I regularly call to mind graduates acting as electoral officers who were murdered in the Northern part of Nigeria following the 2011 elections. Before I forewarn my readers, I say congratulations to a gallant comrade and my good friend toba an engineer, Safex and odas in the house on the successful completion of his National Youth Service. This has little to do with the programme itself, but the fact that it is a natural expression of his (toba) outstanding commitment to altruism and just cause in resisting the oppression of the less privileged in his own capacity. Moreover, I'm delighted he eventually graduated from the University of Ibadan as an engineer against all the odds, having faced serious threats to his studentship and suspension alongside other students for lending their voices to championing "social justice; equal chances".
Now to the 2015 presidential election. Graduates on the NYSC programme will again be used to run the 2015 elections across the country. I recall what happened in 2011 up North, when many graduates were butchered, burnt and battered to death simply because PDP's Jonathan/Sambo won that election. A friend of my who served in Nasarawa escaped death by the skin of his teeth: he somehow managed to escape through the window of a classroom where they were going to club him to death. A foolish governor came out to say those graduates were killed because that's their destiny.
We lost bright minds across disciplines. Many families are still living with the pains and the loss of their loved ones; there are parents whose only child was killed. We've forgotten that too, like Chibok and Aluu-4, and moved on ever since.
If you'll be serving next year in a volatile part of the country (especially if you're my friend), please choose not to be the collateral damage in the bestail struggle for power. Let it not be your destiny to die for politicians who have eaten the pension of your parents and four unborn generations. Your family need you, alive. Your country need you, alive. Above all you need yourself, alive.
Bí a pé l'áyé, a ó j'eran tó ju erin lo. Do not die because of a piece of meat when you can eat an elephant if you live long enough.
Don't take such a fatal risk because of #40,000 they'll pay you (if you get everything). When the elections are close and you're not comfortable with the trend, please run for your life. Feign sickness and take a sick leave. Even if you're not administering the election still run.
Youth Corps members who must oversee elections in volatile areas must be trained to defend themselves and armed accordingly. We pretend as if we're not at war. Elections in Nigeria are real wars. That's why tens of thousands of armed-to-teeth officers were deployed to protect the electoral officers and the less than 2 million electorate in Ekiti.
But that level of protection wouldn't be possible during the 2015 nationwide elections even if every officer in the Nigerian Armed Forces is dispatched. Mildred Okwo said: "You do not go to a gun fight and be yelling like you have an AK47".
Where there is no respect for your life, and no system that guarantees justice for an ordinary citizen like you, then you must be equipped by the government to match or stop or defend yourself against the violence of people who have no regard for the sanctity of your life. But if that's not possible, run for your life. Right to life is the most fundamental right upon which other human rights rest. Don't "defend your votes" with bare chest. That's my point.
Signed
Pharm smile2012
by ROTMANLUV 2023-07-08, 17:34
