I
feel scared. Even here, I am not safe,” he said, taking note of the
grim surroundings; the patients suffering from great trauma moaning on
their bed; the harassed nurses, the endless stream of visitors who came
to confirm if a relative survived the blast.

As I took my
leave, I asked Mr Mojid if he thought elections should still go on the
next day? “Election cannot go on,” he said. “Do you know how many more
bombs are out there?” But the next day, elections did go on but not in
Suleja, and not with Mr Mojid. When I saw him the next morning, nurses
were attending to him, his face to the wall as they prepared to give
him his injections. I asked how he was. “l hear better now,” he said.