These photos were taken during my National
Youth Service Corps - NYSC - service year at Yola in Adamawa State-circa 1996,
I was engaged as a reporter to produce "NYSC week" at Adamawa
Television (ATV), Yola. That was my place of primary assignment. One day, I was
asked to go over and cover the orientation of new corp members at the @nysc
orientation camp, Yola, as they were being sent to their places of primary
assignment. It was a very tense assignment because the DSS followed me
everywhere; on this day, I met several former Nigerian students excited to see
me in the "service" of my father's land. One of them from UNILAG, a
bosom friend Mr. B of Henry Carr (as he was fondly called), Olaniyan Abiodun D.
J was too happy to reunite, and we stuck together throughout the ceremony. I
explained to him that my life was being cruelly monitored, so I was surprised
when I never heard from him again in Yola. He reached out today with these
never-before-seen photos we took during the momentous day, but guess what? The NYSC
authorities punished him by posting him far away from Yola; he was assigned to
Ganye because they said keeping him close to me in Yola would cause violence!
The story of my NYSC service year from orientation camp to Passing-Out-Parade
was a story that would be told some day-another day. It is a movie grade-level
story like many others. Note: I was later thrown out of ATV, Yola, arrested
during my Passing-Out-Parade by @OfficialDSSNG who then transferred me to the
@NigAirForce guardroom, where I languished in detention for a week before I was
released but never given my “Discharge Certificate.” I sued the @officialnyscng
(with the help of @Femi Falana, SAN he assigned Jiti Ogunye to prosecute the
case, and he did so diligently) upon my release from detention but they came to
court to argue that I have no recourse in a court of law. I recently heard from
the Nigerian lawyer who prosecuted my case for the government. He swore that he
tried to “help me.” He recently retired from the NYSC!
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