Tobi Ijalana
A member of the National Youths Service Corps serving in Arepo, Ogun State, has lamented that the process of getting to assist the Independent Electoral Commission in the presidential election has taken a toll on her meagre resources.
The Federal Government currently pays an NYSC member N19,000, which is just about N600 daily – less than two dollars.
According to the ‘corper’ serving with a school, who prefers to be simply identified as ‘Pet, she has travelled to the Owode office of the NYSC and that of INEC five times, noting that she spent an average of N1,000 on each trip.
She said, “These include trips for pre-training and two-day 
training organised by INEC. We had to make another two visits to Owode to check our names and get pre-election briefing. The most demanding trip I made is the one to Ijebu Ode, where they posted me to for the election that was eventually cancelled. That was Saturday through Sunday. On that, I spent nothing less than N3,000 as we were all there till Sunday morning.”
Although it was initially reported that INEC would pay each corps member N35,000, the Ogun State NYSC refuted the story, saying each would be paid N13,000 for participating in the presidential election and another N13,000 for the governorship.
“Now, out of the N13,000 promised us for the presidential election, I have spent over N7,000,” Pet said.
