The National youth service corps members (copers) have declared in unison to boycott the February 23rd General Elections as the result of the horrible and unfair treatment they experienced prior to the postponement of the Elections by INEC. They said they will be ready to work with INEC if appropriate conditions are met which includes comfortable accommodation and total disbursement of their allowances.
Since 2011, INEC and NYSC have been in partnership which is based on the framework of national responsibility, mutual trust and the need to secure the future the country. NYSC is viewed by the electoral umpire as a vessel that will re-engineer the process towards stabilizing the democracy of the nation. But this collaboration over the years hasn’t been favorable to the corps members.
In a series of images and videos circulating on social media, NYSC members who have been trained by INEC to serve as ad-hoc staff faced harsh conditions as they were seen sleeping in vehicles, fields and dirty floors ahead of the 2019 elections which have now been postponed and as such decided in unison through a media platform created for all corps members to boycott the February 23 elections if appropriate conditions are not met.
With the hope of meeting a proper working condition for the exercise, their hopes were crushed as so many were seen crying at different venues where they had to make do with temporary accommodation in terrible conditions. They were left without proper logistics, accommodation and feeding.
Many Corps members laid their plight in the platform -{/ “we slept in a classroom without door or windows, not even one security agent, our lives were put to such risk after the billions that was budgeted for this election”.
“we have been grossly neglected, shamed, used and soon to be discarded like rags. We opted to be of services to our fathers land either for the adventure, the money, the patriotism or all three. But we’ve seen terrible things, even a laborer has right to dignity and suitable work environment. This is not the first time but this time our voices must be heard and our conditions met
“Those people are at their homes enjoying with their families while we were in the street putting our lives in danger and our loved ones to mourning”
“we all know how much that was budgeted for this election, and corps members were treated like shit last night and story still follow our feeding allowance at zone 3, not everyone got paid”.
“I’m not going again, we are not coward, we are not animals. We are human beings with blood in their veins, 12k 35k 60k are not comparable to my life and health”.
“It’s clear that corps members are major stake holders in determining the success of the election, let’s make them know how important we are by not showing up at our various RAC on Friday 22/2/2019 and let’s see if the elections will hold as scheduled”/} these are few comments from various members in the platform and as such, they all have in unison decided to boycott the coming election if these terms weren’t reached before 12:00pm Friday 22nd of February –
• Total disbursement of training allowance
• A maximum of one voting point to one Room hotel Accommodation
• Five thousand naira compensation to each corps member across the nation for the horrible experience( No Bank Alert, No Work)
• 15th Feb Feeding Allowance of (#2800) to those who weren’t paid
• Disclosure of corps members total entitlement/wages for the 2019 general elections
• Maximum security in accommodation venues.
“I know NYSC coordinators will try to humble the corps members with treats of different sort but this time we will surprise them and the elections may be postponed at the dying minute again, our lives have been put to danger and won’t be put to danger again” said the chairman of the platform.
This is the first time corps members are coming together in unison to speak. The whole Nigeria will pay attention to see how this will end.