NYSC: The outcry of a penniless corps member!
Nigeria would be a better place if the only promise kept by our leaders is the National Pledge –234Pearl
In the village where I serve, they eat blood. Not because they are ritualists or voodoo practitioners, but because meat is too pricey. They cannot fish because their water bodies are polluted. Their crop yield is pitiable because their farmlands are wasted. Oil spillage, that’s what the local government tells them. This is how the people live in the village where I was posted to by the National Youths Service Corps.
Unlike my friends, I did not apply for redeployment on basis of marriage (to unknown men) or mental ailments (you need to see the rare kind of diseases concocted!). Instead, I chose to stay put in a place my camp bunkmate described as ‘dead’. Is it worth the sacrifice? I’ve been asking myself over and over again.
I chose to stay because my heart went out to the people who were so poor and couldn’t help their situation. At least there was something I could do to help: pass on my knowledge and impact lives of the young ones. I chose to stay even when the secondary school I was posted to couldn’t pay me.
I rented an apartment that has a WC (which made it more expensive). In the first two months, I temporarily adopted two Class 3 students. They usually come into my room in the mornings, clean it and wash any dirty article in sight. In return, I ensure that they each drink a glass of milk and eat one boiled egg before they go to school. However, for two weeks now, all they’ve had is plain black Lipton tea. Why? NYSC has refused to pay my monthly allowance.
I am not frivolous. I am very prudent. Do you doubt this? Like those market women, do you also think N19,800 is too much to spend in a month? Hmm. Let me give you the breakdown of how this corps member’s allowance is spent:
Tithe – N1980
Landlord agreed to collect monthly rent – N3,500
Tola, my younger sister’s pocket money – N3,000
Transportation to school and around town for a month – N3,000
Basic foodstuff – N2,200
Kerosene (stove, lantern& chasing away soldier ants) – N2,500
Kopa’s cooperative – N1, 800
1 tin of milk – N550
2 crates of egg – N1000
Well, you are probably right. I have N270 left – N270 to feed me and those little girls for two weeks.
It is pure injustice and insensitivity on the part of the government to withhold this money and ignore our complaints. I hear some people saying that government has no money to pay us. And they care less about impending protests. They claim to have ‘bigger fish to fry’.
And every CDS day, our LGI makes us sing the NYSC anthem:
Youths obey the clarion call
Let us lift our nation high
Under the sun, or in the rain
With dedication and selflessness
Nigeria’s ours, Nigeria we serve.
How do we serve under such conditions without food? Oh, tell me something about selflessness! When the President of my country spends N1billion on food in one year! Human being like me – with one stomach and one anus! Nigeria truly is ours, but not all serve it.
Corps members are few of the noble ones who serve the nation faithfully. We tread strange terrains, touching lives, building the nation. May the labour of our heroes present not be in vain!
Source: 234pearl
Check out Google event for croppers http://mindthegapng.wordpress.com/2012/05/17/google-mapup-with-e-green-service-volunteer-national-youth-service-corps-members/
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