My NYSC experience by Tobi Akanni

I have heard all sorts of gists about the service year which includes the good, the bad and the ugly before my own service year. I wouldn't say I was looking forward to it anyways I was just glad I was leaving the University.

I have always had this fear that I was gonna be thrown far away from home since I've lived all my life in South-West region of Nigeria and then, my fear came to reality.

I actually wanted to serve either in Ogun (Abeokuta) or Oyo (Ibadan) as they were not very far from Lagos where I reside with my family and when I was gonna be deployed, I got Rivers State. Believe me when I say I started purging immediately I saw it online as we did our registration online and got our deployment news there as well and again, the news came late at night. After a while, I got used to the fact that I was gonna leave Lagos and the plan was to get there and redeploy which is usually the plan of everyone that didn't get where they wanted to go.

I soon got to camp and contrary to general belief that the 3weeks in camp is usually the best time of service year, I didn't have fun. I barely had time to eat as I was my platoon leader and I was always busy with one thing or the other. I would say I didn't do bad as a leader as my platoon came 1st in 2 sporting events and 1 social event which surprised a lot of people as I was seen as the "buttie" platoon leader (I guess they didn't believe the saying about not judging a book by its cover).

I got a lot of attention as my platoon leader as I always stood in front of my platoon on the parade ground and I was usually laughed at as the camp RSM (I've forgotten what it stands for again) always found his way to tackle me and make jokes from my flinching and as the leader, I had to always stand correctly and y'all know how long parades can be sometimes.

Camp was coming to an end and I still had not started to process my redeployment because I had been told good gists about Port Harcourt. Everyone I knew kept on saying "Just ensure that you're not posted to one of the villages, you'd make oil money", who doesn't want to make oil money? It wasn't hard for me to get posted to good part of Port Harcourt but the annoying part is about 90% of corpers in Rivers State end up in schools as teaching assistants.

I soon got my posting letter and I was posted to Model County Grammar School (MCGS) - Ikwerre Etche (a boys alone school). When the 5 of us that were posted there got there, the senior corpers we met there were very accommodating but I didn't feel at home and almost cried after the first night there. I spent weeks in camp and wasn't bitten by even a mosquito but I was attacked by different insects the first night at the corper's lodge provided by the school. I knew I couldn't survive in that environment so I had to find an alternative shelter.

It's been a wonderful experience since the first day I stepped foot in MCGS as the senior corpers we met there were nothing short of wonderful and the main teachers are very accommodating as well. The principal (Mr. Francis) on the other hand is a hard nut to crack. Mr. Francis is actually a very nice man, he even offered us whisky the 1st time we met with him but the senior corpers feared for us initially that he might not accept us as he's refused corpers a lot in the past.

I learnt a few things during my service year that I won't forget in a rush and weird as it might seem, I'm actually enjoying the teaching experience and my students actually love me. I might consider teaching in a higher institution later in future and also, I learnt to appreciate every teacher that ever taught me in school.

PS - My NYSC experience is way longer than this but I decided to cut some details as long stories bore me to read so I wouldn't wanna bore you more than I already have. CDS and Monthly clearances are major experiences too not forgetting the recent Head Count 😂


***Thanks a lot Tobi for sharing your experience with us, wish you the best as you face the Labour market soon. More photos below