“No corps member is allowed to travel. You are all expected to remain in your Places of Primary Assignment (PPA). If you are caught then you will be reprimanded. You will either be given an extension of your service year, or on the day of your passing out your certificate would be withheld.”
Those were the threatening words our Zonal and Local Inspectors gave us. But nobody wanted to remain in their PPAs for a whole year, as it would be rather boring.
Don’t get me wrong, we were getting first-class treatment from the indigenes. Students returning from the farm at weekends would always drop by and give us gifts such as yams, sweet potatoes, corn, sugar cane, mangoes, and tomatoes, depending on which crop was in season. After school, some of these students would offer to pound yam for us and help us roast cashew nuts. They were like our younger siblings, and we spoilt them often because they were willing to do anything for us.
We Kopas felt that Zonal Inspectors (ZI) could be annoying; we saw them as dictators who handed out decrees without consideration. The only Kopas allowed to travel were people getting married, and even that was another long process: they had to first inform the ZI, who would ask them to write a letter to the State Coordinator and attach a copy of the wedding invitation card, then wait for weeks before permission was finally granted – to go for your own wedding! I don’t blame them; they were probably just acting on the rules given to them by their oga at the top.
In my case, I wasn’t getting married, but I wanted to visit a fellow Kopa in another state five hours away from mine (after all, the aim of NYSC is to foster integration and patriotism, isn’t it?). But since it was my first time travelling, I forgot that I had to do some calculations beforehand. I set out on a Wednesday afternoon just immediately after our CDS meeting with the intention of spending a week with my friend. As I journeyed fromKwara to Osun State, the warning of my LI began to ring as if he was on the bus sitting beside me and shouting those words with a horn into my ears. Frightened, a part of me wanted to turn back and return to Baruten LGA, but another part kept telling me to move ahead. After all, I was not the first Kopa to travel without duly informing NYSC officials – it is only those caught that are guilty.
I arrived in Osun State late in the evening and was greeted by a delicious meal of amala and ewedu with goat meat prepared by my friend. As I began eating, my phone suddenly rang; it was a call from my CDS coordinator, Kopa Monday, calling to inform me that our monthly clearance was the following day! I almost choked as I angrily threw my phone on the bed. This is unbelievable! It was confirmed when other Kopas started to call me. What was I to do: travel back that night or wait till the following morning? My friend asked me to be patient till the following morning, and leave as early as possible.
At 5am, I arrived at the car park but the bus did not fill up until 6am. I sat in the bus and thought of the saying, “Man proposes and God disposes”. My week-long trip was reduced to just one day. Just as our journey started, our bus developed a fault, resulting in my being late for clearance. I had to borrow someone else’s uniform and jungle boots before entering the office, and the LIs were already packing up their documents when I rushed in. They observed my hurried breathing and began to probe me, but I was a good enough liar that day and since they didn’t have any evidence, they cleared me without much wahala.
Kopas must remember never to travel without confirming when your clearance will come up. I knew that clearance usually falls on the first week of the month, but this was not the case that time. Not only that, travelling can be quite dangerous – what if something terrible happened to me on my way back? I said to myself I would never travel again. But when I did, I was more careful 
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