A mandatory service in my nation would be the NYSC whose acronym stands for "National Youth Service Corp" This is a platform that brings Nigerian youths together every year after graduating from the University. The main aim of this platform is to promote unity among Nigerian youths "which is a good thing", Nysc provides us with a whole lot of experience and learning I'm not gonna lie.
I never wanted to go for this mandatory service but then there was an importance placed on the certificate that would be issued to you after the service was over, so that made it even " more important", most government jobs in my nation would request for the NYSC certificate which would be among the required documents, to avoid hanging in the air because of a particular certificate I decided to serve my nation, even when some will say "the nation isn't worth serving".
I served my nation two years ago, the first process was camping " for three weeks" What these weeks entail is constant learning, oh I didn't say where I was posted to "Sorry about that" so I was posted to the North while I'm based in the southern part of the nation. When I first heard our posting letters were out, I was super excited and at the same time very curious to know where I'd be posted to.
When I checked and saw it "I don't know if I was supposed to be happy or sad" Let's just say my expectations were cut short hehe!!! So I called my siblings and told them about my posting letter, they were all of the opinion of me not going because of the distance and besides I haven't traveled that far away from home before. But then my aunty stood her ground and was like "Tari is going to camp" At that point I didn't know what I wanted so I just had to fake a smile by shining my teeth.
After that event, I went to the local market to purchase the items I'd need for my trip, on the day of the trip, the excitement came cause I was about traveling "I love traveling even though I haven't traveled much" got to the park, boarded and the vehicle took off, the distance from my end to the north was not a day journey.
On our way, I saw a lot of things, different states I'd be hearing about, at that moment I was just concerned about the sights I was seeing. Then we finally arrived at the camp after two days of staying on the road, my first day at camp, I met an amazing soul that became my "padi of life" till this day. In Camp, I had the best experiences, I met a lot of people from different parts of the nation, and I even learned a new language "though I forgot it after leaving camp" Don't blame me.
At camp, they had different skill acquisition classes where you get to pick the particular one you would love to learn, I joined the shoemaking class "Your shoe deals can start coming in" and then the military drill "I didn't do that" I was too scared to engage in that. After three weeks of camping, we were posted to our place of primary assignment where we got to serve for a year after that, our certificate of completion would be issued to us and then we were done with serving our nation. I didn't complete it and in the course of these twelve months, we were paid a monthly allowance according to the minimum wage.
I feel the mandatory service is necessary and it shouldn't be scrapped cause many Nigerian youths haven't traveled far from their hometown before "Just like myself" It enables us to explore other states within the nation. I feel like this program is an exposure that gives us the privilege to see things from different perspectives, imagine me traveling from the South to the northern part of my nation, that alone is a whole experience for me.
One thing I would like to change if I could is for people to be posted to their choice of states, imagine filling out the states you would love to be posted to and being posted to somewhere else entirely then what is the essence of filling that area in the form?
All images were taken with my phone.
Thanks for reading馃尮
