I had just graduated from the university as a young man basking with life and I was ready to conquer the world, but before doing that I had to attend the National Youth Service Corps which was like a mandatory service for graduates to serve their fatherland before going into full employment and it normally is a year service.
Why NYSC
The NYSC was introduced by the Nigerian Government in 1973 with the main purpose of reconstruction, reconciliation and rebuilding the nation after the 3 years civil way in the country. Youths are posted to different states and region of the country where the will live and serve the fatherland. Most employees will normally ask to see your NYSC certificate of service if you are a graduate and seeking employment so it was important graduates go for it. You can be exempted from it for medical reasons or if you’ve gone past the age of service, it was meant to promote national unity among youths in the country, at least if you lived with people that were considered as strangers formally and you’re treated right, you get to understand their culture and traditions and you’re able to understand them even better.
My Journey To Camp
When the call-up letter was out, I thought everything was going to be a piece of cake or just a stroll in the park. But it started becoming a tension filled activity with many moments of suspense. Back then we didn’t have mobile phones in the country, the super-rich were using satellite phones, Alcatel was a popular brand then and they were very few. So when the service dates were announced on the news not many people get such information and those who got it can’t easily spread the news fast so that others who need it hear it on time. We were normally given a week after the announcement to report to the NYSC camp you were posted to, some people will get the information probably 3 or even 4 days after it has been announced. I was lucky to hear it the next day so I had to start preparation on time.
First off, I was in Lagos which is in the western part of Nigeria, I went to a University that was in the eastern part of Nigeria so I had to travel to my school to collect the letter, on getting to my school I discovered that I was posted to the Mid-Southern part of Nigeria.. Now let me explain this in a way you’ll understand better if you live in the UK, my story goes like this, I was based in London, had to travel to Newcastle where I schooled to collect my call-up letter and had to travel to Wolverhampton for service and all this had to be done in just 5 days. Now, Nigerian transportation network didn’t help my case at all because each journey was a full day’s journey that was so stressful and tiring due to the bad roads and means of transportation which were buses. The buses were stuffed with goods people were traveling with and we were sitting 4 on a row instead of 3 the bus makers had intended it to be, so it was tight and we didn’t have enough space to move a lot. Your legs were tired out on each journey we made.
Finally At The Camp
I got to camp a day after it had opened at about after 5pm, I was tired I just wanted to grab my key and head up to the room I would be allocated to, but it wasn’t to be so, we had to stay on a queue as we were arriving, so many people were on the queue I had thought it will never get to me. They were doing another round of screening to be sure we were who we say we are and that our school certificates were in order. When it was 7pm and just 9 people before it gets to my turn on the queue the NYSC staffs announced that they’ll be stopping registration for today and will resume by 7am the next morning. WHAT!!!! Where am I going to sleep? Who do I know in this state? Already late in the night what I am going to do? These where the things that kept popping into my head until a senior staff announced that we should go and collect mattress from a particular warehouse in the compound and go to a particular hall to sleep and come out the next day by 7am. I dragged my bag along with me and headed in the direction other people were heading to and I was lucky to get a mattress. The mattress not new, most of them were already flattened out due to repeated use. For me getting what I can lay down on that night instead of sleeping on bear floor was good enough for me. Dinner had been served when we were on the queue and it was only people who were already registered that had the benefits of eating it, beside I couldn’t leave the queue even if I wanted to eat. I hadn’t seen anybody I knew so couldn’t leave my bag unattended to go and look for where I could buy food. But I was lucky to have bought biscuit and juice at the park on arrival to the state. As I eat and sipped my juice I couldn’t help but notice the confusion on most of the faces I was looking at. They were like me, I had thought the camp was a place of enjoyment but seeing this was like may be the worst has not even come yet.
Finally Blending In
I couldn’t sleep on time because two guys on different sides of my mattress where probably more tired than I was, slept ahead of me and kept snoring aloud, this is the type of snoring that makes you think the person has stopped breading and suddenly they change the tempo and hit it with a louder note. Lol. At about 4:30am I was awoken by the sound of a bugle that soldiers kept blowing and commanding that we had just 15 minutes to get to the parade ground. What is this! I hadn’t even slept a wink my whole body was still tensed up from my journey and I had calculated that I still had at least 2 hours of sleep left before starting the new day. But with the speed at which other Corp members were obeying the order and seeing the weep and sticks on the hands of the soldiers, I didn’t need anyone to tell me to obey the last order. We jogged that morning for about an hour with soldiers raining insults at those that were weak or couldn’t keep up. When we were finally through I rush to see if my belongings were intact and sure enough they were, I finally registered and adapted to the life of been in a paramilitary training for 3 weeks.
We had soldiers barking orders and commands at us, we learnt how to march like soldiers we did morning and evening parades, did march passes and other military drills. We even stood in the sun for hours as collective punishment for offenses we didn’t even know who committed it. May be the camp commandant was talking and someone from a particular direction says something then everybody in that direction is in for extra drill. It was a tension filled 3 weeks because no one wanted to do frog jumps, get locked up in the guard room or lay flat on down and facing the sun so we were all loyal. After completion of the 3 weeks camping we were posted to our places of primary assignment. Now I respect all military personnel when I see them.
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