My National Service

My national service was a 1 year program to serve my country. It is normally done after graduation through The National Youth Service Corps (it's acronyms, NYSC, will be used in the writeup). Its a scheme where a graduate who could meet the requirements to serve, need to serve to receive a certificate. This certificate is one of the qualifications for a job in my country. If you want to know more about NYSC, please follow this wiki link:
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Youth_Service_Corps

There are a lot of processes like from final clearance at the University to registration or application to get enlisted in the NYSC.

I got enlisted May, 2017 and passed out of service APRIL, 2018. I was enlisted and posted to Northern part of Nigeria, Nasarawa State to be precise and I am from the southern part, Delta State. At first, I was not happy with the posting because southerners do think it is a bad thing to go far north for anything. But my national service experience taught me different.
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the bus taking me and other passengers to Abuja (closer to Nasarawa State), needing repair and got to make friends as we were searching for food and snacks to eat. Here, I met a friend who was going to the same orientation camp and also my namesake..:) ...you will see her pictures as we go on.
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For the service year, I have to go for training at the Dan Yamusa Magaji Orientation Camp for 3 weeks. We were trained by officials and also by military and paramilitary officers.

first day at camp. We are to clad ourselves in all white. Took this pic at the parade ground

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That's the lady I met in the bus. You will get to see more pics of us together. :)
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The both of us so tired and the sun was high. In the south, the sun was high was an average compared to the North which is always beyond average. We got to train in the sun and in the rain.

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We were taught to salute holding our cap this way as in the pic.
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We were also taught the NYSC anthem.
1st Stanza

Youths obey the clarion call
Let us lift our nation high
Under the sun or in the rain
With dedication and selflessness
Nigeria is ours, Nigeria we serve.

2nd Stanza

Members, take the great salute
Put the Nation first in all
With service and humility
NYSC for the noble youths
Make Nigeria a great nation

3rd Stanza

Far and Near we come to serve
And to build our fatherland
With oneness and loyalty
NYSC for Unity
Hail Nigeria our great Nation

We were taught the 1st Stanza only.
You can download the mp3 for free using this link:

http://www.corpersforum.com/nysc-library/nysc-anthem-lyrics-mp3-free-download/

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Made a funny and troublesome friend ...we got to dress up like this to receive the governor of the state, that is, Nasarawa State.

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I did not get to snap with my platoon commandant in uniform but I got to snap with this officer...:)

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I was alone this day because my girlfriend got to be a quarter guard. Few corpers are selected to be trained for match pass. I was not among..haha.
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some other friends here.

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This is the complete uniform which was called 7/7. we were dressed for the Man O' War drilling. I have misplaced some the pics I took during the Man O' War drilling.

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During the Orientation training, we had a carnival. This carnival was to display the varieties of cultural dances, attires and so on. More pics from the carnival will be unfolding now.

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This is my Platoon commandant during the carnival. Everyone was to dress in anything and that was why he was not on his uniform.

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Carnival pic with a participant.

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Also, we had a bonfire night. I could not get a shot of the fire. But I was dressed like this that day...hehe!
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Yea, we twinned that day...bonfire pics

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After the 3 weeks training, I was given a posting letter to resume my Primary Place of Assignment (PPA), Kana- Agwada, in Kokona Local Government Area. On the way to my PPA and when I got to my PPA, I was heartbroken because it is a rural village and with the following conditions I got to notice:

• bad network service
• bad roads -scarce water resources -language barrier and so on.

This is a pic of my PPA...during the rainy seasons, it's all green.
You can see the big mountain at the background. I always wake up to see the mist going off it. Beautiful sight.
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PPA pics. That day I just finished washing my clothes. ..haha!
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I will be sharing more pics of my colleagues at my PPA. Let's go!

Me taking pics outside my corpers lodge. We were provided with a lodge. A snake ,some scorpions and a big black scorpion was killed during my stay there. We were already informed that we should always go with a torchlight at night.
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A colleague looking for my trouble there...He is from the North (Maiduguri).

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All the female corpers in my lodge at one time because corpers are enlisted in batches. so some pass out when it's time for their passing out day..

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Other corpers in the same ppa/lodge

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Took pics with the staffs in my ppa.

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I've got some funny colleagues who could ride a parked bike...haha!

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Me playing with an officers' head gear...hehe! I used the opportunity to serve in the north to visit other northen states. A visit to Kaduna State for an officer wedding, could not snap the environment though.

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Here, it was my visit to Plateau State.

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Here, I went to visit my sister at her PPA, Manchok, Kaduna State. we graduated and served same time.

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My sister also visited me at my PPA.

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Me and my community development service group, Welfare and Tourism, on an outing to present mosquito nets to indigenes.

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that's me manually pumping water.

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We were paid allowance monthly for serving the nation for that year and we are to go for clearance monthly to get paid. I was waiting to be cleared here.

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we are celebrating with our certificate of national service here at our Passing Out Parade (POP).
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National Service, done and dusted!
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I am sharing this experience and the lessons I learnt from it.
It was an awesome adventure to me. It changed my perspective about life. I got to be more caring to things, people and environment, get annoyed less and be more open-minded.

The first thing I tell myself in the case of getting annoyed less, is that, it is hard for others to understand you when you are annoyed or angry, moreso when there's a language barrier. Parties might not be able to relate with some statements made, like I know, there's pidgin in Nigeria, the American slangs etc.

At first, I was not happy with my posting to the north, nor my ppa but during and after my national service, I was happy about the experience, the adventure. I got to stay far from home in a kind of condition I thought was impossible to live in and survived, make good connections and friends, see another part of culture and life and so on.

I decided to share this part of me today and I hope you enjoyed it. Thank you for your time.

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