If you are not serving in Lagos, you are wrong’ – this is the anthem at the NYSC orientation camp in Iyana paja, Lagos state, and this ol girl was mobilised to serve her country in Lagos so hashtag #Ekocorper.
The camp is as nice as a camp can be I think, way better than stories I heard about Ebonyi State camp, and etc, Lagos camp is well lit.
There are 2,470 corps members at the orientation camp so housing is a problem. The hostels have three floors each and the rooms are shared 28 persons to a room, along with bathrooms at the end of each floor. The closest bathroom to my room has only one functional bathroom, so the queue for bathing in the mornings stretch like Kachikwu’s recent fuel queues.
There are many married girls in camp, basically because this is Lagos. The discrimination during registration was real.
We are all TIRED, so why are you treating us differently because of Miss and Mrs?
Registration was way easier for married/nursing mothers. Women with five-year-old kids claimed nursing mothers too. The married/nursing mothers also got exits to leave and arrive camp as they please. Some even claimed three weeks of pregnancy to avoid parade and stuff.
Every small thing “I am married, I am married” we have heard. #marriageisnotanachievement.
Still on this equality matter, you should see the treatment they gave to foreign students. They were like “foreign students this way, this way” and us “local” graduates were left under the sun queuing for hours. No. I did not cry. I was just planning for my unborn children.
On food, they said the food is good. I said “they said” because before I drag my body to the kitchen, food has finished. The hardest part of camp for me is not the paramilitary drill, or parade, or the lectures that test your endurance level, it is pouring cold water on my body by 4 am, (see me shivering at the thought, sef). Well, I have learnt that it is not a MUST to bathe in the morning, mbok!
The soldiers are friendly and nice, camp officials, too. We are happy and relaxed, mammy market even with the over-hyped prices is the heart of camp right now, plus I found turkey and chips that can compete with the ones at Bar Enclave. My soul is pleased.
Camp hygiene is averagely good. So ‘if you are not serving in Lagos, you are so so wrong’
