NYSC at 50: Bitter-sweet diary, By Olusegun Abifarin

At the end of my three month IT stay with Automag magazine in Lagos in 1990, the Publisher, one retired Army General who was obviously impressed with my output, had promised to help my NYSC posting to Lagos so that I can serve in the organisation.

I took the promise “to the bank” and was boasting to everybody that my NYSC posting to Lagos has been sealed and delivered.

So, at the end of proceedings in Unilag in July 1991, when everybody was rushing to campus to check their posting, I didn’t go, still banking on the promise by the General, until Demola Olajire came back one evening to inform me he had been posted to Kaduna.

I therefore went to campus the next day to “, confirm my Lagos posting”.

To my shock, I was posted to Rivers State, against the assurance of the General.

I didn’t bother to go back to the General as my Uncle gave me the needed transport fare, and asked me to “obey the NYSC”.

I then proceeded to the camp located along Ahoada- Port Harcourt road and settled down for the one month Orientation Camp.

The fun, the drills and mingling opened the door for new frontiers of friendship.

Aside Agboola Alphonso who was my friend from Unilag, I was also close to one Ikujuni, a.k.a Iku, who is the captain of our Platoon six football team.

Soon tension began to build over poor feeding and perceived corruption of camp officials.

It got to a head on day 23, exactly a week to the end of the orientation camp.

Agboola and I held a brief meeting one evening and decided to mobilise the corpers to do “aluta” against the poor arrangements in camp.

Around midnight when the light in the camp was off, we started moving from hostel to hostel, telling our colleagues that they should not dress up for morning drills tomorrow, but that we should all meet at the parade ground for an important information..

Like magic, they obeyed and came to the parade dressed casually.

Before the alarmed commandant and his soldiers knew what was happening, we started the “solidarity song” and started marching to block the Patani Port Harcourt road.

Before long, the news filtered to Port Harcourt and Col. Godwin Abe, the Military Governor rushed down to the camp. He met us on the road and we explained the issues to him.

The angry governor lambasted the camp officials, saying he had been subsiding out feed with a bag of rice, a bag of garri and a cow daily.

At the end of the “battle”, seven cows suddenly surfaced in the camp that day and was a descent meal for the first time.

Our camp allowance which had been held was also paid in the newly introduced N50 notes.

As part of the ring leaders, I knew there would consequences, and I was ready.

On the day of posting for Primary Assignment, Alphonso for instance, was “thrown” away to a School Buguma…I didn’t see him untill we came to Lagos

For me, I was sent to St. Aquinas Secondary school, Elele, against my permutation to serve with Sunday Newspaper in Port Harcourt then.

To the same of devil, my stay in Elele was interesting. There was a Teachers Quarters in the school…and the six corpers posted were accommodated without any stress.

As a Mass Communication graduate, I was assigned to teach English Language in the JSS class and Government in the SSS class. I was also in charge of the School’s Press Club.

Out of the six of us in the school, there were two from Uniben, one from UI, one Uniagric, Markurdi and Uche from UNN.

Uche was a great guy. He was a Catholic like me then, and he used to take me to to the Catholic church in Elele.

We got to Church one day and Uche told the Reverend father about the fact I am a yoruba boy who did not understand the Igbo language used in service.

From the next service, the Reverend started using English and an Igbo interpreter, so that I (one person) can hear.

So, despite the corruption on the NYSC then, there was a country.

I was glad I stumbled on the photographs where Iyabeji’s “, strong room” this morning.

• Abifarin is a journalist and Publisher of Newsroom Online