Immediately after my final year project and every other necessary thing to become a graduate, with excitement all over me, I registered for the National Youth Service Corps (NYSC). I was ready for the amazing camp experience and I absolutely enjoyed my stay in camp with a lot of learning experience and chances for my personal development.
The experience with some amazing individuals from different states, tribes and institutions worth more than a million. After my three weeks camping moment, I was so excited to see my place of primary assignments (PPA) letter, to have been posted to a higher institution. At that moment, I thought this was another way to improve myself intellectually and focus on what I’ve been doing.
Right from camp, I couldn’t wait for the day I would resume at my PPA. I was so excited to see something like that in my letter. Once again, I couldn’t wait to be there. It’s just funny how excited I was from the inception, but from the moment I entered that office right to the moment I stopped going there, it would be an understatement to say I had the worst experience ever.
First Day With Big Disappointment
Disappointment is part of life’s challenges but it hits differently when it comes earlier than expected. On the first day in the office I was together with my colleague who happens to be female. We waited for more than an hour before we could see the Faculty Officer, they were having a meeting though. The moment we got to her office, we introduced ourselves to her, then she asked, “Will you be coming on Fridays?” squeezing her face. My colleague and I stared at each other and murmured, ‘Hmmm yes!’ She replied, “Because we can’t accept you if you won’t be coming on Friday.”
We then nodded our heads in approval and moved to our office. The Administrative Officer (A.O) who had brought us in to meet her boss came back. “Corpers, we have something that you are going to do for us,” she said with an expression I couldn’t even interpret. We entered the second office, and we were asked to pack plates. “You need to go and wash these plates over there,” she said, pointing to where the tap was, and added, “That’s what the other Corpers who left here did,” I swear by almighty God, we couldn’t believe this was happening so fast.
I looked so worried and terrified, as did my colleague, but she didn’t seem as worried as I was because we’d seen a lot of corps members from batches before us who were yet to get PPA’s. We just had to do it because we didn’t have an option, washing plates while on khaki in a PPA is one of the biggest embarrassment for a corps member.
Poor Organization, Lower Development
With the little experience I had in organization and management, it was just clear to me that I was in an unorganized organization. The division of labor was so poor since what I would be doing was not stated and specified right from the inception. Sometimes, I ask myself, “What am I doing here?” To be factual, there was no unity of command or unity of direction. Sometimes I just get devastated by their actions. When the eldest person around the office environment, who had used more years in service, instructed us to do something, the F.O. would opt for no! And that’s how it went every time and vice versa.
I just didn’t understand what I was there to do; all I learned was gossip. It’s not funny; they just talked badly about themselves and pretended to like one another. Sometimes I just laughed and nodded my head in disapproval of their internal beef.
Helpless Coppers; Overburdened With Tasks
I found it difficult to acclimatize to the working conditions there. For the first three days I kept asking the A.O if they had anything they needed me to do every time before I opened my laptop to do my assignment, but she kept insisting there was no work for now. Even if there was work, sometimes I abandoned everything I was doing to attend to what they needed me to do.
Nevertheless, I was doing everything they asked me to do to the best of my capacity, even though I got tired sometimes. We arranged books and made many photocopies, and sometimes I had to dispatch mail to different offices around the school environment. To be factual, I got tired many times because I had to close by 4 p.m. and sometimes even later if we waited for the overall head of the office (Dean) before we could go home.
Mostly, by the time I got a cab to take me home, the time had already gone. This was what I did almost every day, which meant I had to wake up very early and prepare for the office, and I never complained.
The problem with the hierarchy just got worse day by day. Everybody wants us to see them as the boss. As I’ve said earlier, there was no unity of command or unity of direction; you had to take orders from different sources. This weakened me a lot mentally. They believed as a corps member, they could just say order me around anyhow.
Faced a lot of Disrespect and Criticism
As a copper working online with time constraints, which I’d explained to them right during my resumption, one day when I was taking a normal exam of one of my online courses, the Faculty Officer called, “Khaleel! Óyá wá bá wọn to àwọn ìwé yìí on, ìwọ á kàn máa tẹ laptop bíi kiní!” (Come and help them to arrange these books, because you’ll just be pressing the laptop). With that statement, I found it hard to just say no, and this happened when I had just answered 5 questions out of 50.
I just had to stand up and follow the instructions, actions like this kept happening (I failed exams consecutively) until I had to stop taking the course. Lots of criticism puzzled me many times. Mostly, they kept emphasizing on the school I graduated from and spoke ill about my school. One day, the F.O asked me, “Kílo gbà níbi Jamb ẹ?” (What did you score in your Jamb?) I responded quickly, “I scored 244.” She said, “Okay,” in a lower voice. Then I began to think, what does NYSC have to do with Jamb? I didn’t know what she thought or felt at that moment, but I knew she wanted me to see her as the real boss and feel humiliated.
More Humiliation and Embarrassments Thrive as Copper turns Errand Boy
This is my first time experiencing some set of people beefing with others, directing their anger towards me. One day, I was in the office to make photocopies. She then called me and said, “Kíló tiẹ̀ máa ńṣe ìwọ ná, wàá dẹ̀ máa ṣe bíi dìdìrìn, gbogbo ọ̀na ni Praise fi ṣe jù ẹ́lọ?” (What is happening to you? Praise is better than you at all costs.) That’s a lady who barely worked with us because she stays in the Secretary’s office. She only has to work with us if we have hectic work like photocopies and counting books like we normally do. This time, I was getting furious, but I still didn’t react to any of their actions and reactions, and I was in pain when comparing my colleague with me.
I thought it had finished, not knowing that this was just the beginning of their madness. On one fateful Friday, three of the active staff in the office were not around, so I was left with these two toxic women (F.O & A.O). We had to sell books and register new student files that day together with the A.O, and this was the woman I didn’t like to do anything with. But I was very thoughtful and patient because when she talked or shouted at you, they would hear in the third office. She is the worst teacher I’ve ever seen. I got tired of students complaining about her to me.
I just had to take it like that. During the process of selling these books, the F.O came in and requested twenty-five thousand naira, which she told us to document. But the process of selling the books was so hectic; there were a lot of students at our doors waiting to buy books. Documenting the money escaped our minds while counting the money we discovered the money was not balanced. We needed to count over and over again until the F.O came in to remind us she had already collected some money before.
Very funny, they both had to face me and challenge me about why I didn’t remember that she had collected money. I was confused and didn’t know what to say at first, but later I summoned courage and told them it escaped my mind. They didn’t end it there and I was not happy at all. I was asked to go and deposit money we earned from selling the books to the bank as if this was my duty. After the successful payment at the bank, which I knew would alert them sooner or later. On my way back to the office, I lost the receipt and my Five hundred Naira. It pained because I knew what those people could do if I couldn’t present the receipt.
Getting to the office, I told them about the receipt and didn’t even bother about my transport fare. I couldn’t believe what my ears were hearing. The F.O had to say this: “How did you manage to become a graduate?” I kept mute for like a minute and didn’t know the best reply for her. Politely, I turned back and said, “I graduated with a 2.1 and I almost graduated with first class,” even if I’m not close, I said that and I left.
The story continues…
About The Writer: Alakoso Khaleel is an alumnus of Usmanu Danfodiyo University Sokoto (UDUS).
English