Perhaps, before I begin, I'd love to point out that this is solely the author's experience clothed in vocabulary which could be subject to criticism by some persons who had or are currently having a different experience.

Nevertheless, I'd appreciate it if you criticize constructively or better still open your own thread. I hope that didn't sound rude (I've seen wonderful threads on nairaland marred with criticism of the writers by miscreants who can't seem to comprehend anything). That being settled; I got a story to tell!


It was a bright morning, the sun was up from its slumber and oh my! how clear the sky was. I woke up as usual, did some house chores and proceeded to my school (UNIUYO) to print out my NYSC call-up letter. I wasn't really perturbed with what lay in store for me. However, something sinister happened. Trust me, it was one of the most shocking days of my life.

Truth be told, I had secretly nursed the idea of serving in the Northern part of Nigeria but I never envisaged being deployed to Jigawa State. No disrespect to the state, I just wasn't cut out for it at the time!
#To be continued#

Just like any Southern Parent would hastily generalize that the entire North is infested with Boko Haram, my parents were no exception. They wanted me to redeploy by means or crook. I subsequently ignored their wailings and got set for my NYSC experience in Jigawa state which has the slogan "A new world". Is it really a new world, I guess you will find out soon enough. A day before camp opened, I set out on my journey. Thus, I boarded a vehicle heading to Jigawa from Akwa-Ibom en-route Asaba. When we arrived Asaba, I had two options, board a luxurious bus or a mini Hiace bus; I chose the latter which proved to be my undoing. The journey gathered fervour and everything was going on smoothly till we got to the Kaduna-Abuja expressway. Armed robbers in military uniforms formed a blockade and flagged us down. No one suspected a thing. It really could be likened to what we see in the movies, everyone was ordered to lie on his/her belly. The order was obeyed without a fuss. They took turns searching everyone and carted away with money, phones etc.
Was I petrified? Oh yes I was! For the first time in my entire existence, I almost urinated in my pants (Thank God I didn't, that would have been super embarrassing). Need I tell you, it was 1 am and no other vehicle was in sight. At that moment,it seemed as though God had abandoned us to the hands of these barbarians who spoke neither Hausa nor English. I later learned that they were of Fulani extraction. Finally, what seemed like an eternity came to an abrupt end; they disappeared into the nearby bush with their spoils of victory. I seethed with anger as I lost my phone and some naira notes in the process. I wished I was the almighty superman of DC comics. There is this popular saying "What an elder sees while sitting, a young lad may never get to see even if he climbs the highest of mountains". My Parents did warn me, "Stay away from Northern Nigeria", they'd say. The first thing Northern Nigeria ever did for me was to rob me! (Don't get it twisted, robbery is a general phenomenon and happens everywhere in the world). #smiles#

come and continue please.

I guess I ain't a keyboard warrior as I thought. I'll do well to update the thread tomorrow. Meanwhile, have a great night's rest.

overdrive:
come and continue please.

#smiles# Expect more tomao

Ur Experience Will Really Help Pls Come And Continue because Dat's My Desired State Since A Year Ago, Hope To Get It In The Next Batch.

Akanmuppl:
Ur Experience Will Really Help Pls Come And Continue because Dat's My Desired State Since A Year Ago, Hope To Get It In The Next Batch.

Owk.

At about 10am, I arrived Fanisau where the NYSC orientation camp Jigawa state is located. I quickly put the robbery incident behind me. The Northern weather was a new stuff for me entirely; it got so cold at night and hot in the day at the time (i.e the month of October).
Camp was super enthralling. I'm sorry to rock anyone's boat as I won't be dwelling on Camp experience. I really wish I could, However, the aim of this thread is to enlighten the Prospective Corp Members on what it feels like serving in the state of Jigawa. Before I move on from this, I guess you have a question for me which if I guess correctly would be "Did you find love in Camp?" Well the answer is this : I think love in Camp is a mirage, thus, I didn't bother searching for one.

I got posted to Sundimina, a village in Birnin Kudu Local Government Area of the state. Honestly, I had mixed feelings about the posting, nevertheless, I accepted it in good faith. When I first arrived Sundimina, my fellow Corp members told me that the place would weave a spell around me such that I would fall in love with the place. I didn't even bother to consider what I called blabbering from them. Who knows what they mean by love weave I thought to myself. Truth be told, I fell in love with the community, their way of life, their food etc. All these didn't happen over the course of a night. Some challenges reared its head, being the resilient type, I vowed to tackle the challenges head on.
One major challenge I encountered when I first arrived this community was communication issues. I often got the response "Ba Turanchi" whenever I tried starting up a conversation with some of the locals. Just in case you were wondering what the Hausa phrase above means, it implies "No English". I was stupefied at the level of indifference a particular part of the country showcased towards English. English is by no means our language but last I checked, it's our official language. Nigeria as we all know have diverse people, religion, culture etc hence the need for people to understand a bit of English. I'll break this down further. When I mention English, I am in no way referring to Queens English. Pidgin English is great as long as communication thrives. I'll have to apologize for digressing a bit. Subsequently, I decided to keep my sermon to myself, thus, I took it upon myself to learn the basic Hausa language. Suffice it to say that it wasn't easy learning a new language. However, to integrate well into the society, I had to do the necessary.
#to be contd#

Another major challenge prevalent in the community is electricity. The epileptic power supply in the community made me nauseous ( I guess I'm used to it already). I wouldn't be this pissed off if a certain Nigerian senator did not hail from this community. For the sake of anonymity, I wouldn't mention names. Well, this is Nigeria where the politicians don't give a hoot about the masses. They'd rather stash money abroad than do anything meaningful for their constituencies.
I would have loved to go on and on about my challenges here. However, I wouldn't wanna bore you with them or in any way send wrong signals that could discourage any reader from ever setting foot in the North. The truth is, in spite of these challenges, I've had a memorable service year so far.

School officially resumed in January after the Christmas break. I reported to my PPA (Place of Primary Assignment) to start work. I was warmly welcomed by the staff of the school. I could sense they were happy seeing a new Corp member. The Principal in his usual playful mood gave me a range of subjects to choose from depending on my area of expertise.
The subjects he presented included Maths, English,Agric, Computer studies just to mention but a few. I wanted to go for Mathematics since I'm proficient in the subject being an Economics graduate but I resisted the temptation to make a choice outrightly and politely asked the Principal to give me a day before I settle for one. Now, you might wonder, why the hesitation? Why not go for Maths since you claim to be good in the subject? Hey buddy, calm down; I'm going to address your concerns in the next paragraph.

Etimocracy:
School officially resumed in January after the Christmas break. I reported to my PPA (Place of Primary Assignment) to start work. I was warmly welcomed by the staff of the school. I could sense they were happy seeing a new Corp member. The Principal in his usual playful mood gave me a range of subjects to choose from depending on my area of expertise.
The subjects he presented included Maths, English,Agric, Computer studies just to mention but a few. I wanted to go for Mathematics since I'm proficient in the subject being an Economics graduate but I resisted the temptation to make a choice outrightly and politely asked the Principal to give me a day before I settle for one. Now, you might wonder, why the hesitation? Why not go for Maths since you claim to be good in the subject? Hey buddy, calm down; I'm going to address your concerns in the next paragraph.

I Read The Camp Is In Dutse Opposite Army Barrack How True Is That? Best Of Luck Bro.

Akanmuppl:
I Read The Camp Is In Dutse Opposite Army Barrack How True Is That? Best Of Luck Bro.

You are right. The camp is in Dutse just opposite the barrack. However, the area is called Fanisau. Its one of the best Orientation Camp we have in the country.

I knew I had to make a choice, I needed to do a bit of sober reflection.
*How will students understand the concept of factorization, deviation, differentiation etc when I could barely make a complete sentence in Hausa without stuttering? How then do you communicate with the students effectively? Well, on the next day, my mind was made up and guess what, I chose Agric. Aww, that kinda sounds gross but it was a great choice. Sundimina is largely an agrarian society, so what better way to make them understand me better than to choose a subject that has to do with their everyday living. For me, it was a masterstroke, the final piece of the puzzle! It didn't take quite long before I became popular, the teachers like me, my students do as well. Whenever I step into school, I'd hear " Mallam Livinus, Good Morning" till my ears tingled and could take no more of their greetings. It is that good! I look forward to being in school everyday. It is pertinent to note that an average Hausa girl is a shy individual. My female students are really beautiful. I'm not merely exaggerating when I say that they are beautiful. I guess God carved out some individuals in a special fashion.
I don't have any female friends asides my students largely because I don't want to lose any part of my members to the sharia system. (Of course, I haven't seen any individual who's lost any part of his body for being friends with a Muslim girl in a rural setting, however, some deadly stories were making the rounds). Once, I ignorantly walked across the face of a fellow Corp member while he was praying;the reaction was petrifying. It was as though I had committed sacrilege. Their reaction said it all. I apologized profusely immediately and was warned never to do that again. Subsequently, I had a moment to myself and thought aloud; if my educated and enlightened Muslim friends could react this way, I might just have been stoned if I had made that mistake among the unlearned folks. Before anyone attacks me, I'm in no way trying to justify my actions, what I did was inexcusable afterall ignorance ain't innocence. However, I still think their reaction was way over the top. By the way, I'm in no way trying to stir up a religious war ( not on my thread for Christ's sake). For the sake of clarity, if anyone has issues with the above, he/she should do well to refer himself/herself to the first paragraph of this thread. I'm merely penning down my wonderful experience so far in the Northern part of the country, Jigawa state to be precise.

Being in school everyday for me could be likened to eating a delicious meal everyday. I was behind my desk one afternoon (I think it was a Wednesday) marking test scripts when a male student walked into my office to give me yet another shocking yet enthralling moment of my existence. You wanna find out, then just stay glued!
Good afternoon Mallam, he said, I responded with a smile, thus he proceeded. "I am inviting you to my wedding ceremony next week" he finally let the cat out of the bag. I immediately let go of my pen and for the first time looked up to really see the young fellow who stood before me talking about marriage. I had to be sure of what I heard, so, I asked him to repeat he just said which he did. There was no vacillation in his speech and I was pretty sure I didn't hear whisperings from the gods either. By my estimate, the boy wouldn't exceed 17 years of age at the time. I was stunned. I asked of his class, he replied JSS2. He came bearing gifts. I accepted the sweet candies he brought me as invitation gifts since it would have been outrightly rude not to do so. Furthermore, before I set him on his way, I instructed him to make sure he introduced me to his wife to be to give my blessings as his teacher. He agreed and left. About two hours later, some primary school pupils mostly females entered my office and greeted, I could tell they were primary pupils because of their uniform. It might interest you to know that the Junior secondary school is just about in the same surroundings as the primary school. Thus, the primary school pupils have access to the Jss section. I needed an interpreter and lucky me, a fellow teacher was just around the corner. He told me that the girl in front of me is the soon to be Ameriya (wife) to the JSS2 student who visited me earlier. I asked of her class and learned she was in primary 6 at the time.
Oh my goodness! I felt like passing out. This is Child marriage for goodness sake (I didn't say it out loud for fear of displeasing my fellow teacher). I managed a wry smile and dismissed them. I was quite concerned. Why would some individuals with unashamed determination hand their young female children to early marriages with such convictions and a maddening self compulsion. I really was enraged at the whole drama but I didn't show it. How could I? Afterall, its their way of life. One thing that struck me was the fact they were so happy about the development. "Marriage is progress" I'd hear them say, I totally beg to differ. Here I am, in my twenties thinking of ways to make money and teenagers in this part of the country can think of nothing else but marriage. What an irony. Enough of my ranting.

#To be Continued#

currently serving in Jigawa...the people here are very nice. the problem is that language issue...

Leauwizzy:
currently serving in Jigawa...the people here are very nice. the problem is that language issue...

Yep it is. Which part of Jigawa re u serving?

Lalasticlala .. front page material here .. nice one OP

NYSC experience without no mention of sex, we are kind of disappointed in you op . You’ve got to fuuuck as much as possible during NYSC.

I was in jss3 when my brother share his experience with me. He served in a village in calabar. There was a story of copers night where sex flows, there was a story of him fuckinggg a community leader woman then her 2 daughters needed help with mathematics and he hammered them, then another story of a girl who was cheating on a boyfriend, shocking end to the story she sneaked out on her wedding night to fuuuck ma brother ! Got my own story but not near my brothers own .

Hmmm

I wished I was the almighty superman of marvel comics

Super man is from DC Comics not Marvel.

And so?

I was expecting to read about moderator's . sexperience as a corper

Your English no be here, I swear.
Chaii

Wia is sarrki
Cc immhotep Afamed Adaibeku

Hmmmmm

The marriage part really got me cracking especially your reaction.

I'm not supporting child marriage but the reason why they seem happy is because they don't put making money first. Yes they don't put a high priority on acquiring wealth unlike other places. They see marriage as a form of prosperity where they do God's bidding to multiple and spread the religion all over the world.

They don't mind eating tuwo and miyan kuka for the rest of their lives.

I stand to be corrected tho.

Me too ..
I served in jigawa state, Babura LG not far from the porous Niger Republic border where you can trek easily to and fro Niger Republic without much interference.

Jigawa has one of the best tarred roads in the country ... Ten times better than that of katsina which is interlinked with jigawa state by road network.

The orientation camp was nearing completion when we served in 2011.

Honestly Sule Lamido did great in terms of infrastructural development of Jigawa state as a whole

What is new about the experience up north.
A cliche that it is a safe space despite what we hear in the news.
OK
Let me read it first.

Yea this is a true northern experience
A place reeking with the stench of poverty, illiteracy, and insecurity.
This doesn't matter. They like it that way.

Thank God for your life you made it back in one piece.

And the dunderheads on here only want sex stories..

How much did u pay the mod to push this to fp