MY EXPERIENCE AT NYSC CAMP IN OYO STATE
I graduated from the University of Ibadan, one of Nigeria’s most prestigious universities, in December 2021. I got mobilized for the NYSC program in March 2022 and posted to Oyo State. The camp location was at Iseyin, a town 60km north of Ibadan, the Oyo State capital.
The journey to Iseyin from Oyo town was a relatively short one as the two towns are just 40km apart. I boarded a Toyota Sienna 8-seater mini-van and we started the journey with the minivan rolling off the freshly asphalted Oyo-Iseyin road on a low to moderate speed. Sooner had we started the journey than we encountered our first delay — gun-wielding police officers stopped us for a random stop and search. Surprisingly, a scruffy-looking police officer approached and singled me out for a separate search, his motive, I honestly did not know. Finding nothing incriminating on me, he let me go and I joined other passengers to continue our journey. The rest of the journey was seamless and hitch-free.
I arrived at camp at noon and was ushered in by soldiers who searched my belongings and that of other prospective corps members (PCM) for possible contrabands. Afterwards, I joined other PCMs at the pavilion where we were inundated with a litany of camp rules and regulations. Thereafter, we proceeded to register in a process that was as stressful as was challenging.
Overcoming the hurdles of registration, I headed for my allotted hostel, Ajimobi Hostel — a gigantic warehouse turned hostel, filled with noisome squeaks of over seven hundred men holed up inside.
I barely made any friends in my first week in camp, although I did strike up conversations with several fellow corps in my platoon. The flurry of activities like parades made the camp tiresome for me initially because we had to stay under the scorching hot sun every day. Tough-looking soldiers shouted at erring corps members till everyone learnt the basics of military parades — at least the ones needed for the swearing-in ceremony.
As activities began to rack up, I began to enjoy affable relationships with fellow corps members like my bunkmate and my platoon members. Some of the interesting activities in camp include beauty pageants, talent shows, inter-platoon football and parade competitions.
The most stodgy of all camp activities were the SAED lectures. These were a series of lectures on entrepreneurship and self-employment tips and training for corps members. This training range from Barbing to Carpentry, Hairdressing, Information Technology, Tailoring, Tie and dye and many others. The lectures were as vapid as they were drab and uninspiring — most of the groups lacked the necessary wherewithal to effectively train corps members and training times were too short to have any remarkable effect on the trainees.
Every NYSC camp across the country hosts a community market fondly called “Mammy Market”. Here, corps members can get everything they need from consumables to groceries, personal care products as well as services such as laundry, barbing, photography and so on. The market is always lively and filled with commercial activities of all kinds. Corps members who want to engage in all forms of youthful exuberance call “mammy” home. I was not a frequent visitor to “Mammy” as I only went and ate there on a few occasions.
Camp activities ended after three weeks of tough and burdensome lifestyles. Coming after was the dreaded PPA letters where everyone knows where he is posted for primary assignment. In high spirits, I collected my letter hoping to get posted to Ibadan, unfortunately, and to my utmost surprise, I was posted to Igbo-ora, a rustic little town in the Ibarapa region of Oyo state. To say I was dejected would be an understatement, I begrudgingly accepted my faith and joined the bus headed for Igbo-ora.
The NYSC experience for me was a mixed bag. Government can do better by improving the facilities and making the SAED programs much more practical and worthwhile. If you wish to meet with people of diverse backgrounds, tribes and tongues, and understand different perspectives of people from across the length and breadth of Nigeria, then the NYSC camp experience is a must for every Nigerian graduate.
