Though I never really stayed at the corpers’ lodge but I would consider it my second home. If you got to my hostel and am not th...
Though I never really stayed at the corpers’ lodge but I would consider it my second home. If you got to my hostel and am not there, check me at the corpers’ lodge, if am not there, check me in one of the classes trying to bust trespassers…you know what I mean? If am not there, check me at the football house. If am not there, call the POLICE.
Sometimes I wonder how they cope at that corpers’ lodge of the secondary school where I served. You can imagine close to 40 matured men and women cramped into a 6-bedroom apartment, and funny enough, the CLO and his deputy had a room to themselves, each. Then leaving the rest at the mercies of just 4- rooms. Some of those rooms were even further divided into 'baby-rooms'.
I remember one of those rooms had no window. It was like a dungeon and it was a close friend of mine that had to stay in the room for the whole service year. No wonder he was always acting funny.
Now as we all know NYSC is a scheme meant to unite Nigerians after the Civil war and it has been able to achieve some of its aims and objectives by bringing people from diverse backgrounds together.
I remember having a friend named Phillip, he is a Fulani guy and so cool and gentle you would wonder if he could harm an ant. Phillip was so accommodating he mingled with even the Security men at the school and funny enough, he even assisted the Hausa guys around that were cobblers in doing their work. We had to stop him as fellow corps members, make him stop to dey disgrace our uniform, but he never cared.
One thing I will never forget about Phillip was when the Batch A corps members were having their POP week. We organized a party and I was so sure that would be the 1st club party he attended in his life.
Flavour’s song ‘Ashewo’ was trending then, and the DJ was putting on repeat. Phillip was dancing with a Yoruba girl named Adeola, she was my crush, even though Stephen, an Ishan corper had her. Phillip was so engrossed in the dance, at a time he slapped Adeola on her A**ss. We were all shocked, but luckily for him, the girl didn’t know he was the one, she thoughy it was her friend, Sylvia that was having her own good time right behind them.
Ibiang, was from Calabar and he was a very friendly and jovial guy. Everyone loved him and respected him. He seemed strong and always had every other person at heart. What we dislike about Ibiang was his lies. Ibiang would always tell us about his father’s estates in Calabar.
How massive the estate was and the great number of workers working for his family, it was later we got to know the estate was an Oil Palm Plantation. A friend of his disclosed this. Though Osaro had once observed that every time Ibiang travelled home, he always looked haggard when he returned due to the vigorous works he must have engaged in on the farm.
Osaro my guy. What would I say about him. He was literally a partner in crime. We routed the whole of Awka together in search of greener ‘pastures’. He’s so funny, which is typical of most Benin guys. He hardly cooked except on special occasions when he just got back from Benin, then you would all know Osaro had arrived. His stew had this kind of peculiar Aroma, you would know it was prepared with grinded pepper and curry.
Ayo, popularly called Ay beans, just for the fact that we never saw this guy cook any other meal through out the service year. And judging by AY’s height, then you would conclude its just a fallacy that beans makes us grow tall. A graduate of UNAD. We all love him, as he acts just like an adult and I heard he got so lucky, he had a job immediately after youth service.
Tosin, yeye Ijesha. My Kinswoman. This lady was so lovely and young, you would just conclude she got double promotion from SS3 to NYSC. She is quite tall, but had this babyish look and very fragile. She liked bread so much, she would always wake as early as 6 a.m to go get the early morning bread at a popular eatery .
Am tired joor…you will get to read about the others tomorrow
DIARY OF A JOBLESS NIGERIAN
