April 27, 2016
#JustReminiscing
On the 19th day of November 2015, NYS corps members in the healthcare field posted to KT were eventually distributed across the state to serve their Fatherland, following what seemed to be a wild goose chase of over a week for proper placement of the said corps members. This succeeded a session with HMB at the Turai Yaradua Hospital which began with the words "you people should consider yourselves very lucky..." and ended with "...we hope this is the beginning of a strong relationship..."! We were told that " for your allowances, the government through the head of service has approved a rate... it's only KT that pays like the federal government... and we will pay your allowances into your NYSC account which will be collected through your MDs and confirmed by us during one of our routine visits"!
Fast forward 5 months to today, and all we're left with is empty promises. Within this time frame, we've worked tirelessly, some of us handling great responsibilities at their PPAs, staff in Katsina State have been consistently paid, we have begged, licked boots and turned to hand-sucking like babies weaned overnight from breast milk, and we have been consistently treated as dung.
Like the slave masters of old with whip in hand, our "employers" have insisted we continue to work, and we like sheep have kept at it.
So as the bile perches up within us and our right to anger is snatched by an abysmal nothingness, we now sit upon our mats with bare shriveled bellies sweating from the Sahara's furious heat and wonder "how did we get here"?
Then it dawns on me, this was the grand design of our nation all along! Have we not been schooled in penitentiaries that placed no premium on freedom of thought? Have we not been herded into concentration camps and taught to work under the sun and in the rain? What examples of the daring spirit that characterise graduates in saner climes have we seen around us?
I've held this conspiracy theory for a while now that NYSC was made to underdevelop Nigeria; I now believe it to be a fact. This is because by the time people pass out from NYSC, they've been fully tamed, many would've lost their fight, their adventurous spirit, their visions!
So relish this season friends, revel in it and let it stamp upon your mind an indelible reminder that the government is and will never be a friend of yours. Let this ill treatment spur you into becoming your own boss. And above all, let it teach you the exact way in which to never treat people.
While we wait and pray, do keep yourself busy. Sign up for an online course, join a charity event, seek a PP job, have fun, mingle with friends who build you, and remember that in the end, God is the boss of us all.
Yours truly, Ben Dabuwar.
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