COVER STORY
IS THIS NATION WORTH MY BLOOD?
BY OLUDOTUN ADESUA
(AN EX-CORPER’S DIARY)
It was a sunny Monday
afternoon. Having had a great time at my place of primary assignment. I left
for Alhaji Omar Hassan’s residence where I taught his kids (popularly called
PP-private practice amongst corps members). No sooner I got there, than I began
to receive persistent phone calls from housemates asking of my whereabouts. I could
not reconcile the extremely calm town and its warm people I used to know with
the news of hostility and inhumanity that was reaching me. I rushed out of my
host’s residence only to find out that the roads were deserted. I was petrified
and jittery. At the peak of my desperation to get to a safe haven, a man who
has just moved his family to the army barracks rescued me, a stranded stranger.
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| Scanned page of my article published in TELL magazine(a leading magazine in Nigeria)May 14, 2012 Page 49 |
How can I forget in a hurry how I fled
for dear life from Zubuki village in Itas Gadau Local Government, in Bauchi state
after I was given free knocks on my head and humiliated in my National Youth
Service Corps uniform at the polling station where I was posted to as an an Independent
National Electoral Commission(INEC) ad-hoc staff and later rescued by a god
sent motorcycle rider. Eventually I got to Bauchi, the state capital at 11pm. Few
hours after, the town was literally on fire. The INEC office in Bauchi LG was
set ablaze, bonfires at the major roundabouts, roads and even wanton
destruction of lives and property. The fear of these and unfavourable security
reports and rumours locked me behind walls and gates for three days and nights.
Hot, consistent and persistent fear-propelled prayers and intercession flowed
ceaselessly and heavily from my lips and confused mind.
How can I also forget in a hurry how
friends and acquaintances were sent to early graves? The body of Kehinde
Adeniji, the brilliant and visionary president of Banking and Finance
department during my set at the Adekunle Ajasin University, Akungba-Akoko, Ondo
State was brought back home before he finished his national service. I recalled
our last moments at Gadau(where I was posted for the elections). We ate lafun, a local food made of cassava flour, and okro and stew prepared in
the same pot. He later gave me a passport-sized
photograph to deliver to another friend
of ours in Bauchi LG. I passed the night in an adjacent room to his; shared
thoughts of our spectacular experiences and said farewell, not knowing that it
would be the last.
As for Ayotunde Ebenzer Gbenjo and
Anslem Nkwazema our paths crossed at Nigeria Christian Corpers Fellowship(NCCF),
Gbenjo’s story is very pathetic in the sense that he with some other corps members
were rescued from Tafawa Balewa’s LG’s communal clash that claimed lives and
property- even a corper’s lodge. Yet death still ambushed him during
the post-presidential election crisis. In the case of Nkwazema (Anslem, Giade
papa),a gentleman, he ran for safety into a police station but was smoked out
and butchered thereafter. Should I wake the painful memory of the newly married
and pregnant Gift Anyanwu who was badly burnt and gave up the ghost few days
after at the National Hospital Abuja?
How do I forget Teidi Tosin Olawale,
OKpokiri Obinna Michael, Adowei Elliot , Adewunmi Seun Paul, Okeoma Ikechukwu
Chibuzor and Akonyi Ibrahim Sule? They all perished in what could be called a
politically motivated conflict with religious colouration, the height of man’s
inhumanity to man.
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| Source:the penultimate page of BAUCHI KOPA-A Publication of NYSC Bauchi June 2011. |
Although, I expressed an unusual optimism in
an interview with a reporter in a May 2011 edition of
234next(now rested)online newspaper, which was attacked by many readers. I captured
my thoughts in the poem I titled ‘Tribute
to Our Martyrs’(April 2011).
NYSC is compromised. It is a scheme
that dances to the tune of the highly connected, the mighty and the wealthy. Their children and wards
serve in choice cities like Abuja, Lagos, and Kano, as well as big companies or
organisations while the other choice-less corps members wallow in despicable
conditions. Wicked employers absorb cheap labour, some even serve ‘legislooters’
kola nuts during meetings at the National Assembly(The Punch; Mar Fri 9 2012). What
about those kidnapped by militants, even the Osun ‘royal rape’, or the avoidable
road accidents that claim some lives. Little wonder, the acronym is
sarcastically redefined as ‘Now Your Suffering Continues’
What a compromised NYSC! It is a pity
that the Yakubu Gowon-conceived NYSC paramilitary and unifying scheme has
become a laughing stock. The big question is: Has NYSC overstayed its welcome? Or
considering its purpose/vision of national intergration, cultural cohesion,
inter-tribal marriage, job opportunities to mention but a few. Or is it that it
needs a complete restructuring?
Its one year(now two years), I don’t want
to believe that a critical lesson learnt is that you can perpetuate and sponsor
evil and get away with it. What a nation! When will greed for money, fame and
power become a thing of the past in this corner of the world?
However, all thanks to the scheme for the
smattering Hausa language I speak, the opportunity to impart knowledge and
values into young secondary school students of Abubakar Tafawa Balewa
International Secondary School and adventure to the northern part of Nigeria-for
the very first time. But no thanks to the crisis for truncating my plan to
visit Yankari Games Reserve, Bauchi.
A nation that eats its future destiny
in the present is not worth a drop of my blood. Nevertheless, I believe in the
Nigerian dream of the emergence of a great nation. In Dr Tunde Bakare’s words “Nigeria
will prosper in my lifetime” .
-ADESUA, WHO SERVED IN BAUCHI STATE DURING
THE CRISIS NOW LIVES AND WORKS IN LAGOS.
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| Mr President was dressed up for CDS meeting;this was taken when the going was good. |
TELL May 14, 2012 Page 49
