Halybee...Dare to join the voyage!: June 2012

... 365 days after

I remember around this time last year, we had seriously begin counting down, telling whoever care to listen that we are leaving this town soon, that we are as good as gone, our last minute shopping was seriously going on, all thanks to Terminus Market(oh, don’t I miss the sound of terminus, the way the bus conductors call it), screaming our bye byes to whoever cares to listen, and when they hail us as usual “copa shun”, we jokingly say add ex please because we will soon be ex-corpers.

365 days have gone, lot of water had passed under the bridge, rain had fallen, wind had blown, and it’s all coming back now like it was yesterday…I can feel the beat so high.

HOW IT ALL STARTED

I remember frantically searching for my name on the posting board at the department, most of my colleagues had seen theirs, someone did said to me Halima, your name is not on that board, I could only give a look that says you dare not say as I rushed to the board without waiting to hear any more from her, the only thought on my mind is : it couldn’t be, my name not on the board, no! This cannot be happening, after spending over a year at home after graduation for no reason ( all thanks to OOU’s unannounced policy-topic for another day)

As I continued to check through, over and over again, it dawned on me, she was right, my name was not on that board, immediately it showed on my face, people around could tell with just a look at me, then the usual consolation started coming in, everyone had something to say just to make me feel better, why not go to Mini campus, let’s go and check the master list, it could have been an omission or something, am sure my colleagues did say more than that but well, at that point, that was all I could hear.

Until someone else came along, my name is not on this list too she said, but someone told me that some members of our class found their name on FMS board, without waiting to hear the details again, I rushed down to the Faculty with the likes of Olumide and some others behind me to help look for my name and so we got to the faculty, FMS is large in OOU as in, where do I start from and so, some of my colleagues volunteer to help and we split ourselves, one person to each board, we were still on the search when the lady who initially told me my name was not on the department board came along and told me she had seen my name somewhere(a little sigh of relief), I practically dragged her to take me to where exactly she saw it and alas it was there, I was going to Plateau-Jos, the seemingly most troubled state in Nigeria then, the thought didn’t hit me but the joy of finally finding my name, until friends and colleague started to ask, are you seriously going to that “death zone”, am sure your parent won’t allow it, ha, please don’t go etc

I did appreciate their concern, they care enough to still want to see me around, sound and alive, but I just couldn’t bring myself to the fact that something bad would happen to me in Plateau, I had just three days to prepare for the journey and this was all that was on my mind…Plateau here I come.

THE JOURNEY

We had to wait for our call-up letter after which I left school for Lagos to prepare for the journey, this is going to be the first time I would travel outside south west, have always been a south west babe , yeah(and that is by no means fault of mine, topic for another day though) and then I hath to leave earlier because I didn’t want to get late to camp, not with the many stories I have heard(now you honestly don’t want me to share that now) and so the journey begins, to the land of the unkwown, the assumed troubled land, far far away from home, and while the journey lasted I kept on asking: aint we there yet?

CAMP

On Tuesday morning, I left my friend’s place for Zang Commercial that is where our camp is, I was surprised to find so many people there, so I wasn’t the only one who wants to get to camp early, I thought as I joined the queue , we kept snail moving to get to the gate and we couldn't go in until our bag and baggages were thoroughly searched, one thing I realize here is that you can never get the whole gist, you just have to be there to see it all, so it’s from one queue to the other from 9a.m in the morning to 10 p.m in the night and that was how the three weeks camping began, welcome to another world(what my people call Oju olomo o to).

The next morning , it was the sound of the whistle that woke us up around 4a.m , mogbe! Lai je sari,( sari is the meal muslims eat before the break of dawn during fasting) 4a.m. well we all rushed out to the parade ground as the a song played in the background, I could still remember the lines: God bless Plateau State my home sweet home, from Pankshin, to Jos North, from Jos South to Jos East, from Shedam to Bassa etc(till you mention all the Local government area name in Plateau), this song was one of the things I so missed after we left camp), and of course the normal parade routine with: iyo le, iyo, ayama, iyo, mama no dey ooo, papa no dey oooo, so so many songs, funny if you ask me though.

The fact that Jos is extremely cold did not help matters at all, I remember having to queue up to buy hot water for bath, try bathing with a cold water and you are on your own.

Day 1,2,3 and counting, the Mammy crews already knew themselves, platoons member getting acquainted with themselves, manifestoes here and there, just to be platoon leaders, this is another world of its own entirely.

One event I wouldn’t forget is one Sunday morning, when we heard that there was a fight in town, this was “corper’s revolt day”, corpers blew the whistle instead of the military personnel as the chant of relocation filled the air, let us go, don’t kill us because we are serving our father’s land, infact to serve our father land is not by force, and the comment keep coming in from all angles, corpers were angry and scared at the same time, yours truly was just recording the whole event, hmm whatever I was thinking of sha, I don’t know ooo,

The shouting continued until the camp commandant promise to give out relocation forms to as many as possible who want it.(na so e easy)

Many who had hidden under false marriage, asthma, and all kind of ailment you can think of, even the ones that hasn’t been discovered, who had earlier been denied the form, sees this as an opportunity to finally get out of this town: the so called death zone, as if you just get killed by walking on the road, well for those of us that stayed till the end, we knew the story was different! As for the form na wash, nothing like that happened.

I think that was the only uproar we had, then things got back to normal, all camping activities went well and just like that three weeks was over, posting letters given, it was time to say goodbyes to friends you have grown attached to sleeping and waking up together for three weeks, for some of us, we were lucky to be posted to the town, for some others the journey continues..the search for the village…

me ready for CDS

Agboma and zee baby.lol waiting for staff bus

PRTV

So much to say about PRTV being my place of primary assignment, but I would just make it short, my stay at PRTV was wonderful, full of experience and eye opening, I met wonderful people, from our news director, to our daddy in the newsroom and every other member of staff, the securities, the drivers, everyone always have nice things to say to the copa shuns.

Hmm, I remember when we just got into the news room, I would always hear them say cofa, cofa and I would pinch zainab, my colleague and friend, and say this people like amebo, they are using their language to talk about us, since they know we don’t understand anything, the day I got to know that cofa was actually door, and what they have been saying all this while is close the door, I laughed myself out..can you imagine!

me at work!

PRTV LODGE

Another beautiful gathering of wonderful people I spent my whole service year with in Plateau, we were all from different tribes, religion and background, yet we lived like one big family, I call the girls PRTV babes, Osato, Dupe(my roomie turned Upe in Plateau pronunciation), Zainab(my padi padi), Joy, (my one and only Miss Plateau and the Agboma of the house, Nkiru(mama Agboma, the only Unilag, sorry Maulag babe in our midst), Bukola (bokola in Plateau pronunciation, our chief cleaning officer, as in she ensures we cut the grass and make sure you do the cleaning when it s your room’s turn), mummy Agee(the only mummy in our midst, always smiling), Mofe (lepa to set the only wafi babe in our midst), Lisa(lepa to portable )and of course I won’t forget the man in the midst of so many Ladies, Akin aka MR Nigeria, did I almost forget Satmac, our chief security officer at the logde?

the PRTV babes, Zainab was the photograher

THE ELECTION

At this point, I could only sigh as I remember the registration and election period, it was like a cockroach in a lion’s den(what my people would call ikoja aye abi se o la ya) well not on our part, but I must say the experience is one that I would never forget, I remember we did say that we wouldn’t be in that town during elections, we ended up being presiding officers at the same points that scared us off initially, how we got the liver to go ahead I still don’t know, but am sure its not for the dough alone. The election experience is another story for another day.

As I remember those corp members that lost their lives , from the very one that his father had his last word” “mo ku”(am dead), to the ones who could not be traced, may God almighty forgive them as I pray that their blood would not go in vain, Nigeria must get better!

NOW THAT IT’S OVER

365 days gone, as another set of batch B round off their service year, all the memory keeps coming back, the smiles, the pain, the laughter, the near death experience, the re-union, the send forth, and the beat goes on. 365 days after, some faces have become just memories, but they are memory worth keeping, as reality sets in, no more allowee from federal government, (no matter how small it was, it did feel its own hole), no allowee from aunties and uncles. OYO lo wa, you are completely on your own.

Permit me to do a remix of Whitney Houston’s song in my croaked voice: and iiiiii would always hold on on on, to this memories, not without mentioning the wonderful people I met in my CDS, the likes of Clement and Seyi, and with this I say congratulations to all batch B corp members as they drop their khaki, especially to my very own members of OOU Masscom class of 08.

Welcome to the big world of reality, where the full impact of being responsible hits you hard!(my thought)