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| A parade of the Nigerian Air Force |
The National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) is set up by the Nigerian government to 'involve Nigerian graduates in nation building and the development of the country.' This programme, which started in 1973 was initiated after the Nigerian civil had ended three years earlier, in hopes to heal the wounds of the war. It's not a military conscription but a paramilitary exercise geared towards preparing Nigerian graduates of universities and polytechnics for the arduous task of nation building. It's mandatory and a prerequisite to many government sponsored entitlements including postgraduate education. In 2004, I graduated the University of Ibadan, Oyo State and went home to Aba, State awaiting my call-up. I was to learn months later that I was posted to Oyo State where my alma mater was located. I had mixed feelings about it. Ibadan was familiar but not all of Oyo State. In addition, I could be putting all my eggs in one basket. On the other hand, Oyo State was relatively peaceful and better for a person of the Igbo ethnic group, at least better than Sokoto or Zamfara State.While the latter two states were in the country, ethnic clashes were often commonplace and unpredictable. But Nigeria remains in many places a deeply divided society on many fronts. Even in Oyo State, there was no telling of the existence of perpetual peace. Conflict was a human phenomenon; it would take sensible people to refrain from unnecessary acts of conflict and violence. I went to the NYSC camp at Iseyin, Oyo State to resume the mandatory exercise starting with the orientation.
The Orientation Camp was the first glimpse into what was to follow.Registration was tedious not to mention the drills and the incessant harassment from the soldiers who trained us. Sex was a common thing among those strangers but it was highly frowned up and defaulters punished. After three weeks, I discovered that I was posted to Air Force Comprehensive School located at Ile Igbo/Iyana Offa. I didn't have a discussion with anybody situating me at this place of primary assignment. I did meet a lady, one Nkechi whose surname I didn't know at her fiance's cyber cafe in early 2004, around July that year. My family and I temporarily lived on Scotland Crescent at Aba. I found out that she studied Curriculum Development (or so) at the University of Calabar, Cross River State. She too was awaiting call up. She worked with her boyfriend or so as I would meet her at that cyber cafe at other times. I worked temporarily with Hotel Terminus, Aba. Eventually, as camp time approached I made contact with an associate in Ibadan to discover that I was posted to Oyo State. I discovered that Nkechi was also posted to Oyo State. I was surprised but it wasn't to my chagrin. I took the night bus the same day as Nkechi. I found out that we had boarded the same bus for a night trip to Ibadan. I hadn't picked up my call up letter from Students Affairs since it was the NYSC was the same state as my alma mater. Nkechi preceded me to Iseyin and that made her luckier, at least with accommodation. I had no idea I was probably being pushed into what would become a ridiculous NYSC experience.
At the NYSC camp, I met Nkechi sometimes at the camp ground as there were many graduates from many universities and polytechnics, as there were mere spies. In one of our meetings, I would ask her if she had an inkling of her posting. She replied in the negative but was seeking deployment to a military establishment. Being a federal place, I thought that would provide a fertile ground to learn the workings of the Nigerian civil service. I told her if her plan was good and worked for her I didn't mind such a place. I studied Igbo for my Bachelor's so I didn't know what I would be doing in a Yoruba state. I had hoped for Enugu, Imo or even Rivers State since those were Igbo speaking states. Lagos would have been more relevant than Oyo. So? There was also that conversation with Ms Philomena Nwoko of Classics Department of the University of Ibadan, whose friend on Ms Angela was going to fix us into IITA. That didn't work out for us as neither of us had studied Agriculture. But we both took the General Studies (GES) course in Agriculture & Animal Husbandry, which could be further development at the International Institute for Tropical Agriculture. At the end of the orientation, Nkechi was posted to serve to with the army at Ojoo, I got to be with the air force at Ile Igbon and Ms Nwoko was posted to a secondary school at Akpati (Apati in Yoruba), Oyo State. I didn't think that she was interested in Ojoo or Ile Igbon. I didn't also know if she was in acquaintanceship with Ms Nkechi from Aba.
A bus was brought to take us to take the new corps members to their various places of primary assignment. It was already late in the evening and it made common sense to use the bus service. The corps members from AFCS, Ibadan in the Batch A (Ugochi or Barbara and Raphael) came to the camp to take corps members to Lagelu local government. NYSC asked corps members to board those buses; I was there as there were other corps members. As we passed AFCS on our way to the Lagelu Secretariat at Iyana Offa somebody from the AFCS group shouted to disembark but was promised that we would be the last batch on the route, that the bus will take us into the school. And the driver did as promised.
On arrival, the commandant told us that he wasn't in the know that he would have as many as seven corps members in the Batch me which I was a member. There were just two members Batch A. I thought it was about money but he later asked us to share a bedroom if we must serve on the premises. That was the reason we served in twos, sharing facilities with strangers. This wouldn't be the worst experience that NYSC members had experienced. Some got it better than us at AFCS, Ibadan while other places were not friendly to corps members. No day was I told that ours was the draft. I believed that it expired at the expiration of one year as was the same as other places of primary assignment. Why and should the fate of corps members be different from those who served at AFCS, Ile Igbon. Unfortunately, that group has yet been seen as a cabal hiding many facts and pretending to be informants. At Ile Igbon/Iyana Offa, Nigeria was either complicit and complacent with corruption or was tacitly ignorant of her duties to her citizens. Before I reveal the cabal of four or even five military officers of the Nigerian Air Force, responsible for this gross misconduct and perpetuation of evil shrouded in secrecy, vendetta and indolence let me enumerate the objectives of the NYSC as copied from Wikipedia.
Objectives of the Programme
he objectives of the National Youth Service Corps Program are clearly enumerated in Decree No.51 of 16 June 1993 as follows:
- To inculcate discipline in Nigerian youths by instilling in them a tradition of industry at work, and of patriotic and loyal service to Nigeria in any situation they may find themselves.
- To raise the moral tone of the Nigerian youths by giving them the opportunity to learn about higher ideals of national achievement, social and cultural improvement
- To develop in the Nigerian youths the attitudes of mind, acquired through shared experience and suitable training. which will make them more amenable to mobilisation in the national interest
- To enable Nigerian youths acquire the spirit of self reliance by encouraging them to develop skills for self employment
- To contribute to the accelerated growth of the national economy
- To develop common ties among the Nigerian youths and promote national unity and integration
- To remove prejudices, eliminate ignorance and confirm at first hand the many similarities among Nigerians of all ethnic groups
- To develop a sense of corporate existence and common destiny of the people of Nigeria.
- The equitable distribution of members of the service corps and the effective utilisation of their skills in area of national needs
- That as far as possible, youths are assigned to jobs in States other than their States of origin
- That such group of youths assigned to work together is as representative of Nigeria as far as possible
- That the Nigerian youths are exposed to the modes of living of the people in different parts of Nigeria
- That the Nigerian youths are encouraged to eschew religious intolerance by accommodating religious differences
- That members of the service corps are encouraged to seek at the end of their one-year national service, career employment all over Nigeria, thus promoting the free movement of labour
- That employers are induced partly through their experience with members of the service corps to employ more readily and on a permanent basis, qualified Nigerians, irrespective of their States of origin.
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