By Toby Prince
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‎For many young Nigerians, the National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) is surrounded by stories, assumptions and sometimes exaggerated tales. Before experiencing it personally, it is easy to form opinions about what the orientation camp will be like, especially when one is posted to a part of the country far away from home, with most of them leaving home for the first time.
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‎For one youth corps member from Ogun State, however, his journey to the NYSC Orientation Camp in Sokoto State turned out to be a lesson that challenged many of the perceptions he had carried about other parts of Nigeria.
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‎A graduate of the University of Ilorin who completed his studies in 2020, he arrived in Sokoto with the usual mixture of curiosity, uncertainty and expectations that accompany such a journey. Leaving Ogun State for Sokoto for the first time, meant travelling across a significant stretch of the country and entering an environment that was, in many aspects, different from what he had always known.
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‎But what he encountered in the orientation camp was not the experience he had imagined. Instead, he found a well organised environment where young Nigerians from different states, cultures, ethnic and religious backgrounds were brought together in one camp and treated as members of one family.
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‎From the moment he settled into camp, the level of organisation and care provided by the NYSC authorities left a lasting impression on him. The accommodation, meals, welfare arrangements and daily activities were handled with a sense of responsibility that made the experience considerably easier than he had anticipated.
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‎The meals, in particular, became part of the memorable experience. Whatever reservations he may have had before arriving were gradually replaced by appreciation as he saw the efforts made to provide food for hundreds of young people in camp. The sleeping arrangements, too, offered him a practical lesson in communal living. Sharing facilities with young Nigerians from different backgrounds created opportunities for interaction that would probably never have occurred outside the NYSC programme.
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‎And beyond the food and accommodation, the real value of the camp was the people. Young men and women who had never met before suddenly became colleagues, friends and sometimes lifelong acquaintances. Someone from Ogun could sit beside someone from Sokoto, Enugu, Rivers, Kaduna, Benue or another part of the country and discover that, despite differences in language, culture and upbringing, they had remarkably similar hopes for the future.
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‎That is where the deeper meaning of the NYSC begins. The scheme is much more than a compulsory period of national service. At its best, it is a practical experiment in national integration. It takes young Nigerians out of their familiar environments and gives them the opportunity to live, work and interact with people from other parts of the country.
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‎For this particular corps member, the experience in and outside of the NYSC camp in Sokoto changed something fundamental: his perspective. He came to appreciate that Nigeria cannot be understood fully from the narrow viewpoint of one’s immediate environment. The country is too diverse and too complex to be judged through hearsay, stereotypes or stories told from a distance.
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‎His time in Sokoto allowed him to see ordinary Nigerians beyond the labels that are sometimes attached to them. He encountered people willing to welcome him, share experiences with him and make him feel at home. What might have appeared strange before his journey gradually became familiar.
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‎Five years after his youth service, that experience remains fresh in his memory. He remains grateful to God for the opportunity to serve in Sokoto and, importantly, grateful to the founders of the NYSC Scheme for creating an institution that gives young Nigerians such opportunities.
He confessed that his journey to Sokoto was his first visit North of Nigeria. And he claimed honestly that before then his impression of the North was that of a region for only the Hausas.
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‎This is one of the great achievements of the National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) that is sometimes overlooked.
‎As a nation, we must understand that national unity cannot be built merely through speeches and official declarations. It is built when Nigerians meet Nigerians. It is strengthened when young people travel outside their states, live together, eat together, work together and discover one another as human beings. And the NYSC creates precisely that opportunity.
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‎The scheme teaches a young Nigerian graduate that the person from another state is not necessarily a stranger. It shows that cultural differences do not have to become barriers to friendship. It encourages tolerance, understanding and respect. It gives young Nigerians an opportunity to appreciate the richness of the country’s diversity rather than fear what they do not know.
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‎The Community Development Service (CDS) component also gives corps members the opportunity to contribute to the communities where they serve. Across the country, corps members have taught in schools, supported healthcare initiatives, participated in environmental programmes, assisted vulnerable people and contributed in various ways to community development. And for many young Nigerians, therefore, NYSC is the first major opportunity to serve people outside their immediate communities.
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‎That experience gathered during the scheme also shapes character. It teaches discipline, responsibility, adaptability and patience. It also exposes young graduates to realities that cannot be learned in the classroom.
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‎The Sokoto experience, for young graduate from Ogun State, is a reminder that, despite the challenges Nigeria faces, there are still institutions and experiences capable of bringing Nigerians together. The NYSC may not be perfect, and like every large national institution, it has areas that require continuous improvement. But its central idea remains remarkably relevant.
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‎A country as diverse as Nigeria needs platforms such as the NYSC to encourage its young people to know one another. The young graduate from Ogun who travelled to Sokoto in fulfilment of his national service returned with more than a certificate. He returned with memories, friendships and a broader understanding of Nigeria.
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‎Five years later, he can look back and say that the journey changed him. He went to Sokoto as a young Nigerian from Ogun State. He returned with a deeper appreciation of the fact that, regardless of where we come from, we are all part of the same country.
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‎Perhaps that is the greatest lesson of the NYSC: sometimes, the best way to understand Nigeria is to leave home and experience another part of it. And sometimes, what we discover there is not what we were told to expect. It is much better.
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‎For that reason, the NYSC remains one of Nigeria’s most important instruments of national integration, unity and cohesion, and one whose positive impact on generations of young Nigerians deserves to be recognised, protected and strengthened.
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Prince writes from Otukpo, Benue State.