I'm in the habit of running to the cybercafe doing everything else and once I'm running out of time, I would remember that I had planned a blog update. So, today like other days I shall be speeding out of this cafe with a few lines of update. I had not really liked the idea of NYSC and till date have considered it an ill-conceived idea. I understand the pride and hurt that go into a brain child. NYSC was the brain child of former Head of State, General Gowon (Rtd.) as an opportunity to heal after the civil war and foster national unity. I am of the opinion that it has outlived its usefulness, assuming that it was ever useful.
I hated that I was posted to observe my NYSC in Oyo State. As a graduate of a university in the state, talking about the University of Ibadan, I had thought that I was done with the state especially since I didn't study my dream course, which was Civil Law. But whatever conspiracy (I am now wont to believe it so) brought me back to the state, it was Iseyin I had to do after I had left for home in Aba after I was cleared of my project. I graduated in 2004 and luckily I was mobilized for NYSC that same year. While I was very happy to comb every nook and cranny of the University of Ibadan in search of formal and non formal education, I didn't know a lot about Ibadan beyond Bodija market, Agbowo and sparingly Jericho when the British Council library was still functional.
I went to Iseyin and spent 3 weeks in camp. At the end of the orientation exercise I was posted to Air Force Comprehensive School located at a place called Iyana Offa. Iyana gini? What had Iyana Offa got to do with Igbo, bikonu? And this Air Force School, what did they need Igbo for? I had hoped to go to IITA at Moniya so as to use my General Studies in Agriculture as my elective but since that didn't pan out, I resolved to get through with the one year 'punishment' and walk away from Oyo State for good. See me, see trouble. It wasn't enough that I had endured studying Igbo for one year at Oyo State for that matter it's now Iyana Offa. I had not been to that part of Ibadan since my adventure in Oyo State. I was a bookworm and it was only a library that could have got me that way...ever. You could imagine my chagrin when the commandant claimed that he hadn't requested for any corps members. How come? What was Ugochi doing at Iseyin if she hadn't the blessing of her boss to bring the corps members posted to his school to town? I didn't understand that Ogbomosho man at all. He helped us to stay by suggesting that we could share rooms if we wanted to observe our service at his school. There were seven of us in that batch: four women and three men. One of the young men was supposedly a son of the Chief of Air Staff of the day, Uyep. The corps member was called Nanzing Uyep. Now, I am suspecting that some of them were not real corps members or corpers as Nigerians called us. Some of my colleagues could have been fake corps members. I received my discharge certificate at the end of the exercise. Hence, rest assured that I was a real corps member.
To be continued....
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