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The three weeks spent on camp was not spent in vain. The endurance trek, the drills, match past in the sun , punishments and all are something, I would always be grateful for, that is why I am personally against the notion of scraping NYSC. I would never have participated in such rigorous tasks that I have only seen on shows like Fear factor, Ultimate search (Nigeria’s version of Survivor) and survivor itself. Until I was forced to do them by the environment I found myself. I was deployed to a state in the North central zone of the Nigeria and our platoon commandant was a female, so she did not spare the females in the platoon at all. She was one of the strongest soldiers on the camp and other male soldiers respected her, and she really drilled us, we the girls especially. In fact she was our major problem on camp, because she was more of an extremist and feminist all combined into one. All the drills were done by the girls , those who complained about not being able to do anything, were made to do them after others have been dismissed. After the first time of staying back when others have been dismissed, I decided to do everything at the first time because, it only gets worse when you are made to stay back. I developed stamina, strength and a little bit of fearlessness. This was soon to be a valuable asset , when on a warm afternoon about two weeks after camp, I entered a “one chance” vehicle when I went for a Job Recruitment test in Lagos.

http://www.elijahforce..in/2013/02/short-story-perfect-escape.html

It was immediately obvious when I boarded the commercial bus that things were not right, it was a bus and I realized that we were only about 8 passengers in the bus and most of them were fearful looking, the conductor had also sat down and we were passing bus-stops and all , then finally I got it, they were criminals and just about four of us were victims, I immediately started devising a plan. One of the other ladies too, must have noticed and she said she wanted to alight the bus. Nobody answered, it felt like she was talking to herself, she became hysterical and started screaming, she was then given a dirty slap across a face to calm her down. It was kind of an age long therapy that robbers knew too well and this time it worked like magic. The lady became mute as a doorknob like she didn't even feel pain from the slap. They were trying to get us from the busy inner streets to the lonely highways , where they can rob us carefully then drop us, I was sitting near the door which was still open beside the conductor, suddenly we approached a sharp bend where we had to slow down, this was the opportunity I needed, I grabbed my bag and flew out , landed on the floor and rolled off the road, even the conductor must have been amazed by my athletic ability . I got up dusted myself and ran, they didn’t even stop, they kept on moving even faster. I was grateful to God, my platoon commandant and myself. I am definitely stronger now. I had some bruises but who cares, I am alive, and safe, that is all that matters.

The National Youth Service Corp (NYSC) is a one year compulsory para-military for all right out of school graduates in Nigeria. It involves 3 weeks on intense training in a camp and then another 9 months of deployment mostly to parastatals . “One chance” is a loose term used for camouflage commercial vehicles hijacked by criminals with the sole intention of robbing it’s passengers.

Nice story, but is this a true story?