My NYSC Experience: Orientation Camp
After waiting at home for 7 months after university graduation, the time to register for NYSC (National Youth Service Corps) mobilization finally came and I was more than elated because for those of us still living with our Nigerian parents we’ve definitely had more “I can’t wait to leave this house” moments than we would like to admit. Finally! My dreams of moving to Ibadan, another city entirely is in the works, I rubbed my hands together in excitement.
Oh I prayed fervently, Ibadan or nothing. I opened the NYSC portal, filled the necessary information, and waited for the next 24 hours for my call up number which I got and then more waiting to know my fate presented in the form of the Call up letter. Few days later, Call up letters were posted and I was deployed to Sagamu, Ogun state, Nigeria.
However, I didn’t know how to feel about my deployment, I just panicked because I liked Ibadan, I was more familiar with Ibadan and I had plans for Ibadan. lol, don’t ask me what, because I won’t tell you. I didn’t want Lagos and I definitely didn’t want Ogun. Although I eventually got over my initial feelings after-all, it’s still South-West and closer to home. A win-win situation for me, lol.
Mobilization to camp was done in batches and my resumption date fell on Friday, 26th November 2021. I had 3 days to do my shopping and packing, I quickly gathered information and hit the streets of Yaba. My shopping list went thus; White shorts and T-shirts, as many as possible if you ask me. A white rubber shoe, a white leather sneakers, white with green striped socks, A fanny pack, water bottle, food flask, toiletries, mosquito net, permanent marker, a flashlight, rechargeable fan, padlocks, handkerchiefs and heaps of provisions because I didn’t know what to expect in regards to the camp food.
Fast forward to the morning of the 26th, an excited me loaded her boxes into the car and my dad drove me to the NYSC Permanent Orientation camp, Sagamu. I finally got to the orientation camp after about 1 hour 10 minutes of driving and there were so much people right outside the gate, in what I later discovered to be the line for the COVID-19 PCR test which made me very nervous.
Whilst dragging my box to the appropriate spot, I spotted my friend from school and became very relaxed. We joined the queue and waited for 6 hours under the scorching sun because they kept running out of test kits at the NCDC (Nigerian Center for Disease and Control) stand. After six long hours of waiting and making new friends of course, we finally had our COVID-19 tests and wheeled our boxes into the orientation camp where we were greeted with a luggage check for contrabands (like hard drugs, forks, knives, sharp objects, electrical iron, hot plates and etc) by Police officers and NSCDC (Nigerian Security and Civil Defense Corps) officials. After been searched and cleared, we were assigned our room numbers and bed spaces.
I was assigned to Block 4, Room 1 and it wasn’t as bad as I thought it would be, because I went to the camp with the “expect the worst, it’s NYSC” mindset. The room was tiled, well ventilated, 19 neatly stacked bunks, the mattress could use some replacement though, there were enough ceiling fans and bulbs. Each room was assigned a room leader, a bathroom, toilet and cleaning supplies. Worthy to also mention that case of theft was minimal, almost non-existent.
Our hostels were very close to the kitchen. We were given meal tickets the day after we got to camp to enable our access to food from the camp kitchen, we had to be on a single file according to the number of serving points in the kitchen whenever it was breakfast, lunch or dinner time and a mark was usually made on our meal tickets to signify that we had collected food. I didn’t eat so much from the kitchen as I only had bread and jollof rice from the camp kitchen, and that was on few occasions, the jollof was good, my friends also testified to how nice the other meals were. The portions of food were also generous and it seemed as though they killed a cow everyday for meat. I must applaud the Ogun state camp coordinator and the camp staff, they did a great job.
Registration and documentation lasted for another 2 days after which we were given our state code, meal tickets and distributed into platoons according to the last numbers of our state code. Collection of the NYSC kit was done according to platoons. The NYSC kit consisted of A pair of Khaki trouser and Jacket, a pair of white NYSC crested vest, tennis shoes and socks, a pair of orange jungle boot, a web belt, two pairs of plain white shorts and T-shirts. Don’t worry about sizing because NYSC will bring the inner marketer in you as you may never get your size, be prepared to stand in the corridor or collection point shouting “size 11 for size 5, size 6 for size 8”. It is normal in camp, don’t be shy.
Platoons are smaller military grouping units and as far as orientation camp was concerned, we were supposed to conduct all activities together from parade to drills to sanitation to kitchen duties and even social activities platoon by platoon. Due to our number, there were 10 platoons and roughly about 180 members per platoon, I was in platoon 3 and most of my friends were in 2 platoon which meant, I would have to make more friends from my platoon.
The plain white short, T-shirt, rubber tennis shoes and NYSC socks were meant to be our daily outfit while the Khaki trouser, jacket, NYSC crested vest and jungle boot were for ceremonial occasions like the swearing-in and closing ceremony (each done on the first week and last day of camp), Reporting to your Place of Primary Assignment, CDS days and finally, the Passing Out Parade.
After getting kitted and sworn in, the camp rules became stricter. All corp members were expected to be appropriately dressed with the NYSC crested face caps on while the female corp members were expected to have their hair in a neat bun at all times, no single braids or wisp of hair in sight courtesy of our camp coordinator (Sugar mama, as we fondly called her) with the promise to decamp and de-kit anyone that flouts these rules and other rules set in place for the smooth running of the orientation camp.
We were expected to leave the hostel for morning devotion on the parade ground everyday at 4:37am when the warning beagle goes off. My oh my! I don’t think I have ever met anyone as punctual as the soldier in charge of blowing the beagle, he never misses a minute of any day, even at night especially when the sleep is just starting to hit or the night hang out is getting interesting. The hustle and hassle to get water to take a bath before the beagle goes off in the morning was always hilarious and frustrating, or trying to bargain with the female soldiers for more time before they drive everyone out of the hostel at the expense of your tag. Some babes even had to quit taking a morning bath until after morning devotion or SAED lectures (not me though, y’all be easy).
We were introduced to the compulsory SAED (Skill Acquisition and Entrepreneurship Development) program where all corp members were expected to participate. There were tons of programs and since I can already make dresses and do my make-up, I joined the ankara craft and Fascinator class where we made bags, journals, even tables out of ankara and also design Fascinators as a complementary female fashion accessory. My platoon was all vibes and I enjoyed every moment. We were supposed to have our morning devotions, parade and SAED lectures according to platoon. But I hardly sat with my platoon for lectures. You would always see me at 2 platoon because that was where the bulk of my friends were (it was easier because they were my next door neighbors)
On most nights we were entertained with social activities amongst platoons ranging from welcome party (on our second night in camp) to ankara couple to Mr & Miss NYSC to Mr macho to dance and drama events. The camp bar at mammy market served as another means of night time entertainment with blaring music and a range of drinks and activities to explore iykyk
The mammy market; the general market in camp where everything sellable was sold. Is it food? or water? Mammy dey for you, provisions, toiletries, footwear and even costumes, mock tails, ice block, juice punch, shoe-making and even tailoring with over-priced services. I remember trying to slim fit my very big khaki and the tailor looked me in the eye and said 3,000 naira now, when I had different types of sewing machines at home? I just thought “lai lai, nigbati mi o kola” I eventually hand stitched my khaki with my sidey (a fellow tailor like me). There was also a stand for charging phones but I didn’t need it as light in camp wasn’t terrible and there was a double socket for every bunk in my room.
Because I went to camp with a mindset of “I go too suffer” I initially had a negative view on everything coupled with the fact that I had an unpleasant registration process which did not even help matters, I started grumbling and wanted to leave. Then I realized that grumbling was not going to help if I wanted to stay for the long haul so I decided to just breathe and have fun. That was one of the best decisions I made in camp, I let go and started participating in any and every camp activities that came my way, I made a bunch of new friends, camp admirers too and really had the best time camping. My camp friends were everything nice, they made me so happy, and I thank God for bringing such amazing souls to my path. I spent less time online and participated more in human interactions which was unlike me.
I participated in so many activities that my friends started calling me “best in NYSC”. I joined my platoon in kitchen duties from as early as 5am, the dance and drama group, Taekwondo club, Athletics, British corpers iykyk, the band (but later left because it wasn’t supporting my participation in other activities) and many others, I loved dance and drama rehearsals the most even though we argued a lot.
We had inter-platoon competitions with my platoon usually taking positions between first 3 and first 5, we were quite serious unlike platoon 5. (Sorry, not sorry…lol) that came 10th twice *tears*
We also had the Man O’war drill where we climbed all sorts of interesting obstacles. Even though it was not a compulsory exercise, I climbed more than half of the obstacles because why not? My favorite was the 12 feet wall, I climbed that twice and my least favorite was the rope climbing, I thought I was going to break my neck or worst case, tear my khaki but thank God for God, my enemies did not prevail.
I remember getting our first allowances in the first week of camp which was the bicycle allowance; N3,200. A form of reimbursement for our transport fare from our individual locations to the camp ground. Ordinarily I thought oh it’s just N3,200, corpers won’t be moved, let me go later. Error 404 because I got to the queue much later and I couldn’t breathe because of the crowd. To collect ATM card, another wahala entirely. Then our monthly allowance came in the second week and this time, in the bank. I still remember what I was doing when the alert hit. Corp members were so excited and shouts of joy erupted all over camp that we almost scattered the parade ground, it was hilarious.
To round off all camp activities we had cultural carnival during our last week in camp. Ordinarily, we were supposed to put on white top and jeans as they did in other camps, but our state coordinator instructed that she doesn’t want to see such unless you were a performer. Each platoons were then given a theme to represent various cultures in Nigeria. My platoon represented the Yorubas and I was on the drama and dance group. When it was time to showcase our cultures, we danced forward platoon by platoon in our adire, wrappers and various cultural attires with our platoons members following closely behind and a translator explaining the significance of our costumes to the audience.
There was an after party afterwards at the mammy market and trust our able soldier to be a party pooper and blow the beagle at exactly 22:00.
This is like my longest blog post ever and I’m going to stop here because my gadget is already hanging from all the “ejo wewe”. I really can not fit all my amazing and not-so-amazing camp experiences in a blog post because “e choke”. But yeah, I had the BEST time and you should too. If you have been to camp already, I am looking forward to reading about your own experiences in the comments. Don’t forget to like, share and follow if you enjoy my contents. Merci.
A la prochaine!