The National Youth Service Corps, NYSC, established by decree No.24 of 22nd May 1973, due to the ethnic tension inflamed by the gory years of the Nigerian Civil War, is one of the most significant schemes in present day Nigeria.
The NYSC scheme, quite unarguably, has, over the years, fostered national unity by creating a platform for graduate youths to live in different parts of the country for a period of one year. During this period, corps members, as these graduate youths are formally called, learn the culture of the host communities, including language, world view, and other pecularities which distinguish the host communities as a people.
These priceless lessons, to a large extent, have helped corps members to become dispassionate in their relationship with members of other ethnic groups, thereby promoting national unity.I, a Youruba by descent, was in March 2013 posted to Ebonyi, an Igbo-speaking state, to serve my dear country Nigeria. And, as it will be quite expected, I accepted the call-up letter with mixed feelings, the arch reason being that, as I have misleadingly learnt through prejudicial articles published in national newspapers and on the internet, the Igbo race are money-lovers, hostile, and Yoruba-haters. Another discouraging reason was the fact that, Ebonyi, as I have gathered from reliable sources, is predominantly rural.
Having these disheartening opinions in mind, I reluctantly carried my holdall, went to the Ojota park at Lagos, and embarked on a journey, for the first time in my life, to Eastern-Nigeria.
The Niger Bridge, a long, narrow, concrete enclosure, guarded by series of veering, aluminium rods, suspended by ginormous queue of iron reinforcements, and flying over the historic River Niger, was an awe-inspiring sight to behold. On the Niger Bridge, from an angle of depression, I saw, on the glassy river, to my amusement, little canoes, that were paddled by standing lads attired in mangy boxer shorts, casting dragnets at intervals, and waiting for a minute or two, to harvest tiny things, which from the distance appear to be tilapia.
Shortly after our bus conquered the Niger, marking our arrival at the commercial town of Onitsha, a stern-looking, soaring statue, fully dressed in military regalia, stood before us. This great statue, which on getting close I later discovered to be the immortalization of General Chukwuemeka Odumegwu-Ojukwu aka Ikemba Nnewi, the Biafran warlord, rekindled my respect for the armed forces.
The buzz of Onitsha, like it did to Chike in Achebe's children novel: Chike and The River, suggested to me that I would experience several amazing things, which would, most likely, be worthy of documentation. These instictive thoughts, which sprang up in my heart many months ago on my way to Ebonyi State, have become a reality, a reality which has forced me to write this ethnographic article, about some amazing things I have witnessed among the Igbos--hospitality being the foremost.
As I have mentioned earlier, Ebonyi, the state I was posted to serve my fatherland is predominantly rural. So, it was not surprising, when on the last day of the NYSC orientation camp, Afikpo, my posting letter requested me to report at Ohaozara Local Government. Ohaozara, a name which means 'heart of the desert' in Igbo tongue, is an epitome of rurality.
However, perhaps due to the wakefulness of my chi, Okposi, the small town where my place of primary assignment is located, is an oasis. Unlike some parts of Ohaozara, Okposi has several motor parks, network masts, filling stations, beer parlours, markets, restaurants, andbeautiful damsels.Nevertheless, constant power supply, like eclipse, is scarce. So, corps members, in the rareness of electricity, face great difficulty in the quest of charging phones and ironing clothes.
On the former challenge, the Igbos, being a very hospitable race, allow corps members to charge phones free of charge in shops, homes, hotels, and filling stations, where generators are available.This kindness have really struck me because indigenes, the sons and daughters of the soil, are deprived the privilege of charging their phones free of charge.
This warm kindness shown to corps members, most of whom are Yorubas, have clearly portrayed the Igbos as a hospitable race, who displease their own people to please strangers. It also affirm the view that the Igbos are neither Yoruba haters nor haters of other ethnic groups.

Another way the Igbos have shown hospitality to strangers, and particularly to corps members, is through polite greetings.In the past few months, if greetings were to be bricks, the frequent greetings I have received from members of the host community would have been enough to build skyscrappers. On a daily basis, whether I walk on the street, sit solitarily at the verandah of the corpers' lodge, visit the market, or attend church services, greetings come in baskets, from the lips of smiling faces, lips of the young and of the old.
"Copa Shun!" they would say in bright voices, "Kedu?" "Fine," I would answer in English, for fear of mispronouncing the quite complicated Igbo response: "Nne o dinma so o. They, knowing my fears, would laugh, and reply in pidgin English, "Copa Shun, wen you go start to dey speak Igbo sef?"
i would smile broadly, utter no word, while I take the risk of swallowing the gathering saliva in my mouth. Although greetings are no money, yet, I feel quite loved when I exchange greetings with anyone I come in contact with.
Hospitality, no matter how freely distributed, is incomplete without peace. The Igbos, I will say, based on the number of months I have spent among them, are peace lovers, as well as peace makers.Ohaozara Local Government, where I was posted, has no single functioning ATM machine, let alone a bank. So, in most cases, I make bank transactions at Afikpo, the second largest town in the state. The road which link Ohaozara to Afikpo, as I have written elsewhere, must not be travelled by a truck conveying crates of egg, because of the unmotorable state of the road.
Consequently, I make, on regular basis, several journeys to Afikpo, employing the services of commercial motorcyclists, who sprint like lightening on the pitted road, bringing to my memory
Timothy Wangusa's momentous poem "A Taxi Driver on His Death." During my frequent visit to Afikpo, amidst my fears and the desolateness of the road, I think of being attacked, of being killed, and of being kidnapped. But no such thing has ever happened. I consider the safety on that bleak road as the height of hospitality. Had it not been for hospitality culture of the Igbos, without police barricades, that road should have been a den of robbers.
About a month ago, I got a preferential treatment which further established the Igbos as a hospitable race. It was a cloudy Sunday evening, having so many friends and family to call, without airtime, I defiled the gloomy sky, to get a recharge card some streets away from my lodge. Shortly after I had purchased the recharge card, on my way back to the corper's lodge, it started to rain heavily. To avoid being drenched, I ran to a nearby beer parlour, where I meant several refuge seekers, who were standing uncomfortably, at corners where they were lashed by the clueless whip of the rain.But to my surprise, as soon as I had stepped into the beer parlour, the proprietor, whom I had never met, knowing I was a corp member, brought out a white plastic chair, dusted it, handed it to me, and told me to have my seat.
The rain continued violently for over thirty minutes; and while it lasted, I observed that almost ten men, without seats, crowded me. The kingly treatment given to me by the proprietor of the beer parlour was highly unmerired because I had never stopped at his bar, to drink beer nor pepper soup.The most interesting point was the fact that the proprietor displeased his own people to please me, a mere stranger.
Despite the hospitality of the Igbos, it saddens me that prominent Yorubas, like the former aviation minister, Chief Fani-Kayode, still write gratuitous articles about the Igbo race, about the selfishness of the Igbos, about how he had had 'intimate' relationship with Igbo women, and about the domineering nature of the Igbos.Though I am a Yoruba, yet, truth, no matter how unpleasant it seems, must be told at all times.
The Igbos are a race so hospitable in their dispositions toward strangers; so the Fani-Kayodes of this world must know that their parochial views do not represent the voice of the Yorubas as a whole, but of themselves. They must know that the Yoruba youth of my generation cannot be blinded by frivolous ethnocentric egos. We shall always be objective and dispassionate in our relationship with members of other ethnic groups.
Ademule David Oluwashina,
a social critic, wrote from Ebonyi State
08166299046
daviddenigma@ gmail.com




http://cherryfortune..com/2014/03/a-yoruba-corpers-experience-in-rural.html

i smell a brewing storm of tribal war

Hmmm...

Hospitality abound in every rural setting but in Urban.

[size=30pt]I know how to start a war here, but I will just pity the Igbo pple [/size]

Wonderful!!!!!

10000000000 likes for you bro.

We ain't as hostile as portrayed by the daily E-wars we witness here. Truth be told that actions on nairaland are spatially distinct from the persona of an average/typical igbo man. Hausas in the east get fare treatment unlike our brothers over there who get roasted like christmas ram often times. It's a good thing you attested to the igbo benevolence

War khe! Abeg I no dey d film oooo
Omo yeri e oko ...

The OP stopped short of telling us how many Beautiful Igbo chicks gave him that very pleasurable and private
preferential treatment in his bedroom .

Nigerians generally are very hospitable to strangers . . . They are ready to shield your vulnerability with kindness even when it appears to be against their kindred.

That is the Nigerian Spirit right there . . . .

Una doh

Pulls out 4rnt seat

Una nefa start?

Nice writeup...
#ireppeacefulnaija

Oga Seun @Nairaland viewing center

All the ethnic goats on this section should be chained together and taken to that village to spend a year, still chained together, being trained by those reasoning people, till they appreciate that, blood, heart and soul, Igbo, Yoruba, Fulani and foreigners are all the same species. Cowardly yoruba exist and same with Igbo! Flat-headed Yorubas exist, same with Igbo etc (no need to talk about chest-beaters cos both sides show dozens of those here daily)

Good.
Regardless of what your experience was or has been , there is nothing special about it.
It is simply the way Africans relate with one another until there is a reason for them to kill each other.
Spending one year as a sacred cow of the FG ,in any part of the country,does not make you an expert in this field.
I think I am more qualified to give a verdict. To say that the citizens of the East are naive and gullible will be an understatement. Those everyday people you see are the good ones and they are naturally welcoming like every non urban dwelling african.However they have been pushed into a life of basic existence by their leaders that ,most have no choice but to migrate out of the East. You see , Hating on the Southwest and telling lies against the great Oodua nation is their only means of holding on to power. However there is no one out there to challenge them .The land exists on a feudal state of nature and the news hardly covers what is going on there.
We all saw the charade called the anambra election.
My advise to you is to keep abreast with current affairs . Do not be caught sleeping or should I say slipping.
Ko so bi to I da bi ile.

I laughed when I read that he was expecting to be robbed or kidnapped?

Who in his right mind would rob or kidnap a church rat? Yoruba people self.

@op Thanks for sharing.

All truth no lie...

Nice one from op. Every tribe has good and bad people

Des0la:
can you give me five reasons why you should start a war?

[size=25pt]ONE REASON...... BECAUSE IT'S FUN [/size]

oluwalfa:
I laughed when I read that he was expecting to be robbed or kidnapped?

Who in his right mind would rob or kidnap a church rat? Yoruba people self.

ghen ghen! who will reply this guy?

i'm a proud ibo man but truth be told. ibos love money! our natural love for money is the reasons the ibos got back on their feet after the biafran revolution and the civil war that followed. we are natural salesmen,entrepreneurs,hustlers and so much more. alot of young people have been hoaxed into hating other tribes for no single reason due to tales of our fathers and their experience with a neighbouring tribe. is realy easy to make hate temporal or permanent in the hearts of some tribe but we ibos can never hate due to one man's tale.
when the people in power is stronger than the power in people then the nation is doomed-anonymous.

! Op will be good in the literature section

How you were able to make out that the fishes in the nets down the river from your position up the bridge were tilapia is baffling me. U carry binoculars??

OP is on point,God bless u for me op.shame to all the haters of Igbo pple

Des0la:
then U must be a f00l

[size=25pt]NICE COMPLEMENT.... THANKS [/size]OLD BRAT

cupidhero:
i'm a proud ibo man but truth be told. ibos love money! our natural love for money is the reasons the ibos got back on their feet after the biafran revolution and the civil war that followed. we are natural salesmen,entrepreneurs,hustlers and so much more. alot of young people have been hoaxed into hating other tribes for no single reason due to tales of our fathers and their experience with a neighbouring tribe. is realy easy to make hate temporal or permanent in the hearts of some tribe but we ibos can never hate due to one man's tale.
when the people in power is stronger than the power in people then the nation is doomed-anonymous.

As a proud yolobar mgbati man, let truth be told. We mgbati people are very dirty. Our natural penchant for laziness is the reason we have lost all political relevance in the country today. We are natural backstabbers, brother betrayers, ritualists and so much more. A lot of young people has been duped into hating others for no reason due to foolish tales of our ancestors, too much oily soup and their experience with others. We yolobars are too lazy to care.

OP
pls tell us level of development overthere compare to what we had here NL . U mention some town overthere, can u pls justify them with that of south-west township. More over what about social life overthere?

Nna, kam gba gi: Igbo are extraordinarily nice to corpers but not strangers. Have you ever leave your ppa to another village without any identification as a Corper?? u'll know how hostile they can be. I could remember one man almost removed my head cos of #20 (after we agreed on #50 for bike fair, he deduct #70 cos I gave him #200) until someone shouted he's a Corper ooo