The news today is that corps members in Rivers State have refused to sign up for the re-run elections coming up on Saturday, the 10th of December. An extremely smart move considering the fact that almost all stakeholders in said elections have shown readiness for varying degrees of violence.

Add to that the National Youth Service Corps’ negligence in their caretaker duties of corps members – conformed by the death of at least three members within the space of one week. It’s a shame and there really is no justification for any corps member to brave the storm in a bid to serve the nation in the manner the Independent National Electoral Commission and the National Youth Service Corps requires per these elections (or any other for that matter).

Thinking about this brave requirement of dedication and service required by the corps brings to mind the other things the NYSC officials sometimes demand of corps members -this time more servitude than dignified service.

It starts on camp where for no apparent reason other than the thirst to wield power, the uniformed officers demand that corps members suddenly start jogging or running -sometimes, it’s worse.

There’s certainly no time anyone can recall that corps members were being trained on camp for subsequent drafting in the military so whatever silly story about “training” anyone chooses to come up with makes no sense even before it is uttered.

Then you get the State coordinators who derive joy in being very literal. For this, they connive with Camp commandants to ensure that corps members fulfill every promise sung of the NYSC Anthem to the letter. Especially the bit about service “under the sun or in the rain”. God help corps members if it ever starts to rain during morning parade. For them, it is the God-sent way to prove loyalty to Nigeria. The number of sickly corps members who have borne the brunt of this silliness is uncountable.

Then the corps members leave camp, hopeful that in the real world, dealing with regular human people, such monstrosities they endured on camp have no place. The lack of human decency corps members witness weekly at the hands of Local Governments Inspectors and officials cannot be described. Wiating for them till when they choose to resume work is only the least of a corps member’s worry.

One time, a Local Government Inspector in Lagos State asked that corps members show up at a wedding to be ushers! They certainly weren’t told the nature of what they’d be doing on Saturday in their uniforms at a social function -only that they should be there.

That sounds like the most ridiculous thing ever but it definitely isn’t. At least not with NYSC. One only has to speak with one or two corps members to find out.

You can share some of your harrowing #NYSCWickedness stories with the world by sending them to [email protected] in 400-600 words.

Roqeebah

Creative mind. Enthusiast. Learner. Multipotentialite. And here, an assistant editor.