Yes!!! Ok So I've always wanted to do this, ever since I've been seeing past Corp members experience on this NYSC Section.
I would be sharing my experience right from when I saw my Call up letter, I hope you guys enjoy and hopefully I don't forget the major details.

GL Guys where una dey:
cc Y0rmee, Franceswasky, Dream2, Chumaster, mightyleks, justifiedcoyy, aBbiie25, Greycious, ruthobaz, tenderblaze, edbor, JohnQueen, bussieboi, Funkeadeoye, Dipson and dotman, showgolee.

And shout out to "Off the Light!!!" Crew, Room 2 Hostel 1 Guys

"Oya Dami help me check it! I am too scared to check it myself." I said to my younger sister, asking her to help me check the Laptop screen, where I had downloaded my callup letter in pdf, while my heart was racing like I was being chased by a masquerade.

All of a sudden she exclaimed "Kebbi, ah Brother Dotun is going to Kebbi". Drawing the attention of the whole house, who all started trooping towards our apartment, shouting through the window with joy "Sheybi we told you? You'll get posted to Kebbi State", particularly obvious among the little crowd was a lady in my house who had served in Kebbi 2-3 years ago and had been telling me I would be posted to Kebbi, ever since I told her I picked Kebbi among my Four(4) choice states.

While all these drama were happening, I had not even checked my callup letter to confirm if my Younger Sister was joking or was serious. After mustering courage to check it myself, I scanned through the sheet hurriedly, hoping that somehow my sister was joking but alas I was greeted me with: Kebbi State, NYSC Permanent Camp site, Dakingari.

Lots of thoughts started pouring into my mind, like "how would I get there? Where would I get the transport fare? How would I be coming back home to see my family? Why so far away from home? Who asked me to pick Kebbi? Why didn't I research well about where Kebbi State is in Nigeria? Why did NYSC have to give me Kebbi among all the states I picked sef?"
Then it struck me! I can always redeploy, what was all the fuse about sef? I felt at ease a little bit for that period of time. I immediately went to WhatsApp to inform my Batch '16 hopefuls family on WhatsApp to give them the "not to so good news" about where I was posted. Most of the guys replied with "Eyaah, don't worry you'll redeploy na". The funny thing was that, majority of them were posted to Southwestern States, while a few of them got posted to Zamfara, Taraba, others were to go with Stream II, I felt sad for the last crew, cause we had all been at home for over a year waiting to be called to " Serve our Father's Land ".

I later went ahead to inform my other friends, my media crew team members, who were still undergraduates, that I had been to posted to Kebbi. It was like they had all been waiting for me to be posted to Kebbi State, as they started to reply with "I told you so", I just stylishly laughed it off and told them "I'd redeploy na".
A particular friend of mine, AY, buzzed me up to ask where i had been posted, we both graduated from the same Institution same set, but he was fortunate to be mobilized with Batch A '16 and was also posted to Kebbi State. I read his message and refused to reply him at first, because he was among those that caused this Kebbi State predicament I found myself in.




How you ask??

I had always known AY had been posted to a Northern State, but I was not sure if it was Kebbi or Niger State. He had posted a picture of him climbing on a Camel during his swearing in ceremony for Batch A '16 Corp Members at Kebbi State Camp and that got me really excited, like I would like to be posted to Kebbi State also so I can also pose with a camel. " what a wonderful feeling that'd be", I thought at the time. Most times whewe chatted on WhatsApp or social media, I had kept calling him "Niger State Corper" and he kept correcting that he was posted to Kebbi and not Niger, I still continued to make the same mistake. Why? I don't know, reason best known to my brain, maybe because they were so close to each other and Niger seemed more like the State with numerous camels.

So on the day I was to do my NYSC registration, after almost fighting with our school's NYSC officer at the Students' Affairs Division because we had not seen our names on NYSC portal and Registration had already kicked off a day before. We were of the opinion that all the "good states" would have been selected and we would be made to select the "not so good ones". The WhatsApp numbers we had gotten from NYSC's website weren't making things easy either, as they kept telling us our institution were yet to submit the Hard Copy of our lists for "synchronization" on their website, while our Officer told us he had done it over a week or two ago. We all thought we were going to be 'codedly' not mobilzed again and that'd mean wasting almost two years at home, when we were not trying to gain admission into the University. To cut the long story short, we later saw our names on NYSC's portal on the 2nd day of registration, I was at work at the time, so I had to wait till I got home to start my registration.

Once I got home I started looking for a cafe to do my registration, the first one had so many people to attend to, so they asked me to come the next day. I replied "okay, no problem", but went ahead to look for another cafe to finish my registration. It didn't take me long to locate another cafe that had low patronage, but the mistake I made was not asking how much they charged.

I took a passport with them, because I had none and my bio data capturing. When it was time for me to select my four choice States, this was when the " AY mistake " had come into play. The first column or tab had only Northern States, so I picked Kwara, the 2nd was Southern States, I picked Oyo Stare (my most preferred and dream State), the 3rd were Nothern States also, I had first picked Niger thinking that's where AY I was posted and had proceeded to pick Enugu as my fourth choice. The pressure of the lady doing the registration was too much for me ask she kept asking me if I was sure and that she had other people to attend to, I asked her to change Niger to Kebbi, so I would spite AY a bit, thinking at least if they don't give me Oyo that I had telling everyone I would be posted to, most especially AY, at least me and AY wouldn't be in the same State.

I finished my registration and refused to the online payment with them, as I could easily do that at home myself and I had already even done the first stage of the registration myself. When I asked how much my bill was, I was told N1,700, N200 for the passport and N1,500 for the registration and that was because I didn't do the first stage of registration with them or ask that they help me make my payment, safe to say I would have paid N3,000 for just registration that day. I paid for the bill out of spite, cause I was ripped off and this was something I could have just done at home, if I had the thumbprint scanner or I had just paid for only thumbprinting and finished the rest at home.

I got home and told my mum about it and she was satisfied with it, she only felt that I should have picked only southern Western states and when I explained to her NYSC's policy, she was cool with it. When I told Ay how I had picked Kebbi and not his State Niger, he was like "Na Kebbi I dey jor, how many times i go tell you?" I was like "ooh, nothing spoil". Then he told me let God's will be done but he has a strong feeling I would be posted to Kebbi, I was like God forbid "na Oyo Sate I dey go o", he replied "OK o". When I told the lady in my house that had serves in Kebbi, that I picked Kebbi State she was like " Kebbi ni o nlo" (You're going to Kebbi State), I replied "it's a lie na Oyo I dey go", with so much confidence, that you'd think the DG was either my Dad or Uncle or I had already paid a huge some of money for my posting "na Oyo, Ibadan!!!"

Well we all know what later happened at the end..

Following.

When I finally replied AY, I just told him "I'm redeploying" and he started laughing, because he didn't need a soothsayer to tell him I had been posted to Kebbi State.

I came back to the NYSC section and the NYSC Batch B 2016, prospective corp members thread to look for fellow Kebbi State corpers, I saw a few, we created a WhatsApp group and talked about when to leave, where to the board a bus to Kebbi and the likes.

When I called my mom to tell her about where I was posted, she was like "Kebbi ke? Ah!" And she dropped the call. I called my dad also to inform him that I was posted to Kebbi State, he was like "Ok, when are you going?".
"Thursday" I replied. "Ok, I wish you safe journey" was his reply.
I proceeded to meet my mom at work and her face said it all, she looked unhappy and scared that something might happen to me. I was her only son and you know parents or should I say Nigerians have this general perception that every Northern state is plagued with Boko Haram. I looked at her, while smiling and told her "all is well, I'll be fine, they said the place is cool and there's nothing like Boko Haram there". This I had found out when I posted on my Facebook "when NYSC decides to send you to Kebbi!!! ", for a guy, I had not gotten that much comments in my posts or photos for a very long time, over 50 comments. They were all consoling me and telling me how Kebbi is good and I shouldn't be scared, they even assured me the state capital, Birnin Kebbi has better power supply than Lagos. Although, someone had a negative comment which caused a little brawl, but I was able to quickly settle it. I was actually feeling like a King though , people fighting on top my posts, that was a first. Apparently, Momsi had also seen the post and commented on it, I had not checked to see it then.
So she told me "I'm sure you would be okay, there's a reason for everything and God will surely protect you."
I left her office and went home, on getting home, my Dad called me back "I just found out about Kebbi, they told me it is very far, I didn't know it was that far, it is farther than Kaduna and Abuja. They said the road is not good and Boko Haram is there and that you should redeploy".
I replied " I know, but I'd have to get there first before I can redeploy ". He replied " You have to go ke? Must you go to the camp before you can redeploy? " I replied affirmatively and told him the only way I might not have to go was not reporting to camp at all and remobilizing with Batch A '17. His reply was "Yes, don't go at all" and me that I had been at home for more than a year, who couldn't take it anymore, just replied "No daddy, I have to go o." He replied "OK o, you and your mom should decide and let me know your final decision". My reply was "okay", having at the back of my mind that there was no way I'd miss this Batch again.

A close friend of mine, Michael was posted to Kebbi State too, I helped him to check and broke the news to him. He had not even gotten his kits and other necessary stuffs that he needed, he didn't even have his school I.D card. You can say that Michael got posted to Kebbi because of me and he didn't let me hear the last of it even at camp, that is a story for another day.

So, I started enquiring about where to board the bus from the lady in my house and she told me the best place to board the bus was around Oyingbo, Idoo Bus Stop, I told Michael and coincidentally he was told the same thing. He asked when I would be leaving, I replied "very early on Wednesday morning and make sure say you reach there on time o, you know camp opens on Thursday and the Journey is for like 16-19 hours", he replied "Sure na, i know what's at stake this time", Michael is used to coming late for everything.
I checked to confirm with Promise, he was among the Nairalanders on the WhatsApp group that I clicked with, he was also going to take Idoo, so we had agreed to meet at the garage on Wednesday morning.
.
Tuesday night, I was already packing and getting all my stuffs in my traveling box and the rest in my bag, I was good to go. When my Dad came back from work, my mom was successfully able to help me scope him to take me to the garage, early Wednesday morning.
I could barely sleep that night, I was too over excited and I couldn't wait for the journey. I slept my 11 and I woke up by 2am, sleep totally left my eye, I was just browsing through the net, doing dying minutes checks, before I proceeded to take my bath around 3am. Around 5am my parents woke up, they had their baths and got set, our other other neighbors were also awake as we had switched on our Gen, so some of them came to charge. When I was about leaving they called prayed for me and wished me safe journey, while I got into my Dad's car with my mom, bidding my younger ones goodbye, before leaving for the garage.

following fa!

Hehe,not following fa.

On getting to the garage with my parents, my mum and dad started urging me to call those I planned on going with. I first called Promise(the guy I clicked with on WhatsApp)
Me: "Promise what's up, are you at the garage, I just got there".
Promise: "Yes now, sheybi we agreed to meet here by 5am, I've already gotten a bus, I'm with the 1st bus".
Wondering why he didn't call me when he got to the garage first like we agreed on, I got to the garage a little past 6am.
Me: "Ok, how much is the transport fare?"
Promise: "It is N7,650 3 people on a seat and N6,650 for 4 on a seat"
Me: "Ok, I'll be coming now".
Promise: "Which side are you? Let me get you inside the next bus, I'm wearing a jean shirt and trousers".
Coincidentally, that was what I was also wearing.
Me: "That's what I'm wearing, I'll be there soon".
I cut the call and placed a call to Michael's phone.
Me: How far Michael? Where you dey I don dey there.
Michael: which side you dey?
Me: We dey Idoo bus stop na.
Michael: we don go front o, them tell us say na another place for front.
Me: no o, na Idoo gan gan.
Michael: Ok we dey come back.

A few mins later I saw Michael and Promise almost simultaneously, Michael brought a very big Ghana must go, like they had just chased him away from home and asked him not to ever come back. Promise, on his own was trying to direct to the Ticketer, so we can book our transport to Kebbi State.

I met Michael's mum and his elder brother for the 1st time, it was Michael's first time too of meeting my Mom and Dad, I introduced my parents to Michael's mum and brother. My mom was really curious to see the Michael that I fondly talked about. After the short pleasantries, Michael's mom asked immediately "how much is the ticket and who are we getting it from?", I told her the ticket prices. She went straight away to the Ticketer to book our tickets (Me and Michael's). After she had gotten it, we were asked to enter the 18 seated bus immediately. We dropped our luggage with our parents, who ensured the "Professional luggage arrangers" put all our stuff inside the boot. They started arranging everyone's luggage, using different planks to provide more room for the bags inside the boot, before arranging the luggage's on top of one another.

I was later told that was their job, to arrange luggage's and they get paid a reasonable amount for it. Their arrangement was always full proof and our bus looked like it had a hunch back, because of the amount of luggage we had all brought. Unlike the southwestern buses where you'd be asked to pay extra for your load, we weren't asked to pay for any.

Me and Michael settled inside the bus, we were seated in the 2nd to the last seat, at our back were two guys and a girl, who we later found out to be Gomez, Muyiwa and Ayomide. Gomez was dark skinned guy with average height, while his friend Muyiwa was a little bit short and well built, I later found that he had been training in a gym for more than 7 months. They are both graduates of Music from the prestigious Lasu. I didn't really relate well with Ayomide, so I didn'treally know much about her, but she had claimed to be an SU, putting on a slit gown that revealed much of her laps :O. Na her won kind of SU I go 1st see.

There was a girl by Michael's side, her name was Bola, also a graduate of Lasu, Accounting I think, no so sure. She was like Muyiwa's height and was slim, unlike most of us in the bus, she was posted to Sokoto State. She was a really good sport and a huge fan of Tiwa Savage. Proceeding to the next seat at our front was Nurse Debby, who was at the extreme left, a Graduate of Nursing from Delta State University, Delsu. Nurse Debby, Deborah by name, was rocking a Low cut and she had on a vintage shirt and a jean trousers, she had a very pretty and was straightforward with an average height. She was the perfect girlfriend package. Next to her was a dude that I didn't really get his name, as he was silent all through our journey, he was the tallles guy in the bus, rocking a very big punk that was beginning to look like gallas and in my front was Funmi, who we would later Advocate and google map to Kebbi State, she was not too short too, fair in complexion.
The first seat had two guys and a girl, one of the guy's being Dayo, who became our room mate. Two guys were also seated close to the driver Moses and Obinna. Moses who we called Kastina throughout the journey, was a Yoruba guy who had graduated from Kastina State University.

The guys at the front seat and the ones seating close to the driver were called "Bad Government" by Advocate Funmi in the course of the journey, as they'd refused to let anyone asides them charge with the Driver's car charger.

And before I forget, our Driver was a cool headed old Hausa man, who knew how to perfectly manipulate the road, in fact he and his bus were in perfect sync. The interior of the bus wasn't too good, I was seating at the last edge of the seat, andthat part of the seat was already damaged, Funmi's own was completely ripped off, so she had nothing to rest on, same thing for Dayo. We all had to manage the seat till we got to Kebbi and it being 3 people per seat, made it easier for us to manage and try to comfort ourselves.

The Garage at Idoo for buses going to the North, was sitting on a plot of land with a small gate leading inside and outside it. The ground was muddy and it looked like it was soaked in engine oil. A Marcopolo Bus was parked near our bus and looked like it was about to load or had just returned from a journey. The garage had some shops behind it and at the side of the shop was a pathway where passengers can pass to go and ease themselves and it is safe to say I used it, because I was pressed and had to quickly use it before the very long journey started. Although I was made jest of by Funmi's mom "that we had not started the journey and I was already to pee, what about when we started the long journey". I just shrugged off the comment and went to do my business.

Kudos Dotun,so you mean Micheal mum paid for your transport fare to kebbi state?mehn,like free for you?
" She went straight
away to the Ticketer to book our tickets (Me and
Michael's)."

Dream2:
Kudos Dotun,so you mean Micheal mum paid for your transport fare to kebbi state?mehn,like free for you?
" She went straight
away to the Ticketer to book our tickets (Me and
Michael's)."

No, we gave her the tfare back, I skipped that part.

Dottune:
No, we gave her the tfare back, I skipped that part.

It's alright.

Silently following..

waiting for the camp fire night part

Here is a writer in the making... *following*

Dottune come where are you? Come and update asap! Please mention me when you do

Around a fees minutes past 7am our bus left Idoo Park, Promise bus had already left the park like 30mins before ours, before then Michael's brother had gotten the both of us bread and told us to get drinks on the way, so we could eat it. I had also brought Plantain chips filled in an Eva bottle from home, which my mom had prepared for me for the long journey with two canned drinks, Pepsi and Coke. The last thing we got at the park were two Tecno Earpiece, we had a lil bit of tough time negotiating with the Vendor that came to our bus with earpiece and power banks to sell to us in the bus before leaving.
We wanted to get the earpiece for N200 each, knowing that it was fake and that's the standard price for it here in Lagos, but he replied "Dollar don rise, I no fit sell am for una at that price". I replied him "wetin concern dollar with earpiece", he was like "Ok, i go sell am for una N300 each". I still insisted that we'd buy it for N200 and not N300, since he was an Igbo guy I asked Michael to speak with him in his Language, maybe he'll yield, probably he thought cause we are prospective copers we have lot's of money on us or we weren't aware how much it was sold. He said something in Igbo and was "Na Tecno earpiece be this", me knowing it was fake replied him "we know say na fake Tecno earpiece, just give us the two for N500", thinking about it a bit, he finally agreed and sold it to us, before our bus finally left the park.

As we were leaving Idoo for 3rd mainland bridge, Ayomide the self acclaimedSU asked someone to lead us in prayer, nobody seemed ready to do this, so we told her to lead us in prayer, since she was the one that suggested it. Apparently, that was what she was waiting for, as she wasted no time and led us in a short prayer, while we all echoed a resounding "Amen!!!". Few mins into the journey, Ayomide gave us breaking news "my mom just called me and told me she lost her purse at the garrage and N20,000 was inside", everyone in the bus was trying to console her and were like in this hard times, it must really hurt your mom. Ayomide simply brushed it off and said "it is the important things in my mom's purse I'm worried about, she can make back that N20,000 in 3 days." Everyone in the bus had this "ehn ehn" expression, Michael in his own jovial but serious manner replied "I would like to do your mummy's work o", we all laughed it off and continued hosting.

We were now making our way to 3rd Mainland bridge, while trying to know much about one another. Something led to another and we started talking about "MMM", I, Gomez, Michael, Muyiwa, Ayomide, Debby and the last lady on our seat were the ones discussing about it. We were talking about how risky it was, cause almost all of us except for Ayomide and Debby were too scared to invest in the scheme and that it'd soon crash. Debby being outspoken cut us short and said "Everything in this life is a risk, if you cannot risk anything then don't put your money in it. Even this journey that we are embarking on to Kebbi is a risk, I've made investments into MMM and I've made my money back also, I just even recently made another and if it goes with it, no problem." All we guys were just nodding and replying "yes that's true", while at the back of my mind I was like " nothing weh go make me do MMM". I was having this thoughts until Ayomide burst our bubble and said she invested N1,000 into MMM and got her money back, everybody just started laughing, like how you go take put N1,000 into MMM. She just simply replied with something like that's the amount she was willing to risk.

We had left Iyana Iworo and were about to get to Berger axis, when our driver stopped to buy petrol at a filling station. This time, while I was still admiring Debby's, who had no make up on, no lipstick, rocking it with her lowcut, was still looking so beautiful, made me wonder what she'll look like if she made her hair and had makeup on her face, I guess I wouldn't be finding out soon. While I was making those observations, she started talking about her experience with a popular Transport company (name withheld) that she was supposed to have followed along with other prospective corp members posted to Kebbi State. I was surprised cause I didn't have them in my plans at all, their ticket price was N12,500 and there was no way I could compe up with that money in 3 days or ask my parents to. She said: "I was added to their WhatsApp group and we were asked to transfer N12,500 to a certain man's account who works with them and was also in the WhatsApp group, so as to book the ticket before today and get my space. Me being skeptical about mobile transfer, instead told them that I'll pay in cash today instead, although the man advised me not to because there would be rushing tomorrow, I just told him I'd be there early. On getting there this morning, they looked so disorganized, even the people that had paid couldn't get spaces in the bus and they were asking to go home and come back the next day. My elder sister who brought me in car was looking at me like 'see what you caused', I just gave her a look like I wasn't ready for this, this morning. I was so confused as I couldn't imagine leaving for Kebbi the next day. Someone later advised us to go to Idoo park, on getting there, there were buses still available leaving for Kebbi. Thank God that transport company didn't ruin my plans". she finally said. We were like "lucky you", before we left the filling station.

cc: Chomsky1967

callmemercy:
Here is a writer in the making... *following*

Hehe.. I pray o, glad you could drop by

Now on Lagos-Ibadan expressway we had a smooth ride except for the traffic we encountered on the way. Our driver should have been casted in Fast and Furious the way he kept speeding and making manoeuvres on the road, was very refreshing for me except for others who wanted him to reduce his speed because it was like he was in a driving competition with other vehicles on the road, the driver feigned ignorance as he didn't listen to anyones complaints. I later got to find out that, that was how Hausa men drove most especially when it is a long distance journey.

We were now at Ibadan toll gate, some of us got beverages, while Michael was eating my plantain chips with me, coincidentally he also brought plantain but his was made with unripe plantain so it wasn't pleasing to the mouth at all. The journey through Ibadan wasn't too pleasurable at all, as our driver continued with his speed on coarse surface on the Ibadan road, which made our vehicle to vibrate all through till we got to Oyo-Ibadan expressway, which would lead us to Ogbomosho then Oyo town.

"Jesus!!!" A few people in the bus exclaimed, our bus almost had almost hit another bus. Those who weren't concentrating on the road were the ones that shouted, me and some other guys who had eyes on the road noticed that the bus at our front did it purposely. Then it dawned on us, our driver was in sort of a competition with two vehicles that had left the garage with us, one being all this cabs that looked like a Sienna, it was painted green and the other one was an 18 sitter bus like ours carrying only Hausas in his bus, they were either heading to Sokoto or Kebbi which had the same route. The bus that we had also hit was the 18 sitter bus, ash in colour, when our driver was trying to overtake it, it moved right in front of ours, making our driver to bring the bus to a temporary halt, before he continued with the journey like nothing happened.

The competition continued when we were about to enter a major but rough pathway into Oyo Town, the drivers took 3 different paths, our driver took one way facing cars coming from the other end to avoid the bad roads, while 18 sitter bus passed through the bush, I am not quite sure where the Sienna took, before the 3 vehicles finally met at the major but rough pathway where children, men and women were selling beverages, egg, bread and the likes at the road side. Our bus didn't bother to stop at all for anyone to buy anything, he just continued with his journey till we got inside Oyo town.

At Oyo town, our driver stopped at a filling station to refill his tank and for everyone to come out and stretch their legs, ease themselves or get themselves something to eat.

Nice write up bro, i was there too. will never forget "idiot" and "Atama"....

gnaxyt:
Nice write up bro, i was there too. will never forget "idiot" and "Atama"....

Hehe! Atama and Idiot made the camp lively. Kebbi State's camp made sense in some aspects. What platoon were you?

Nice one Op, i'm loving it. Your writing skill is commendable!

At the filling station, while I went to pee with the guys, I was really pressed, but my pee refused to come out. Well I don't know if this happens to everyone else? But I have a very shy bladder when I'm around other guys and I have to urinate, the only time when it isn't "shy" is when it has gotten to an extreme level, at that time it doesn't have any other option and this has been the custom ever since I was little, most especially on the road, when all eyes are on me, like I'm being pressure to do my "business" quickly.
Thankfully, the guys left and I was left alone in the open area behind the filling station. The pee started dripping out little by little, about time, huh? I used the opportunity to observe the environment, in the sunny weather, Oyo Town looked like a Semi-urban city with ancient buildings and a reasonable number of modern ones, tarred but narrow roads and was densely populated.

One getting back to where our bus was, little children and a few adults were busy trying to get travellers whose vehicles usually stopped at the filling station to buy a thing or two from them to serve as refreshment for the journey ahead. I spotted an Akara seller close by and bang it hit me, I had not eaten the bread Michael's brother had gotten us, I informed Michael who was stretching his legs just outside the bus, that I wanted to buy Akara and asked if he was interested, his reply was affirmative. I got two N50 Akara separately for us both and I asked him to get N40 pure water.

A few mins later we were told to get back into the bus, the driver was ready to leave. On getting into the bus, Ayomide who in her infinite wisdom, thought it best to buy Bread and Akara without pure water started dragging one of the two pure waters I collected from Michael with me. I blatantly refused to give her, cause I was really tasty and would have to drink one of them before I ate and the other after, but she refused to let go off the water, like why would buy something to eat and not get water? Michael intervened and told me to give her, while he gave me his other pure water, he had another extra in his bag. The driver turned on the engine and we continued with the journey

browniecay:
Nice one Op, i'm loving it. Your writing skill is commendable!

Thanks

We had now gotten Ogbomosho, nothing much really happened, just the normal gisting and the car race competition we were in with the other two vehicles, till we got to Ogbomosho - Ilorin road.
The road was quite narrow for an expressway and all vehicles including trailers had to pass through the road to get to Ilorin or Kwara. Our driver's driving instincts overtook him immediately and he started overtaking any trailer or bus in front of him even with very little space, same with the other two vehicles we left the park with. This seemed to be the tradition with Hausa drivers who had mastery of the road and absolute control of their vehicle, the accelerator, the staring and the brake being their closest alibi. Whenever we tried to overtake a trailer and another trailer suddenly pops up from the other side and it seemed like we'll hit the one in front of us, the bus makes a very smooth stop and continues in a matter of milliseconds. And when he still has to overtake the trailer in front of him, and another trailer was fast approaching from the other lane, he'd march the accelerator smoothly and quickly swerved back to his lane.

While still on Ogbmosho - Ilorin road, we noticed lots of accidents that had happened earlier on the road, due to how small it was and how the drivers drove on the road. Most involving trailers and cars, while some were trailers that diverted off the road due to the heavy load they were carrying, thereby losing the goods or products they were supposed to deliver. The constant going "up, down" due to the hilly nature of the road, like when soldiers asked you to squat down at camp wasn't helping matters either. We noticed a fresh accident that had probably occurred not more than an hour, victims were being rapped in white cloth.

"This way to Oyo State NYSC Camp, Iseyin", a sign board read, indicating that a pathway along the Ogbmosho-Ilorin road led to Oyo State camp, at that moment it felt like our journey should have ended just there and we were to head to Oyo Stare camp instead, but our journey had just started.

Twenty to Thirty minutes later, we were now making our way into Ilorin. We had spent almost 6 hours on the road, time check a few mins past 1pm. We were all discussing something and Muyiwa, who later revealed to us that he was a DJ (DJ Msticks) and was hoping to get a club to work at in Kebbi, brought out red Bluetooth speaker that looked like a red grenade and started playing songs through Gomez's phone.
They started playing one of Gomez song's on the Bluetooth speaker, Muyiwa drew me and Michael's attention to it "na Gomez song be this o", we decided to pay more attention to it and it sounded whack, me and Michael gave ourselves a knowing sly smile and turned to face the road. Muyiwa noticing this, quickly told Gomez, who said " no o, no be my song gan gan be this o, them feature, I rap for the song". Turning back Michael said "oh OK, I for fear", we waited to for his rap part and Gomez was dope, he had a very sweet rapping voice with good rhymes, cyphers and maybe a punchline. At that time I agreed he really studied music.
After his song, Muyiwa started playing various Nigerian and American hits.

silently following!

silently following! silently following!

When we got to Ilorin, our bus was leading in the 3 man driving competition, our driver diverted from the main road and took to the streets of Ilorin trying to taking a shortcut. We thinking he knew the road had no qualms with it, until he started asking people for the road to link us up to Ilorin's main road, we didn't have to wait long as he was able to locate the road.

In no time we were making our way to Jeba, a popular town that shared a border with Kwara and Niger State. Before we got there, a mild drama had played out while we were on a road in Kwara, it was also a not so big expressway and a major road, as trailers and every other vehicles were plying the road. There was a check point that some soldiers were manning, checking vehicles one by one, while collecting "something" by the side, this caused traffic both ways as a big log of wood was set on the road and could only give access to one vehicle at a time coming from either side of the road.

"Ah! How did that bus not get crushed by the trailer?", this was the questions on everyone lips a bus almost got crushed by a trailer on the other lane. We were still busy saying "Hi" to a set of prospective corp members like us in another Kebbi bound bus conveying, when we noticed a bus had left our lane due to the traffic that was now really piling up. A trailer was now fast approaching on the other lane, not slowing down, directly facing the bus that had gotten into the other lane and we were all screaming for the driver to get back to his lane, the trailer not willing to swerve a little into the bush even if a little, still kept approaching at full speed. "Ain't no stopping this I said in my mind", I was so sure an accident would occur, just at the last second the driver on the other lane and the trailer swerved for one another. It was like they had a silent understanding or an agreement that none of us knew of and an accident was averted. Thank God reverse wasn't the case, because it'd have been a very unpleasant site.

Thankfully, the traffic started easing up after a few minutes, on getting to the check point, our driver also had to do "normal" to the soldiers, if you know what I mean .

While making our way to Jeba, our playlist started to get boring, my memory card got corrupt a week before we were to leave for camp and I didn't really have songs on it. The girl sitting close to Michael asked that she should be allowed to play songs from her phone, being a Tiwa Savage fan she kept playing songs from Tiwa's "Red Album", we didn't know most of the songs. Michael getting bored of her playlist commented "this Tiwa Savage songs that you're playing didn't blow o, we no sabi am", she just replied that it was her turn and no one had a right to complain.

Everyone wanted to listen to a particular song and nobody had it on their phone, Tekno's latest hit then "Pana". Then something hilarious happened, Michael asked Tiwa's fan who sang "Panda", she just replied him "is it not Olamide?", everyone inside started laughing so hard, like seriously Olamide? Then someone, I'm not sure who, probably Michael, Muyiwa or Gomez added "don't mind them jor, it is Small Doctor that sang panda", this caused another round of laughter inside the bus. Michael took over next and started playing songs from his Chinco phone, his android got spoilt weeks before we printed our callup letter. His songs, although mostly old songs were a little bit groovy, was our companion till we got to Jeba, where our driver stopped for a food break.
Greatful, we would finally eat good food and not all the junks we had been eating on the way.

I'm definitely following this thread, as a potential coffa

Jeba like I had earlier stated was a town that shared borders with Kwara and Niger. Jeba being a popular stop for travellers embarking on a long journey, has lots of restaurants unlike other towns which we passed through while travelling. That part of Jeba had good roads, surrounded by trees and hills or a mountain, not entirely sure, at the back of the buildings and restaurants. From what I observed, Jeba is inhabited by Yorubas, Hausas and Igbos and even people from other tribes.

We picked a restaurant to eat in, I can't really remember the name on the sign board but it was most likely "Iya something Restaurant". At first I didn't want to go inside, because the Bread and Akara I had gotten at Oyo town coupled with the plantain chips I ate on the way made me feel filled up. But, the kind of "Welcome Campaign" they gave us made me change my mind. Michael and I ordered for a plate of rice, while waiting for our meal, we started taking selfies and shot a 30 seconds video saying nothing meaningful about our journey.
The restaurant was made with brown bricks and the interior had this Coca Cola branded designs on the wars, the plastic chairs and tables were also Coca Cola branded chairs.

30 mins later, we were all through eating and continued our journey. We were now on River Niger's bridge (the one located between Niger and Kwara) and from what I found out over the internet on River Niger: "It is the principal and longest River in West Africa, and the third longest in the whole of Africa, extending about 4,180 km (approximately 2,600 mi). It runs in a crescent through Mali, Niger, on the border with Benin and then through Nigeria, discharging through a massive delta, known as the Niger Delta or the Oil Rivers, into the Gulf of Guinea in the Atlantic Ocean."
So it isn't just in Onistha or where it meets with River Benue in Nigeria, it passes through lots of cities in Nigeria.

Have successfully crossed the bridge, we were now at the other side of Jeba, it had really bad roads and a ludicrous amount of potholes. Not too long we saw a signboard that read "Welcome to Niger State", I relayed this to my Graceland friends in a WhatsApp group, one of them being Y0rmee who had studied at Futmina (Federal University of Technology, Minna, Niger State), his reply was "na tomorrow e na go reach o, journey through Niger could take 4-8 hours" and that was a few mins to 5pm. I thought how could we spend more up to four hours, when we've not spent more than 2 hours in all the states we've passed through.

More than two hours later, we were still struggling through the bad roads in Niger State and it didn't look like we'd be out of Niger State anytime soon, the journey had truly only just started.

Goodnight peeps, thanks for following.. I'll continue in the morning.

Good narrative. Most of the states in the north have very large landmass.

Bro, I sincerely hope you are keeping your manuscript in check for publication at the end of your service year? I mean like KEBBI: 'Memoirs of a service year"

I served in Jigawa 2014/215 and wrote down my experience and now got publishers interested in publishing it.

Don't just keep a NL diary, keep your manuscript in check there's a whole lot of invaluable lessons people will get when the read your published memoir.
Peace!