Jide Runs Mad - The NYSC Chronicles

The Soldiers couldn't just comprehend how someone could be so lazy and weak. They could clearly remember the years before they joined the military, even as young civilians, they were very hardworking and engaged their youthfulness in physically exhilarating activities. Okon still remember how at the young age of fourteen, his father had already assigned him two acres of farmland in their native village at Cross rivers.

 

Farming and fishing were the predominant occupation of his people, therefore he quickly inherited both occupations from his father. By five in the morning, his whole family would wake up, wash their faces, arms and feet, then head to the farm which was about five kilometers away from their residence. They usually returned just before the sun went to sleep, then spent about  three hours fishing from late night till early the next morning. Okon knew that by the age of nineteen when he finally joined the Nigerian military, he was already a hardened young man, roughened and rugged from the lifelong engagement in farming and fishing, the escapades into the forest for dry cooking wood in the rainforest area of Cross river was an experience which haunted him everyday.

 

The three soldiers just watched Jide, a forlorn expression written on his face, and with a pitiful piece of paper on his hands. He claimed that the paper was proof of his initial claim of feeling sickly and therefore unable to participate in the everyday, early morning parade ritual. This was not their first time of dealing with Corpers, and after ten years of overseeing NYSC Corpers, they were now experts at detecting those who feigned illness just to escape the physical exercises in camp. They had taken about thirty seconds to size-up Jide and to their utmost satisfaction, he was just fit enough to do 'ordinary parade'. Therefore instead of letting him be, they ordered him and his 'fake' medical report to proceed to the parade ground, Jide refused and all hell was let loose. Ahmed drew first blood, ad he lashed out the tail end of his whip onto the back of the recalcitrant Corper, Okon and the other soldier whose name i don't know followed suit with a belt and a Barton respectively. The disciplinary action continued for about two minutes until Jide began to dance frantically while chanting incoherent words as if he were a witch doctor in the middle of an incantation.

Gradually, the other Corpers began to assemble round the scene of the incidence, they watched in dismay as their counterpart danced around in a tirade of madness. Tempers began to flare and before i knew it, everyone began to murmur until it grew into a rage of angry voices and shouts. Right before my very eyes, the Corpers transited into a peaceful protest, starting with their refusal to participate in the morning parade for that day. Everyone loitered around with a carefree demeanor, passively daring the soldiers to use force on them, but at this point, the men in khaki knew they had overreached their bounds, so they just took the observatory role.

 

The trumpet sounded and everyone was beckoned to the parade ground for a meeting with the camp authorities. Whatever the outcome of the meeting, at least these young people had escaped the grueling drill of the early morning parade for today.

 

I just proceeded to the back of Mami market with the bowl of clothes on my head, i was not surprised at any of these Drama because even i, had spent a better part of my twenty years of life in this Mami market, attending to Corpers both as a trader and as a make-shift laundry man. I just hope the Sun would shine today, so these clothes would dry quickly.