Flashback Continues...At The Orientation Camp

The Orientation Camp

The registration exercise into the camp was rigorous, frustrating and assiduous! It stated in the morning and ran through the midnight of the 3rd day on camp. It seemed an endless exercise. At the entrance into the camp was a long queue wherein our baggage were ransacked to be sure that no prospective corps member enters the camp with dangerous weapon. The queue was long to have fetched me the position 578th Corps member in attendance.

After the registration exercise, the next step was to go to the “welfare” department and get the NYSC kits items, but due to the large population of corps member, we had to form another queue, it seems “queuing-up” was the order of the day. At the dinning hall, you queue for food, for the collection of ID card, you’ve got to queue as well, and most importantly for your “alawee” we’ve got to follow the trend and be on the queue as quickly as possible!

“…..Paraaan…!” came the deafening sound of the beagle early in morning followed by equally loud piece sound whistles by the army officers assigned to drill us. “Get up all of you! Make sure I do not catch you still sleeping! Fall out to the Parade Ground now! It was a rude awakening to many of us who were not used to awaking up at such dead hour of the morning! Thence, I knew I was in for real business! I had no choice than to get off my bed and obey the given instruction without delay with many of us practically shivering and murmuring as we walk towards the “holy ground”, it was a sad experience.

So we were on the field and I was able to see young graduates like myself, from different parts of the country now converging at Asaya camp, Kabba, for the compulsory three weeks camping. I could see people of with different vision, mission and purposes of life, I could see through the mirror of the future, that here amidst us, lies the future leaders of our Country, I could see with the eyes of faith, the future President of Nigeria, Ministers, Great Business Men, Professionals in diverse field, Commissioners, Missionaries, Senators etc, I could see deep things beyond the present tense. I was lost in thought.

The next activity for the day re-awakened me and I was back to consciousness. The inimitable Camp Director himself, Mr. Falase, read the order of the day-today activities to our hearing and tried to instill some virtues of nationalism on us.

Before long, the social activities had taken over the whole camp. From the Orientation Broadcasting Service (OBS), came a variety of both local and international lyrics, current with periodic announcement. The stimulated performances by other groups including those of the Christian Fellowships and Muslim body, the platoons. This included inter-platoon competition in sports, cooking, drama and dance, pageants etc.

The camp was really fun as it afforded me the opportunity of meeting and making new friends, but it became boring towards the end as newly found lovers wouldn’t want to part … The slogan “what Orientation Camp has joined together, let no Primary Assignment Posting put asunder”. The corpers wished that it never came to an end. I belonged to platoon 8 and we had a way of identifying ourselves among other platoons. Our Platoon Commander’s call was the sign tone. As he would normally call out: “8 Platoon Shan!” and he gets immediate response: “Yes, Sir”