IS THIS NATION WORTH MY BLOOD?

BY OLUDOTUN ADESUA
(AN EX-CORPER’S DIARY)
This article appeared in TELL Magazine of of May 14, 2012.


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.

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 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 Ebenezer Gbenjo and Anslem Nkwazema our paths crossed at Nigeria Christian Corpers Fellowship (NCCF), Gbenjo’s story is very pathetic in the sense that he alongside other corps members were rescued from Tafawa Balewa’s LG’s communal clash that claimed lives and properties, 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.

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 claimed 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 integration, cultural cohesion, inter-tribal marriage, job opportunities to mention but a few. Or is it that it needs a complete restructuring? It is 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 WORK IN LAGOS, HE CAN BE REACHED ON TWITTER @DotunAdesua