We were called upon to serve our fatherland. To serve our dear country Nigeria. It was a mandatory call for every citizen of the country who has completed their academics and it's also a once-a-lifetime event. Those ahead of us have done theirs, and those coming behind would also have theirs done.
I remember when I was in junior secondary school, a corps member came to teach us. We were always fantasizing about the fact that he had tried a lot to have completed his studies in the university and became a serving corp member. We look forward to the days when we will be like him. Though not everyone would be opportune to.
There is this song we sang then, “I must wear Khaki”. I loved it and got inspired by it. Though it's not an easy journey before you could have one.
The very day I got registered for the NYSC (National Youth Service Corp), I got back home and was so grateful to the almighty for making my dreams come to pass. After the registration, we were given our posting letter. The posting letter entailed the state we were posted to for our mandatory service.
I have wished and prayed to be posted to the north. But I wasn’t posted there. Instead, I was posted to the Far East. Anyway, it was still so much fun for me. Since I got to go somewhere far away from home and also experience a new way of life some people have been living in the country.
Our camp experience was fun-filled. Though I didn’t participate much in the activities. But I was present in all of them. The camp experience was just for 21 days. But it felt like forever. When the camp was almost ending then it was like it shouldn’t end anymore.
I didn’t redeploy, so I remained in the state where I was posted. I was posted to serve in the military barracks and from there I got to learn and understand more about life and met with new people. I can say my service experience apart from the exposure I got from the university campus days was another outstanding exposure I had in my life till present.
There were times when there were proposals to scrap the national youth service. I won't go with the idea of getting it scrapped. With the way the country is at the moment, the level of insecurity is alarming, and the rate of inflation increasing every day. Yet that shouldn’t stand as a reason for the national service to be scrapped.
What I feel the government should work on is not scrapping the one-year mandatory service, but working on the level of insecurity in the country making it safe for corp members to be posted anywhere to serve without fear, and also working on the economic issues facing the country so every corp members far away from home could live a sustainable life.
There is a lot to learn and gain from the youth service corps. Some of what I gained as a corp member in my service year was that I could learn to manage my income. I learned to manage and make a budget for my spending, being calculated not to overspend. I also get to learn and understand the way of being employed as a worker or staff. These must-haves prepared and shaped me ahead of what the labor market would look like after the one-year mandatory service.
So on my end, I still see no reason to end the mandatory service but see more reasons why it should continue. At times it serves as a motivation to those coming behind to focus and achieve their goals.
This is my response to the HIVE LEARNERS weekly prompt in hive learners community for the Week 127 Edition 2 and the topic to be discussed is MANDATORY SERVICE
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