JOURNEY TO AN UNKNOWN FATHERLAND

It was a beautiful Thursday morning, the last day of the three weeks orientation course which is the program every Nigerian student who has earned a degree certificate or HND would undergo. We all woke up in the morning all dressed in our 7/7 outfit, well kitted like a soldier going to the battlefield. As usual, we moved to the parade ground, everyone was excited and anxious to leave the four corners of the camp. Though, the three weeks was bit tough but honestly, it was fun filled. The state coordinator came for the final address and soon after, the parade match followed by each platoon and, the issuance of the PPA (Place of primary assignment) came finally. Each platoon inspector called their members to a corner to give the letter. I saw some people rejoicing while some were sobber following the collection of the posting letter. My heart was beating against my ribs, and my eyes was now focused on my platoon inspector as he was calling out our code number and giving the letter. I heard “KW/22C/0128” which was my state code and I rushed to collect mine. Opening the letter and I went straight to the line that indicated where I would spend my remaining 10 months of service.

Glancing at the name of the institution and local government I was posted to, the euphoria of the passing out parade went away immediately. Some other comrades were posted there too then I began to ask around if anyone could brief me about this local government but unfortunately no one has the idea of this location even those that were indigene of Kwara state among us. The expression of those that knew a bit about this local government was not welcoming, at first, I thought it was just an exaggeration not until when I made use of google on my smartphone to see for myself. Indeed, it was heartbroken based on the picture I saw online. It was a very remote area, I counted it as bad luck. While I was sitting on a log to think for a while, a phone call came through and broke my inner silence. Guess what, it was our Local government inspector. I could hear him speaking from the other side of the phone calling my name and state code to make sure he was speaking with the right person. I answered yes then he told me to meet him at the exit of the orientation camp. I rushed to meet him, he had already arranged two buses that would transit us to our location. I was handed the list of the remaining Corp members who belong to the same local government, then he gave me his smartphone and I began to call them one after the other. I can’t really remember the number, but we were more than thirty (30) on the list. Some responded to the phone call while others didn’t. At the end we were 18 available for the journey to the unknown fatherland including our L.G.I (Local Government Inspector).

Before I proceed, let me mention two people I never thought would be part of my service journey “Akintunde Lanre” and “Nathaniel Blessed” Lanre was my hostel mate, and our bunk was lying next to each other. He was in platoon 4 while I was in platoon 8, What brought us close was the fact that we are Alumni from the same institution. Though we never knew each other in school, you could say destiny brought us together. At night, we always discuss how we spent our campus life at Olabisi Onabanjo University and shared other common experiences so, within the three weeks we already built a solid relationship. Secondly, Blessed was my platoon mate, we met on the parade ground. A cool and dark skin girl from the east, she invited me to an evening service in Niger Christian Cooper’s fellowship which I didn’t turn up for it. Blessed and I belong to the same platoon and fortunately we were posted to the same place of primary assignment.

The journey to Kaiama town started some minutes past 11, I was sitting next to the driver and the journey seems to be going smoothly. I discussed few things with the driver just to get information about where we are heading to, he emphasized more on the fact that it’s a rural environment and that the distance isn’t friendly. After sitting in the bus for three hours, I asked if we were moving closer to our destination, only for him to tell me that we still have about 4 hours drive to reach there. Is this a joke? Lots of phone calls from my mum was just too disturbing that I had to turn on the flight mode. We dashed into a rough and dusty road and the real journey started. The path was too sandy that our bus almost fell while speeding along it. The evening twilight came, and we were yet to reach our destination. My countenance changed, it was not funny anymore, I thought if we were still in Nigeria because all I could see were bushes and herdsmen shepherding their cattle. We worried if we were not already victims of kidnappers but, since we have our Local government inspector with us, there was nothing to worry about. Some minutes before 8pm we arrived at our location, it was dark already and there wasn’t much to visualize except headlights illuminating tarred roads and roadside signpost. Our predecessors were sitting outside the lodge awaiting our arrival. The bus halted and we were welcomed as ‘Otondo’ meaning fresh corpers with delicious jollof rice and soft drinks while the soft cool music was playing as we sat under the tree. This was the best way to welcome any Corp member posted to Kaiama local government to relieve the stress of been inside the bus for hours travelling through a strange road. During the meal, the existing Corp members introduced themselves and we also did the same. After the refreshment we were allocated into rooms with the help of the Lodge admin, and we spent the night. My friend Lanre whom I mentioned earlier and I slept in the same room with another comrade from my platoon. The night was long because I couldn’t sleep due to the lots of thoughts in my head coupled with the catarrh caused by the dusty road.

The next morning was Friday when we dashed out to view the beautiful atmosphere of the new fatherland and One could easily tell that their major occupation there was farming. We prepared for our documentation at the NYSC office, which was just opposite to the lodge, during this process, the principal heading my place of primary assignment arrived and our LGI introduced us, we were four posted to Kemanji Junior secondary school but, just three of us were available then. Immediately after the documentation, we embarked on another journey of about 30 minutes in the Principal’s car to Kemanji village to report to the school. We were also entertained with rice and locally made soyabeans cake, I was not new to the soyabeans cake because I have had it many times before coming to Kwara state unlike the two others. I requested a rejection letter so I could be posted to another school or organization, but it wasn’t granted. Instead, the Principal sat the three of us down and embolden us to persevere, he further told us the good things about the community and other benefits of been posted to Kaiama. After the words of encouragement, we headed back to the lodge, though, I wasn’t happy, and it took a while for my countenance to change but I had no choice than to accept what has come. Afterall, I wasn’t the only Corp member there, Our senior comrades have been there for months anticipating our arrival to join them in serving the country with integrity. It was almost december period so schools were closed to vacation and there was nothing much left to offer for the few weeks before vacation. I wrote a letter of permission to travel back home so I could come back by January fully prepared to start a new journey in the unknown fatherland.

Few among us worked their way out of the local government while majority stayed back, and the next 10 months was full of lot of experiences with the new environment, tribe and total way of life of the new peoples I found myself with which I would share later on this platform. I would also share a little history of Kaiama town in my next post.
Thanks for reading.

Love you all 💕💕