While I was in camp, I belonged to platoon five. The experience was a beautiful one. I enjoyed every moment of it. From Man O’ War drills to kitchen and sanitation duties, to inter-platoon drills and then the in-house platoon fun moments. Follow me as I talk you through my platoon 5 experience.
CHAPTER FOUR – CAMP LIFE 3 (Platoon five)
One thing about NYSC is that during the camp registration, every registered prospective corp member is given a registration number. The number usually has four digits. The last number represents the group (platoon) to which that person would belong to. For example, if your registration number ends with 7, you automatically belong to platoon 7. If your registration number ends with 0, you belong to platoon 10. In my case, my registration number ended with 5 and so I belonged to platoon 5.
The first time I had to identify with that platoon was when we first had our morning meditations. Every corp member was expected to stand according to their platoons. At first, I felt like I could not cope with this set of people. We had the good, bad and ugly; the difficult, weird and anti-social; the rich, famous and unpopular. All kinds of people were paired up in one platoon.
PLATOON LEADERS
During the first-ever parade rehearsal, we were introduced to our platoon officer and platoon commander. Our platoon officer was the NYSC official who was in charge of all the activities that concerned platoon five; from our posting to uniform, to marking attendance every morning, during our morning meditation and down to our conduct. Our platoon commander was a soldier who was in charge of our drills, especially during our inter-platoon parade competition.
I can still remember the name of my platoon commander. We often called him, Oga Gbenga. He was a man with a free spirit. It wasn’t hard for us to connect with him. He also had a great sense of humour. During every parade rehearsal, before we would start, he would start with a common phrase in the Pidgin language, “As una know before, English nor dey finish…”
Sometimes he would add, “We go do am as our body let us. If them say forward march, you go troway your left leg or front first. You understand so?”
If any one of us would miss our steps as we marched, he would funnily march behind the person saying, “Mu-mu, mu-mu, mu-mu…”
It was a funny, yet an insult.
We had an official and a soldier in charge of our platoon but then, our platoon officer also encouraged us to choose platoon leaders among us, corp members. He suggested that we choose a male and female leader. He named the positions, platoon papa and mama. And so, we had to conduct an open election.
A few persons nominated themselves for the position and we had to vote. Our platoon officer asked them to stand facing backwards. To vote, we had to stand behind the person we wanted. I didn’t know any of the nominees so I just followed the crowd. I would observe and check for the line with the most people and I would join that line. That was how we voted for our platoon papa and mama.
The position looks and sounds like it was easy but it wasn’t. It’s not an easy task to lead adults, especially adults from different backgrounds. Our platoon officer had to delegate some duties to both our platoon papa and mama.
KITCHEN DUTIES
In camp, we lived regimented lives. There was a set time for everything and if a person was caught doing something at the wrong time, there would be punishments attached. Some special duties were allotted to each platoon daily, starting from platoon one to platoon ten and the cycle repeated until the end of camp. They include security, sanitation and kitchen duties.
When it was our turn to take on the daily duties, our platoon official along with our platoon papa and mama had to share us into different groups. Some had to perform security duties, some performed sanitation duties and the others, who were mostly ladies, performed the kitchen duties. I was among those who performed the kitchen duties.
Throughout our camp days, we were assigned two duty days. For both days, I was placed in the group that performed kitchen duties. Part of our duties was to assist the cooks in cooking the food for that day. We shared ourselves into smaller groups; the morning kitchen duty, afternoon kitchen duty and night kitchen duty groups. I joined the morning kitchen duty on our first duty day and the afternoon kitchen duty on the second day.
On the first day, the breakfast was tea with bread and eggs. We prepared Lipton tea and boiled the eggs. The bread was delivered that morning from the bakery. After cooking, we also had to organise ourselves to share the food according to platoons. When it was time for breakfast, the corp members would line up according to their platoon, show their meal tickets and make sure it is marked before they can be given food. The good side of being part of the kitchen duty for that day is that I got double the portion of every food that was cooked.
During my second kitchen duty, the lunch was beans and yam. We had to peel over 50 tubers of yam. I do not remember the exact number but I was sure that the yams were up to 50. Although I didn’t peel more than one yam. The yams were strong and I couldn’t keep up with the speed of the others so I switched to slice onions and open seasoning (Maggi and Knorr) wraps. The onions made me cry but it was worth it. We used industrial gas to cook and not the very popular firewood so cooking the beans was faster and easier. When it was time to turn, we took turns turning the beans in the pot and serving it in different food coolers.
MAN O’ WAR DRILLS
This was also one of the many moments I enjoyed with my platoon members. At first, I thought that the Man O’ War drills would be scary and impossible for me but like many others, I can say that I came, I participated and I conquered.
We were made to carry dowels, crawl under thorns, climb a ladder made of rope, walk on small wood that was fixed on the ground, climb a very high bridge and cross over to the other side, and finally, we climbed a 12ft wall.
I was the second to climb the 12ft wall. We were asked to cooperate and look for a way to climb the wall. We were made to imagine that we were being pursued by an enemy and the only obstacle we had between us and freedom was the 12ft wall.
We came together and planned that we support the taller guys to climb and they would, in turn, help to lift the rest of us over the wall. We learnt and practised teamwork. It was very interesting.
After the drill, one of our platoon members, whose father is a very popular and rich man (name withheld) offered to sponsor our lunch. He took us to the Mami market and paid for all our orders.
INTER-PLATOON COMPETITION
I joined the platoon five parade and every morning and evening, we rehearsed. I was placed in front and I enjoyed every moment during the rehearsals. My platoon commander had a special liking for my height. He even gave me a nickname, Smallie.
I always got my steps correctly and whenever someone missed his or her marching steps, my platoon commander would say, “You nor dey see my Smallie? She dey march well. Follow her as she dey do am.”
I was placed in the front but I had a liking for the position of the sub-commander of the parade. Whenever we were rehearsing, I admired how Daniel, our platoon parade commander would shout the marching commands at the top of his voice. He was supported by the two parade commanders who were standing behind him. One was standing by his right and the other was standing by his left-hand side.
I think that at one point, I had a crush on Daniel. This was a secret but I guess I just let it out.
During one of our rehearsals, we were asked to halt beside a small bush. I had stepped on a small snake but I had no idea. I began to feel uneasy and so I looked down and raised my leg. I saw the snake coiling up as if it wanted to attack. Immediately I shouted and ran. As expected, every other person followed me. It was after we had run to safety that I was asked for the reason I was running. They searched for the snake but they couldn’t find it. It ran into the bush.
I couldn’t recover for minutes. I was wearing my jungle boot, which was part of my uniform. At that moment, I was glad that the boot had a protective sole.
It was the day of our inter-platoon parade competition. We were all dressed in our NYSC uniforms. We arranged ourselves according to platoons but not in an orderly form. The platoon commanders had to choose our standing position from shuffled papers. We came in as number 6 so we arranged ourselves accordingly.
I had heard that people faint during the competition because of either stress, hunger or fear. I was not scared. The moment we heard the sound of the band, a guy who was standing in the platoon that was directly in front of me fainted. The red cross came and carried him out of the field. But something shocked me. The others in his platoon continued to march forward as if nothing had just happened.
I understood their reason though. From the moment when we were inspected for the competition, our assessment had begun. When it got to our turn we followed behind the platoon in front of us. I enjoyed every moment on that field. I swung my hands and feet gracefully as if I would be paid for marching. We marched to a point where I could barely see. The dust that was generated from all our marching was beginning to cause problems for me. I inhaled too much of it.
As we marched past our judges, we did the eyes-right marching gesture. Oh! I loved it especially when we were on a slow march. It was then time to do what we called, ‘marching in review order.’
This was the final part of the parade where we would take 16 steps forward and the last two steps were used to halt on a marked line. This part was very important in the parade. Just before the command came, it was 6 pm. Immediately, we heard a sound. Everyone in the field and around stood still in honour of Nigeria as they played the sound with what I called, a tiny trumpet.
That was done to honour Nigeria as the usual army culture. They believed civilians would go to bed by 6 pm and wake up by 6 am. So every time it was 6 am or 6 pm, we would hear that same sound and we were expected to stand at attention.
After that, the command came and we were to march in review order. I began to feel dizzy. My vision became blurry and my breathing became difficult but I was determined to finish what I had started. I didn’t want to faint like the first guy who had fainted. And also, if I had fainted, my platoon would have lost some marks.
We marched in review order and even with blurry vision, I stopped exactly on the marked line. We marched out and that was when I passed out.
I woke up minutes later, inside the red cross van. I saw different hands all over me. They had unhooked my bra, pulled off my jungle boots and removed my socks, and unlocked my belt. The first guy I saw asked me, “Are you okay? Can you see me?” I nodded. He helped me to sit up and all I heard was, “Give her space! She needs air.”
A lady passed me a cup with glucose in it and she poured in some water. She asked me to drink it slowly. I nodded. As soon as the cup touched my lips, I drank the water in a hurry. I was very thirsty. I returned the cup to the lady and asked for more, which she later gave to me.
I tried to stand and that was when I realised that my belt had been unlocked. I stood up and my trouser was falling off my waist. I held on to it and walked towards my platoon members. As I was going towards them, a random person gave me my face cap, another person gave me my jacket and another person also gave me one of my socks. I normally wear up to three socks just so that my jungle boots will fit perfectly.
As soon as my platoon commander saw me, he said, “Smallie! Come here! You too try joor! Come make I snap picture with you.” I moved closer and joined in a photo with him and a group photo with the other members of the platoon.
It was time to call the results and we came in the second position. The joy was too much. I was glad that I managed to hold my ground until the end before I passed out. We danced around the field with our award cup.
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I could never wish for a better platoon. I learnt the power of unity and togetherness from my platoon. We always worked together as a team and I treasure those memories.
…to be continued.
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Kendy Speaks 