A BRIEFING ON HOW THE  NYSC PROGRAM LOOKS LIKE

(NYSC) an acronym that stands for National Youth Service Corps is a scheme introduced by the Federal government of Nigeria to involve the country's graduate in the development of the country; mostly in Education and other important sectors of the Economy. 

Students that just graduated from different  Universities and polytechnics in the country are required to participate in this National Youth Service Corps program which lasts for one year. 

Corps members are posted to cities far away from their place of origin,

They are posted to Areas or States with different cultural and religious background and are expected to mix with people of different Tribes within the Country. One of the aims of the program is to foster unity in the Country and to help youth appreciate other ethnic groups within the country. 

The program starts with an orientation period of 3 weeks which holds in the NYSC orientation camp of the State you are posted to (all the States have their various NYSC orientation camps in the country) which is like a military controlled camp commanded by the camp commandant. like me, i was posted to serve in Plateau State and their NYSC orientation camp is in Mangu, Mangu LGA Plateau. The duties of the Military and Paramilitary present in the camp is to give the graduates some physical fitness drills  for fitness and to instill discipline in them, they also have the person in charge of corps members known as the camp director, might be a male or female; his or her duty is to give orientation and advise to the corp members that would guide them during their stay in the community.

Corp members have a special thick green colored uniform (khaki long sleeve shirt and trouser with combat pockets)   which comes with a green cap and a pair of orange colored boots with black soles. Dress code in the camp is usually the green khaki uniforms or the corp member is expected to dress in white polo T-shirts, white short nickers and white pairs of canvass shoes (all in whites or the green khaki uniform). They are like paramilitary because of the physical and parade drills they learnt from the military and paramilitary.

The aim of the 3 weeks stay in the NYSC orientation camp is to give the graduated students orientation of the tasks  ahead and also instill morals and discipline in them. It also give's them advise to adhere to the norms and tradition of the community they would find themselves.

During the course of the 3 weeks orientation camp, towards the end of the orientation camping, corp members are posted to their place of primary assignment; primary assignment are majorly teaching or lecturing in schools or higher institutions within the State you are posted, in some cases they render official responsibilities, health services, engineering services e.t.c depending on your capabilities or program studied at College, but what is mostly given is teaching in Schools, College of education, Polytechnics and Universities or any other known educational Institution.

In my case, i was posted to College of Education Gindiri  Mangu LGA Plateau State, where i taught mathematics and physics during the course of my service. I'm a science inclined person who got his first degree in Electrical/Electronics engineering that's why i'm good at maths and physics.

 

In a nutshell, the orientation camping which lasts for 3 weeks is inclusive of the one year NYSC program, In fact, the orientation camping starts the NYSC program and lasts for three weeks, towards the end of the NYSC orientation camping, corp members would be posted to their place of primary assignment; which is usually teaching or lecturing  in schools and Colleges, this is the major duty recommended by the Federal Government for the corp members to assist in spreading education in their place of service.

The program lasts for a year, you can only become an NYSC corp member just once in a lifetime. Once your one year service year has elapsed, the identity card is taken away from you and you are handed your NYSC discharge Certificate. then you're no longer a corp member anymore and it's time for you to go get a job in the labor market. Another fresh sets of graduates are admitted into the NYSC program again and that's how it goes over and over again (new sets in and old sets out. During my stay in the camp some little allowances were paid to us at the end of the camp we are paid our monthly stipend which is =19,800 (equal sign here means the sign of  Naira) which is about $55 (USD). You could see we earn quite little money in Africa.

PLATEAU HERE I COME, LET ME TELL YOU A LITTLE ABOUT THIS PLACE

And yes I was posted to Plateau State, the home of peace and tourism, i was angry and scared to be posted to a place like this because of the previous religious and social crisis which they've had in the past,  the State is located in the center of the country or in the north central zone (middle belt) of the country. I thought i wouldn't like the place but i ended up falling in love with the place.

 The State is made up of 17 local government areas and the place i found myself was in Mangu local government area LGA.

Plateau is the most temperate (coldest)  region in Nigeria, because of it's high altitude, because the higher the altitude, the colder it becomes, as the name implies, Plateau state has lots of hills, rocks and big mountains. The weather is always cold even when it is sunny it still feels cold, very few places are hot, e.g Shendam.

The capital of Plateau is Jos, almost every where is cold in Plateau and people have this wrong conception that Jos is the coldest place but that's not true, the coldest place in Plateau state is Pankshin. The general language used here is the Hausa language but each tribe has it's distinct language, When i resumed work at my place of primary assignment;College of Education Gindiri in the beginning of the year, i didn't experience any rainfall in some month's time compared to the southern region i came from, where rainfall is unpredictable. It was kinda strange but that's plateau for you, all i noticed that the place was very cold at night.

 And everywhere around me was mountains and during the early hours of the morning, you see something like smoke moving around the mountains, i feel that thing is responsible for the cold because as it moves and comes closer everywhere feels colder.

THE FIRST TIME I EXPERIENCED RAINFALL IN PLATEAU  STATE

The weather was looking dark and as if it want's to rain, i was in my room and it felt like stone are being thrown on my roof(aluminium roof sheet), i thought probably there was another crisis, but when i came out i saw droplets of ice blocks falling on  my roof along side with little rainfall, I was shocked because I haven't seen such before, it was such an amazing experience i saw the first time.

They got lots of food here; maize millet, cabbage, lettuce, beans, green beans, tomatoes, irish potatoes, rice and lots of cattle. Food is less expensive to buy here.

And there's something i love about this people, they are hospitable enough and friendly, even though they have religious differences but they try as much as possible to live together, where i stayed Mangu, isn't a crisis prone zone, its a place where family members are made up of both christians and muslims, so i don't have to fear any terrorist or religious attack.

Because of the cold weather, people over there smoke and drink a lot over there as it's done in temperate regions in Europe. Back then foreigners from Europe and America on business and tourism love visiting the place because of the cool weather. It such a beautiful place but they made it bad because of their radical nature at times which has caused religious crisis and it advanced to terrorist prone zone(Boko Haram). Their attitude and crisis scared foreigners away. But there are some foreigners who live there because they love the place so much despite the nature of the place. I saw many white foreigners when i went to Jos to get myself my first android phone i used at Ahmedu Bello way Jos.

I love their food, they eat weird animals like snakes and dogs, it was in Plateau i first tasted snake meat, it was prepared with lots of pepper and it was fun to eat.

 

Something that i like very much about them is their locally made alcohol called BURUKUTU and PITO, its brownish in color, but it highs like hell, i drank lots of it because it tastes good. it's made from guinea corn, called masara in the hausa language.

Their major occupation here is farming and cattle rearing ( the Fulani's are tribes found mostly in the Northern parts of Nigeria and their major occupation is cattle rearing)

Their Education system isn't as strong as what's obtainable in the western and southern region of the country but they are trying. I thought in College of Education Gindiri as a physics and mathematics teacher. It was fun for me during my service year. as thing s did not turn out to be how i thought, though there was a twin bomb blast that happened in Jos, but it didn't affect me because i wasn't at that place when it happened, i was in Mangu where my place of primary assignment was.

The NYSC was such an interesting program for me because i witnessed a totally different place very far away from home. We gathered as Corp members every wednesdays to have our CDS( Community Development Service). At times we do voluntary works, like sweeping and cleaning the community, mounting Zebra crossing, sign boards, painting e.t.c

CDS is a community development service made up of different groups, we have the EFCC, FRSC, NAFDAC, CEPAN, I belonged to the CEPAN(Center for peace Advancement in Nigeria) group an Organization fostering and preaching peace to the society.

My last days during the course of service

Me and some of my fellow corp members attended a Coronation ceremony in Gindiri town. The paramount ruler of the Gindiri town in Mangu LGA called the Sumpiem was made a king and it was fun that day, here are some of the pictures i snapped below.