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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.