Notes from my NYSC Camp.



First day on the Parade ground

 I know everyone would be wondering why I haven't written anything in a long while. Well I'm sorry for this. I have had so much happening in my life in the past few months that blogging had to take back seat for some time.

But now I'm back and Better.

Let me start by giving you a summary of my NYSC experience. And then I'll give you other gist.

Like every student waiting for his/her call up letter, I was very anxious to know where I was posted to. Although I had tried to "work" my posting to Lagos I wasn't 100% sure of my connections. On that faithful day I got wind that the call up letter was out so I rushed to UNILAG to know my fate.

There was a huge crowd in front of every notice board at the Student Affairs Department which was expected so I automatically joined them. Under the hot scorching sun in March, I tried to look for my name and there it was Anyanwu Chiamaka, state of deployment - BN. I whispered something to the Lady that promised me I had been posted to Lagos under my breath. Benin! How can they post me to Benin!

Still angry I went to my department to collect a certain document, while waiting for my turn I began to think; how many Nigerian states starts with "B" and has an "N" in it ?

Benue, Bornu, Benin.... And then it occurred to me that Benin is a state capital while Edo is the state! Blood of Jesus! I had to quickly collect the document and rush back to the Student Affairs Dept. On my way back I kept saying to myself "it can't be Benue, it can't be Benue". Lo and behold there it was staring me in the face in my NYSC call up letter "State of Deployment: Benue"! What! Why me!

Then I called my mum to give her the news and she reassured me that everything would be fine. She said this because I had earlier done my court wedding and had my marriage certificate with me so all I had to do was submit it to the NYSC officials in Benue and I would be automatically redeployed to Lagos which is my husband's base.

But the fear of making my way down to Benue was unthinkable. My only consolation was that I would have to spend just two weeks at the orientation camp instead of the regular three weeks.

On the 6th of March I said goodbye to my folks, and boarded a plane to Abuja, to connect to Benue (the food basket Of the Nation) by road.

To cut the long story short, I met a dear friend at the Airport and we became each others backbone during the orientation camp.

My camp Besti (Ayo)

The weather in Benue at that time was at its worst. I say this because even the locals were surprised at how harsh the weather was.

The first day was a huge struggle because It was difficult for me to wake up at 3am to get ready for parade at 4:30am but I adjusted quickly.

Like the soldiers would say "No Option!". We had to take our baths outside in the cold because the NYSC officials refused to open the toilets and bathrooms for reasons unknown to us. It was amazing how extremely cold the weather would be in the wee hours of the morning and then become very hot later in the day. Simply put, the weather in Benue state was harsh... Too harsh.

To worsen issues there was no stable mobile network in the camp except for Etisalat. My MTN line was constantly reading SOS while my Airtel got a bit of reception when I climbed "The Hill". So this meant that if i had to call or send text messages to anyone i had to climb the hill and if anyone wanted to reach me they had to be lucky enough to dial my number while I was on the hill. *Pathetic right?*.

The first thing I did after I finished my registration was to apply for relocation back to Lagos because I couldn't bare the thought of staying in Benue for a whole year !

In a bid to avoid staying under the hot sun for parade I decided to join the RED CROSS. Although this did not stop me from avoiding the sun totally but it helped a bit.



 I was nominated to be the Social Director for my Platoon! (a leader is always a leader anywhere). So I had various social activities to handle for my platoon. I obviously did a good job because my platoon won Miss Hotlegs!!! *Yaaay me!!!*

Being the social director really helped me to understand my capabilities in a way I haad never known. There was a show which all the Social Directors organised and we decided to do something different by painting our faces and doing a group dance. Well I did not make it for the rehearsal, but I joined the dance at the end and did my "shaky shaky bumbum" freestyle. *hehe*.



See me shaking bumbum... it was a serious something !





Mr Macho and Miss NYSC contestants.

 The beauty pageants and Mr. Macho competitions were extremely fun. I did not enjoy it too much because I was at the background making sure my contestants were well taking care of.

The camp fire night to me seemed like an initiation of some sort. Or maybe it's just me. With all that was said before lighting the fire and with the process of all the platoons coming out one after the other to run round the fire it just seemed like we were being sworn into a cult. It's just my imagination.

 Initiation night...... Sorry i mean Camp fire night.

I had to deal with corpers who chose to be blinded to the fact that I was wearing two wedding bands (I only wore them to ward off admirers because i wasn't married yet, well i was married legally but not officially but my plan didn't work).

Did I mention how 90% of the NYSC kits given to me did not fit? I had to go round looking for someone to switch outfits with.

One thing that amazed me the most was the behaviour of some corp members. Honestly you would think that they weren't privileged to see the four walls of a primary school let alone a University! Some had very bad command of English while some was just plain nuisance.

Looking back at the whole thing I still don't see the usefulness of NYSC orientation camp. You spend useful hours under the sun for parade that would not benefit you in anyway outside the camp.

You spend more useful hours attending lectures where you can't concentrate because of the noise or because you don't have a seat and most of the time you can't understand what the person speaking is saying. The federal government just sells off University graduates to the military for three weeks without permission.

BY THE CENTER !! QUICK MATCH !!



Join the QWEE !!

 To worsen issues, you are forced to live in uncondusive environments where there is no water no electricity, and at the same time endangering our lives and property with no apologies. *pity*.

I was the happiest person when I got my relocation letter back to Lagos. I was so excited I took the next available cab back to Abuja. And then a flight back to Lagos.