I can't call this an inspiration per say.
Perhaps,I was infuriated with few NYSC stories shared so far on Nairaland which were either uncompleted or too short for a year sojourn.
I am not entirely bad as a writer but my last consideration for writing as a career dated back at secondary school when it became a regular feat to win essay competition at state level
So yes, I could be a bit Rusty in writing but I assure you of completion of my sojourn throughout NYSC.
And yes, i was posted to the jewel of Savanna- GOMBE STATE in early 2000s.

PRE NYSC:
I went to a federal school in the southwest. A majorly sought after tertiary institution in the southwest. I'll pass for a social personality but I don't party extremely. I am so fun to be with but traveling was NEVER my hobby.
Before the receipt of my call up letter,I had never stepped beyond Oyo state. I has schooled all my life in the southwest.
When I received my call up letter, I saw GM and I asked the closest student to me; what is GM?
Surprisingly, the dude told me "I don't have an idea". I received the green colored letter in good faith, headed home and went to consult with a bro who also schooled in southwest but in another federal school.
He exclaimed; my instinct has told me you will also likely be posted there..... You have been posted to GOMBE STATE,the bro said.
I was quick to ask him what distance is Gombe from Lagos? And he said 23hours! Amidst giggling.
Based on the timing of camp opening at Gombe, knew I must leave within 48hrs but I was extremely skeptical cosni just lost a friend to a road crash the day before.
I kon dey reason am....person wey dey go Ibadan here get accident die, me wey go kon travel for 23hrs? E don be for me.
Those days ONLY, EKWOS LTD travels directly to Gombe state from Lagos. I thought of the option of flight, but as at the year I was talking about, Gombe has no airport. The closest was Jos and taking a flight to Jos then embarking on additional 4.5hra to Gombe doesn't make much of street sense to me.
I eventually settled for direct bus through EKWOS at Maza Maza. At this point let me mention that night trips was the usual option for long trips and I was scheduled to leave with the 3pm bus having paid N4,500.
On the D day,I got to the park with mixed feelings for 2pm but the bus didn't leave until 5pm. I had equipped myself with various soda drinks and snacks. Surprisingly, I felt my first hunger pang after about 6hrs travelling (traffic delay inclusive). It is the norm to have at least 3fully armed escort in each traveling bus. I was seated in No3 ,just behind the first escort in the bus. Due to the fact that I was hungry, I opened my soda drink in the silence of the dark night around 8-9pm. The squeaky sound of the soda was quite loud in the night and spontaneously, the escort corked his gun in readiness for defence from perceived attack. I immediately submitted my drinks to him as I was scared to the marrow. He laughed at the level of fright I displayed and we both laughed afterwards. I think we had a stopover at lokoja where we relaxed ,ate and eased ourselves.
We got to GOMBE the next day we left Lagos at around 3pm.
TBC.........

Lagos to Gombe #4500? hmm
may God return the lost glory of the Naira

Mallam Sidi" is the name of the town where the NYSC camp was located then,(I don't know of now) I got to Mallam sidi on the first day of the camp and at about the time the camp commandant was about to address the Corp members.
"You are welcome to the NYSC camp, Gombe state. For the next three weeks,you don't have a brain of your own. We will do the thinking for you henceforth. We will tell you when to sleep and when to wake up" roared the camp commandant amidst other things.
I can't remember vividly all that happened but will do my best to recap(it's almost 20years now).
We were paid N500 as bicycle allowance, N1000 as transport allowance and told that our monthly allowee will be N7500.
I did my best to enjoy the three weeks. I was in platoon 8 . I didn't participate in marching as such but I played football to the peak. During the course of training for team selection, a guy insisted that I must be in the football team, eventually I was chosen as part of the first eleven and I justified my selection 100%.
When we got to the final of the football competition, we were to play against platoon 6.
The event was quite colorful as few big men from Gombe town were invited and the then coach of Gombe United was physically present. Due to my dribbling skill,I was left to play a free role and ended up scoring the only goal for platoon 8 in the match. It was a sweet solo effort which met a thunderous celebration from the crowd. Platoon 6 was equally good, hence they ended up equalizing before the sound of the final whistle.
The game was to be decided by penalty shoot out. As at then I was the talk of the camp and my friendship circle was boosted by male and female alike.
The first taker for platoon 6 lost his penalty while we scored ours. The captain at that point suddenly changed the sequence of our penalty players by insisting I play the FINAL penalty of the game so that once the other players could score theirs, mine was a guaranteed goal and then we win the cup. At first, I thought it was a fantastic idea but sooner regretted it as EVERBODY else scored in the shootout. I was enjoying the popularity I had garnered all the while and I could not risk any wrong penalty,turned me to an alien.
While the last taker in platoon 6 was celebrated, I pretended to be very pressed and must visit the gent as a matter of urgency. I was granted just 2 minutes to offload, but I knew I will NEVER come back to the field except if the match has ended.
I left the field and after about 5mins of waiting, another player was asked to take the kick from our platoon and he scored seamlessly despite beign an average player. The whole camp was agog with celebration and I came out of my "hiding".
I knew you were never pressed, you couldn't handle the anxiety said Mary, a fellow Corp member from a difft platoon. I agree to her submission and we laughed over her detective skills. She was my first "camp love" lol.
TBC

You are indeed a good writer sir

Let me park my wheel barrow here as I am enjoying this narration.

On the issue of "love", I knew ab initio that I must program my heart not to fall in love because the area brother I mentioned earlier has entirely convinced me that love during NYSC is usually borne out of furstration and boredom. So yes, I was seen to love but I knew I never fell an inch.
With my football skills induced lover, my committee of friends expanded considerably so offers kept coming for free lunch dates et al.
I kept a very tough register about daily bathing cos I could not engage in crowd bathing which boys readily do. No personal physiology reason though except that the only night I tried it, the other dude kept splashing soap foam on me(unintentionally). So I decided that I must wake up by or before 4 to bath in the cover of darkness or forgo bathing for the day. Unfortunately, the weather condition for the early morning was best described as very cold.
Permit me to mention briefly that the feast of "endurance trek" kept a deadly impression till date. Guys, we trekked for 7hours non stop because of the expanse of The landmass.
Just before the final day in camp, a friend informed me that my name was posted with the sports list and 4 names(including mind) was market with Gombe United FC. At first ,I never considered it as a good news cos I never planned for football as an option for career but once hinted that it was a sure hint for beign posted to town,Gombe town, I was a bit excited.
On the final day in camp, our postings were sorted. She was posted to Gombe town. I was not posted to Gombe town despite popular resolution, I was posted to BILIRI......
TBC

yean1:
You are indeed a good-looking writer sir

Thank you sir.

On observation that I was posted outside Gombe town(though disappointed), I saw a guaranteed exit door in due time from my various love proclamations.
On her side, she sensed a major threat to her camp dating but I was quick to remind her how strong she was during the endurance trek when I was dead tired. The babe has got a strength of a man no doubt. A true warri babe indeed.
I made a little findings about my new about to be abode and I was told that it had similarities with another neighbouring local government called Kaltungo in terms of natives and snakes.
Yes, snakes! Kaltungo was referred to as "snake island" those days. Solely because the weather of that axis seems unbearable to the reptilia. I was rightly informed that the weather induced heat usually forces the snake out of hiding and during their sojourn, they bite at will. Lol. The guy conclusively told me that it was best i wear my boots to bed.(I later knew he was hyperbolic on the boots but very true about the snakes).
The second similarity was the TANGALE tribe which cut across both local governments. The TANGALE girls are easily describe with adverbs similar to that of Calabar girls.(I won't say much on this).
A bus arrived at the camp from my dear local government with BILIRI LG roughly inscribed on the banner courtesy of terrible hand writing. Biliri is about an hour journey from Gombe town. We arrived at Biliri safely in company of fellow Biliri corp members. Shockingly, NOBODY was on seat in the local government office to welcome us.
Chai.....we were lost on our next line of action.
After about an hour, the chairman office was opened by on bitter-kola loving dude who continuously chew the bitter kola as of his life depended on it. At that moment, I was scared of so many things. Top of my list was DEATH. I did not understand till date why I had such premonition. Primarily becauy the ONLY Place with phone network was just Gombbe town. Tactically, we were cut off from the rest of the world. Some moments later, the representative from the LG chairman welcome us and gave assurance of network present soonest. This really got on my nerves as I was dead sure he had no immediate influence on such economically dead part of the world......
TBC...

Despite the obvious derail from average "Lagos economic life" , Biliri presents as a hilly town. So many fine nature appearance. Most of the hills as seen from afar, appears to gracefully disappears into the sky as if it was intentionally hiding its peak. The sunny nature of Biliri is above average and it is quite dusty. Other local governments I could still remember are Akko,tundun wada,Tula,kaltungo, e.t.c.
I will later delve into my visitations to those local governments. I toured Gombe state.
After the Local govt chairman representative speech, we were dispersed to our various PPA. On getting to my place of primary assignment,a government parastatal, I was informed that I will spend about three months with them asy service has been specifically "required" in a school of technology. I did my best to quickly adapt to my new environment and I must confess that the hausas there were convincingly friendly. For instance, with your crested best in the market and the ability to utter "lafia kalahu" to greetings, you are guaranteed of about 50% discount on local item purchased. In fairness, for those of us that served during that time, the uprise of Boko Haram and hausa volatility remains a shock. Those features could not have been predictable in centuries to come. Despite their convincing friendliness, we were sternly warned from camp NEVER to toy with their girls or wives. As a matter of fact, once you know at an hausa resident, you must be sure you are told to enter before you do so, otherwise death could be a possible verdict. And for houses where "na Shiga" was boldly written, pls DO NOT enter even if you are told so.
Few days into my work days, I met with two guys who seems belong to the elites category. Needless to say, they are rich too. Unfortunately, they are Scrabble addicts. They could play Scrabble from 8am till closing time without opening a single file for scrutiny or action. One of them was shocked when I challenged him to a Scrabble game, he couldn't believe he heard me rightly but he was surprised when I defeated him in a very competitive game. With this common threshold, our trip became friends from Scrabble.
This friendship granted me audience with some top shots and emir to which could have granted me some good stuff but I was still myopic on issue of living in Lagos State or obodo oyinbo
TBC.........

Welcome back Brother.

It's "Ba Shiga"

I also school in kebbi. To be candid and sincere "Hausa's are very friendly and homely" so far as you can maintai their ways of life.

Obey the rules of the land and you will surely enjoyed your stay in their land.

Be a practicing Muslim and they will treat you like their Emirs. Infact, those bless with Islamic and Western knowledge are always treated more like a local government chairman. They will surely Accord you with the respect they gave their honourables when you try learn their language.

The mistake most Southerners always make is trying to live our Western live over here which they don't accept into their culture.

Respect their religion and belief, they will surely reciprocate the same to your religion especially when you are steadfast with your religion.

Don't dare play unislamically with their girls.

Don't try to speak against Islamic religion

Don't try to showcase yourself as being better than them.


When they tell you the rules of the land adhere to it strictly.


With all thses mentioned above, my guy you will always enjoy the northern part of Nigeria.

Yeah. It's autocorrect effect.
Thanks.


Welcome back Brother.

It's "Ba Shiga"

On the second month of my NYSC year, I registered for a certificate course but was immediately faced with the challenge of attendance as classes only hold in Gombe town. After attending few classes, I prophesied on the effect of weekly transportation on my allowee then decided to attend class once in two weeks while I make up with notes from course mates.
At my third month, a request letter from the school of tech came asking for my resumption with the school.
Who am I not to resume when I had perfected my plans ab initio on hand out production for sale to my students as my lecture guide. On getting to the school, my first observation was that about 60% of my students to be are older than I am with respect to age. I met with the school principal(principal is used for tech schools) and he assured me of his special support with emphasis to my relationship with the matured ladies as virtually ALL of them are married. Through our discussion, I was able to draw conclusions that an average indigen is very skeptical of corp members and their sexual looseness. They see corp members as a virus whose effect are eventually damaging. That immediately gave possible meaning to about three kids called "corper" in my Lodge.
In my Lodge,there are four calm guys whose primary attraction as at then were never the TANGALE girls.
My first day in class was fun but equally embarrassing. A lady in her late 20s, openly asked me during question time. she asked "how old are you sir" and the whole class bursted into a thunderous laughter. I was annoyed but I kept my calm. I responded to the class that I was old enough to impact new knowledge. The class gave a joint applause.

Damnnn niggarrrr
Niggarrrr
Nice write up

But why you nor Green take the last penalty na

Na wetin penaldo...sorry..I mean Ronaldo take dey shine

And moreover delta girls in general not just warri girls are damnn strong

Nice

Wow

Gombawa Corper

Interesting story.


A good memoir.

.

NYSC is all a good story if you end up practicing what you learnt in school

This is nice

Super Boring read...

Following

following this..
I wish I had an interesting service year, one I could write about but it was just same thing I did throughout the whole year..from home to ppa and back to home except on CDS days that I went for swimming

All this coppers posting ***** after four to five years with employment will refer you back to your write ups.

OK, savannah jewel corper.

So this experience is over 15 years. Interesting!

This story in inconclusive.....you didn't tell us if your oppurtuned to see amala in gombe,

tyup:
Lagos to Gombe #4500? hmm

may God return the lost glory of the Naira

I could remember when I use to travel with my uncle back then from Lagos to Imo state I think we used to pay 1.8 to 2k then

Interesting