NYSC Camp: The LAB Experience (2)
Intro: Thank you all so much for reading the first part of this. The feedback has been awesome and I only wish more folks dropped those comments here on Medium. Either way, remember where we stopped?
Anyone who's trying to prepare you for NYSC camp would tell you to prepare for long queues while registering. They're not far from the truth. Just that in my case, I arrived early, so the chairs were still arranged and there weren't many people. I had a good start. So imagine how startled I was when in the third registration stage, my BP read high. Kilode?
The kind medical lady told me to rest for 5 minutes and retake the BP test. I took 10 minutes and I was cleared to go after another test that certified I was okay. I had not been having enough sleep for some time. I left Lagos for Ibadan after work and returned the next morning to get to camp with a few hours of sleep in between. Kashamadupe.
At the gate, you fill your details in a certain book with soldiers. Then you drop your items and sign up for U-Report and one other agency. After that, you do your medicals. If cleared, your luggage moves to the Man O’ war guys for inspection. From there, we are directed to the hostels to process our accommodation.
I forgot to mention that before the hostel, you’re directed to get a bottle of water and a snack. They finished the snacks before I came sha. But that was my introduction to Bigi water. Maybe they’d struck a form of partnership with NYSC, or it was pure coincidence. There were other brands, but Bigi Water was prominent at camp.
I got assigned a room. I think I was the third to join the room and I took a top bunk near the window. Came back downstairs to open an Access Bank account (as directed by the platoon) and then completed my platoon registration. I got assigned to Platoon 2 by the way. Lemme correct that and say Number 2 platoon. (Who knows? My platoon instructors might be reading this)
Platoon duties
By a stroke of luck and out of not wanting to stay idle, I was part of those who assisted my platoon inspector, the awesome Mummy who sheltered us during camp, in distributing kits to fellow corp members. Doing this made me understand why certain civil servants and public service administrators can sometimes get irritated and angry at just anyone who needs their help.
Nigerians like to double-check too much. Some of us also like to ignore official sources of information and go for WhatsApp information from someone who might have not even undergone NYSC before. Let's leave it at that for decency’s sake.
Not many of the fellow corp members we distributed kits to were happy with us and most of them (90%) gave us a tough time about it. Talks like we were hoarding the kits, we did not want them to get their size, and about three ladies even called me wicked. Emi! (Exclaims in green khaki).
What mostly caused the discontent was the fact that although we'd all filled out our sizes during our online registration, not many people were getting their sizes. The sizes had been all mixed up and you only got what was handed over to you. I had to exchange my boots and tennis shoes, as well as my cap to get a perfect size. Luckily for me, I use a size 45 so it wasn't difficult. Those who used smaller foot sizes though. (I understand their pain)
I would later become a key stakeholder in my platoon, not intentionally planned though. Does anyone plan for these things though?
Our Platoon inspector mentioned that we would be needing executives to handle certain administrative tasks and I was already helping out with kits and registration. Being a Communicator also, I was sharing information and directions across the platoon community. So for a while, my role was tending towards PRO. PRO that would later almost put me in trouble.
However, my platoon leader, David Enumah was later appointed as one of the three corp camp directors and we had to do a reshuffling. I ended up serving as the assistant platoon leader to our new platoon leader, Yakub Olayinka. (Yinka, bawo ni?)
Was it stressful? Yes! Did I enjoy it? Double yes! Making decisions, having to interface between your colleagues and officials, especially dealing with corp members who were at home on exeat for various reasons. They seemed to think I was an NYSC official probably because of my responsiveness on the group. Some thought I was even the platoon instructor, awon alakoba. I remember how I paraed (yoruba term for changing it, iykyk) for a woman who sent me some airtime because I was responding to her. In hindsight, I probably overreacted but I had my own reasons too.
Being a platoon executive meant I didn't have enough time as there was always something to do. Sharing kits, sorting files, attendance, planning for the next competitions, gathering corp members, settling fights (we had about 70,30, ratio of girls to boys in my stream, so you can imagine how attitudes would be flying about), getting the guys to partake in activities apart outside football, picking calls (my phone died and resurrected!).
At some point, some lady reported wrongly that we were collecting money to share ID cards, and my BP almost rose again because why would I face the camp court over money that’s not mine? But that was the last we heard of it, thank God, and thank the people who prayed with me. (Itunu, Glory, eshey o). If there’s anything I learned from that episode, it’s to communicate more clearly.
I met awesome folks in my platoon. Fellow Akokites; Bro Mayor, Glory!, Keji the multi-talented, Mary the Youtuber, Namesake Iyanu, and a host of other friends. Whizkid David Enumah, I must have mentioned him already, Olayinka, my nonsense, no stress platoon leader, Iyanu, Pelumi and Temi, the yoghurt club, Oba, Kehinde our sports guys, Hannatu (pronounced Ha-nay-tu), Chiamaka polyglot, Mary Bamidele (let me tell you in a differnt paragraph), Miss Ankara Celine, Itunu Jesus girl, Jennifer, Juzzy, Kish, Precious the mysterious and a couple of names I'm beginning to forget. Apologies.
Mary Bamidele shared her book with me. It was towards the end of camp when activities were a bit less and I needed to read. Titled, " A Christmas Miracle", it tells the love story of two estranged lovers who made a mistake when they were younger, shattering both their worlds and producing a child. Now miles apart, it would only take a miracle to bring them back together.
The perfect read for the season. It was December, after all. Written in simple yet illustrative language, Mary's book reminds me of Francine Rivers's books. The lines smoothly flow into each other and read like a cinema movie across the various cities the book takes place. You can purchase a copy here.
The platoon structure at camp was an awesome one, to be honest, and like NYSC officials always say, it broke down the preconceived barriers we had. Even the ones I had of military and paramilitary men. Grateful to Mr Ayeni, Mr Abednego, Mr Emmanuel and the lot for all the awesome support they gave us. Believers believe the best of people though. We didn’t win so many competitions but we were strong contenders. (With pride)
I was a part of the script development for our drama and acted in double roles as a corp member and a ruffian (yes, thug, agbero, yahoo boy) who scammed a Nigerian mother. I also tried out for our assigned koroso dance, but because we did not have sufficient guys, I only got to wear the costume. I also wrote our platoon’s morning meditations on honesty. You can watch a short clip of our cultural carnival here and read the morning meditations here.
Don’t let me forget to mention that my platoon had the seemingly first stressful platoon on duty day, the first Sunday in camp. The bugle doesn’t sound till about 7 am when it is time for breakfast and you don’t have to come out till about 4pm. But as platoon on duty, we still had to come out by 4:30am. What more? It was a rainy morning.
In the beginning, it was not all fun and games with the platoon because we were dealing with over 200 folks from different backgrounds, everyone feeling like an 'entitled graduate', adjusting to the stress of the camp. A lot of that aggression was transferred to the platoon executives. And since the first contact at registration was with the kits I was sharing, you can guess how that went.
The Spirituals
Dealing with them, however, helped me with something. It started to help me set the spiritual tone I wanted to maintain in camp.
Everyone came with their various atmospheres, and I entered camp joyful, joyful grateful, a believer who has God’s spirit residing in Him. I wouldn’t resort to quarrelling or verbal abuses (even if deserved, lol), neither would I treat another person badly because the previous one treated me shabbily. For the record, on the first day, I was dressed in my Ankara (remember that one?) till evening, so most must have mistaken me for an interning NYSC official if something like that existed.
To be continued…
Thank you again for reading this far. Let’s begin the next article with the Spirituals before we call it a day. Till next time, no gree for anybody!
P.S: Don’t forget to clap. You can clap as many times as you want. It’s the Medium way, lol.
