OUT OF CAMP AND IN THE FIELD

It’s when corps members are out of camp, that they begin to regret their behaviors while they were on camp, especially those who stabbed lectures. It is indeed a pity, that people who call themselves graduates do not have an understanding of the meaning of 'orientation programme.' While on camp, a corps member is supposed to prepare himself for what he is likely to face during his one year of service. The orientation programme is not only to equip the corps members with information, but also to make him fully aware of his responsibilities and duties as a corps member and how he is expected to carry them out.

Most of us came on the NYSC programme with the feeling of making it big. That is, making the most we can in a month, relaxing and enjoying ourselves. This is not what NYSC is about. In all honesty, NYSC is mandatory service programme. Though this is an irony, considering the fact that service should be voluntary and not the other way around, it is what it is. We are not expected to come on the programme and make it big in pockets, but in the heart.

The tenets of NYSC are development, integration and unity. Every corps member represents a Nigerian citizen working to develop their immediate community, one that that is against tribalism and seeks to eliminate division on the Nigerian soil. YOU ARE A CHANGE AGENT. Considering the weight of this position, one must be prepared and preparation involves having knowledge before field execution. This is where the orientation camp comes in.

Now, you may ask, how do all activities during the orientation match up to preparing me as a corps member? Let’s take it one after the other. First, is the morning drill and physical exercise. Like any other security unit, some form of physical training must be exerted. Though we are not soldiers or policemen, we are corps members and we fall under a unit of security. Physical training helps to infuse discipline, fitness, healthy attitude towards life and determination to succeed in the doer. All these are necessary to succeed in the field.

While on camp, you are most likely to queue for everything. Though this may be purely coincidental, considering the ratio of corps members to officers attending to them, it is also part of the learning process. Queuing up can teach you any of these three things; always be early, wait your turn and when you're late, forget it. This is same for food and any other form of registration.

Community Development Service (CDS) groups would be on camp to recruit you. Groups like the Orientation Broadcasting Service (OBS, which is called EDITORIAL BOARD out of camp), MDGs (millennium development goals), HIV/AIDS, EFCC, JTF, ROAD SAFETY, RED CROSS, DANCE and DRAMA and a few others. All these groups are special CDSes due to their functions. It is advisable to join one of them while on camp, to ease the search for a CDS once posting letters are out. Usually, most corps members indicate interest in joining these special groups after, but it was too late as they were already filled up.

Once something is out of the mouth during lecture time, and you have no notebook, it can hardly be recalled, talk less of you not being present for the lectures. All lectures during the NYSC programme are vital. Information on safety tips, language and customs of host communities, entrepreneurship series, duties and responsibilities of a corps member and presentation by CDS groups and organizations to recruit corps members for their training programme help the corper. Most times, NIM (Nigerian Institute of Management) and IPMP (Institute of Project Management Professionals), are usually the first organizations to recruit corps members into their training programme.

In all, there is no activity on camp that is a waste of time, even marching. Though we are all graduates, we must humble ourselves and take the orientation seriously. So many corpers have gotten into terrible hiccups during their service year and all because they treated their on-camp duties as jokes. Preparation is only three weeks, field work is eleven months. What does that tell you? Be smart.  

CHINONSO DANIELLA EDEH

BY/11B/0665