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Ahmadu N. Fons, former chairman of Jada local government and
House of Representatives member-elect from Adamawa State, backs calls for a
review of the NYSC scheme following the post-election violence that saw many
corps members killed. Excerpts:
On youth corps service
I was in the third batch of the NYSC scheme. I served in Ondo
State; in a village in Okitipupa local council. In fact it was the first time
those Yoruba people saw somebody who is a Northerner and a Muslim. Friday
prayers, only seven of us attended mosque. I didn’t also understand that place,
but a then commissioner of finance made me feel at home. After service, he even
said I should come back and marry a wife from the community and remain there.
It was from there that I discovered that we can live peacefully with anybody.
Effects of attack on
youth corps members
The NYSC scheme is a lofty scheme for national integration.
There’s no way that the government can contemplate stopping it. But if it is
stopped, I think it is the North that will suffer most because of the region’s
dearth of human capital to man its schools, ministries and parastatals. If the
scheme is scrapped, it is our educational system that would suffer because most
of our secondary schools have no teachers. Those slain corpers are graduates on
whom the parents have high hopes. And because of an election, that you cannot
even go to the president if your candidate wins, you kill that child. Honestly,
it is barbaric. I pray that the parents would be comforted by the Almighty God
in their grief. We need to beg the people from the South, otherwise their
children cannot come here for the national youth service scheme.
Give them justice
I believe the parents of the slain corps members would get
justice from the president. Let the president insist on that and ensure that
all perpetrators of the act are fished out. The Panel that he has set should be
bold to ensure that any person found to be behind these acts, no matter how
highly placed, should be brought to justice as a deterrent in the future.
Elections of a lifetime
When I hear people say that this election conducted by Jega is
not free and fair, it baffles me. I am over 60 years. I have seen elections and
I can say that I have never seen elections that follow a pattern that everybody
appreciates. But you see, in our society today, if you don’t win you say the
election is not free and fair. Frankly speaking, right from the day I start
contesting, even my spirit told me that I will not be defeated because I know
what I have done for the people.
The notion that the elections weren’t free and fair is somewhat
unfair, because this time around everybody cast his vote. People were urged to
wait there at the polls for ballot to be counted, ballot were brought out and
counted and result declared there on the spot.
I was surprised, when it came to presidential elections, to see
even those from the opposition parties, the ACN, NTP and so forth were voting
for Goodluck Jonathan. For most Christians, you didn’t even need to tell them.
So for somebody to say because you are in the North why should somebody come
from the East or anywhere and be rich in the North, I think he has forgotten
about God.
Resign first
It is important that anybody contesting any political post or
public office must resign that post. Let everybody resign and contest from top
down. If that happens, I think anybody that cries of any foul play should be
rested. But it would be very difficult with our leaders, because they will
argue that a vacuum cannot be created.
Advice to legislators
We that are going to the 5th National assembly are not only from
the PDP. We have to unite together and work for Nigeria and not for ourselves
or for our state. Our focus should be to work for the common man of this
country.
We have to make laws that will improve the quality of livelihood
of the masses. So let us create jobs because we have the resources.
No Nigerian graduate should be roaming the street after
graduation. Even the job of teaching, you can’t even find. And that is
terrible. The best thing that we can do and have to do is to forget about our
party affiliations and come together and work as family for the progress of
this country.
Too many parties
Nigeria’s 63 political parties are too unwieldy. I respect
former president, Ibrahim Babangida on his stance on the number of political
parties. We don’t need to have more than five political parties in Nigeria. I
say this because people want to lead they don’t want to be led.
During the last elections in my village, out of the 63 political
parties, only three were outstanding. So I asked the other party agents why are
you in this party? They said they just want to get money. In fact, when I was
given the ballot paper for the last election, I started looking from the top
before I discovered PDP somewhere at the bottom. If it took my painstaking
effort, then what about those less educated people? So it is terrible. We just
have to get INEC to enforce the law for political parties that don’t get the
constitutional requirement for their continued registration after the elections
to be scrapped. Because the current structure is a waste of resources, waste of
energy and creating more problems for Nigerians.
Expensive electoral
system
The electoral system in the country is very expensive. Providing for
logistic challenges often pose the greatest financial burden to politicians,
obviously because of the parlous state of our infrastructure, especially in
many of our rural communities. There are four political wards under my
constituency that, despite being in Adamawa State, you have to access the
community by going through Taraba State. You need resources to get your agents
to such places. There are over 43 wards and over 563 units under Toungo, Jada
and Mayo-Belwa federal constituency, which I represent. In each of the units, I
need two agents at least to be my representatives during elections. How much as
an individual will you give to take care of their logistics? You need to put
people to closely monitor the election. If you are afraid you would be rigged
out, you have to source that money. That said, there are some politicians who
cannot even afford to send people to the collation centre and that brings about
doubts.
