Ayodele Samuel: Memoir of an unfulfilled Corps member

I was eager to obey the clarion call, no matter the state, I promised not to relocate.  I had these passion years before NYSC time. My service year began on a very interesting note; I made good friends as we began the 23 hour- journey from Lagos to the Nature's gift to the Nation, Taraba state.  My friends are not well traveled, they are all 'aje butter' (pampered kids), our bond grew as we began the journey with heavy prayers from a pastor who found himself  in our bus. Some of us nearly weep as they bid their parents who escorted them to the park farewell. Thou I didn't allow my Daddy take me to the park, my mum was soaked with fear for the safety of her last born. In my mind, I was scared, 'Taraba! North East! Boko Haram! My mind was beating fast but I kept a smiling face while my co-travelers wore sad and hard faces, I sparked up various arguments to ensure we had an interesting trip.  We all slept off around Akure and woke up in Kogi state; we at this point had several rounds of discussions. Our trip was fun but the bad roads between Ajaokuta , Otukpo and Gboko almost marred the journey. We at last arrived Government College Jalingo, NYSC temporary orientation camp to the warm arms of dedicated NYSC staff members who took us through the registration process.  It was a rigorous exercise, there, I learnt to be patient because all through the service year, one had to queue up for just everything.  My 21 regimented days at the orientation camp in Jalingo under a caring mother, Hajia Zainab Isah, then State Coordinator was fun filled, it was a very good way to begin a service year. While in Camp, my commitment to the youth service became stronger. Unlike many other corps members who relocated due to the security situation in the country, it was not an option for me at all after listening to Hajiya Isah's long sermon about unity in the country.  Many of us stayed back because of the confidence Hajiya Isah reposed in us, she presented herself as our mother in the 'no man's land' of Taraba, this she displayed at every given opportunity. When the first bomb went off in Jalingo around April, she called almost all corps members posted to the area on phone, she ordered us to stay indoor for her to study the security situation in the area because our safety was close to her heart. She took it upon herself to visit the remotest places she posted Corps members, checking on our welfare. Her visit to Bang 3 corner, somewhere around Cameroun border in the interior Sardauna Local Government, more than ten hour's drive from her Jalingo residence will always remain fresh in my memory. All these excited me to feel secured in the Nature's gift to the Nation.  I oiled my contacts and began to talk to the people, learning little Hausa language and preparing for my Community Development (CDS) projects. With help of my indigene friends, I located and visited Wurom Musa Village, a small community of about 200 dwellers but which suffers lack of good roads to Jalingo main town, nonfunctional health care center and lack of potable water. After several meetings with the community heads and stakeholders using the skills I acquired during my orientation, we saw the need to open up the village for development. The Jeroum (community head) was of the opinion that the road will open up the village for commerce, so we agreed to embark on grading the road leading to the village; we were putting machineries in place for my dream project, after meetings upon meetings at the State Ministry of Works to release a grader for the project was concluded. We had received serious commitment and support from stakeholders and other sponsors, something I never expected could happen. A few days after Hajiya Isah was redeployed to NYSC headquarters, Abuja precisely on September 6th 2012, around 1 a.m, our lodge housing, with about 24 corps members located in the heart of Jalingo was attacked by gunmen. The incident left many thoughts on my mind, why should a Christian corps member lodge be singled out for a mindless attack ? I lay half dead on the floor when one of the gang members threatened to behead me, the Boko Haram sect came to my mind but I was quick to remember that, Tarabians I knew in the few months I spent were peace loving and hard working people. Till date, it remains a sad experience for me, I had never felt that way in my life, the way I felt the 40 minutes the attack lasted. I lost many things money could not replace till date. Attacking defenseless and armless corps members was the least of my imagination, my annoyance grew with the initial response of the new state coordinator who saw the incident as nothing and the Taraba state government 'we don't care attitude' until we told the world our story. Unlike when some Corps members were assaulted in Zing Local Government during Hajiya Isah's tenure, she mobilized security agencies in the middle of the night, moved to Zing to rescue the victims, she went to court and ensured the perpetrators bagged a year jail term for the assault. Hajiya Isah didn't stop at that, she went ahead to blacklist the community in posting of corps members, just to serve as deterrent to any other community who joked with the safety of her corps members. But in the case of the new coordinator, the reverse was the case. The outcome of the media cry I spearheaded was victimization and frustration. In our own case, the new state coordinator was not interested in going after our attackers; all he did was to grant a press interview denying our attack, calling us names. Till date, the state government neither commiserated with us on the incident nor condemned the attack while the police said the bandits were ' street boys who came with stick and cutlass.' Yet till date, the police have not arrested the 'street boys'. The state NYSC acted in its own volition because NYSC at the national level condemned the attack, collaborated and sympathized with us. The state police Command saw the media reports on the attack as undermining them and would stop at nothing to punish its peddlers. The last option was to relocate out of the state, abandon Wurom Musa, my CDS project. The community leader tried to appeal to us not to go since the arrangement for the project was 40 percent perfected but my mind was made up, all I was seeing was myself out of Taraba, my family members were singing relocation to my ears. Amidst the disappointment, I left Taraba state to Osun state where I completed the mandatory service year barely two months to my passing out.   http://weekend.peoplesdailyng.com/index.php/news/cover-news/782-memoir-of-an-unfulfilled-corps-member