The great Mahatma Gandhi once said, “The best way to find yourself is to lose yourself in the service of others.” Apparently, there are many ways to discover the self but getting lost in service to others (or a cause) is the best and perhaps the most appropriate option. The last one year of my life has been mainly characterised by service to my country. I didn’t join the army, just in case anyone’s wondering. Actually, I just completed my one-year compulsory service under the National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) scheme.
Before I go on, I would like to sincerely apologise for waiting this long before posting on this blog – it’s been about three years since I last updated the blog. I have been going through a transition of some sort which has not only divided me mentally but also emotionally. In a nut shell, I wasn’t in the best position to write anything sensible to keep the readers of this blog inspired. My transition story will be for another day anyway. Be assured that you’ll always get the best of inspirational articles from here henceforth.
Back to the gist; I was posted to Abia State (a South Eastern State in Nigeria) for my youth service and like many others who have served or are serving, the one-year compulsory service isn’t exactly the typical service. It is seen as a waste of time and a sort of delay to achieving one’s goals in life. In fact, the acronym NYSC has been given new meanings which includes Now Your Suffering Continues, thereby indicating how displeased many Nigerian youths are about the programme. However, not everyone who completes the programme continues to think the scheme is a waste of time. Surprisingly, it turns out to be the best year of many Nigerians who pass through the scheme.
The one-year NYSC scheme begins with three weeks in an orientation camp where the overly regimented life becomes so frustrating it begins to appear like months have been spent there. A watch is useless in the NYSC camp as the sound of the bugle becomes the ticking sound of the clock. The bugler’s sound literally tells you the time to do everything from waking up to meal time to parade time; even bedtime. Hereafter the one-year service begins proper. Some people are sent to villages where there is no electricity and extremely poor telecommunications reception. In fact, some get to live the village life they have only experienced from watching the wrapper-tying characters in many Nigerian films where the young women have to walk a distance to the stream carrying clay pots on their heads. Once the corps member’s monthly allowance of 20,000 naira (sorry, 19,800 naira as a friend often corrects me) is paid, these village corps members have to travel to the nearest city to withdraw their money, shop a little and enjoy city life before retiring to their firewood-fetching, candle-burning village lifestyle. I am not making fun of them, nay; I actually envy them as I was unlucky to have served in a city.
Everything that has advantages comes with relative disadvantages, and serving in a city has its: little opportunity to serve. The corps member who got the Abia State award of 100,000 naira and an honours certificate served in Ubakala, a not-too-city area of Umuahia South Local Government Area where he taught in a secondary school. I heard he was initially posted to Umuahia city but asked to be reposted to Ubakala. His personal project of building an ICT Centre cum library among other things like his service in the Federal Road Safety Corps Community Development Service Group fetched him the award.
Many corps members did get lost in service especially those who taught in village schools as they did everything humanly possible to impart the students they taught. They didn’t mind the meagre allowance the Federal Government paid them but gave all they could to invest knowledge in those unwilling students. Many took on personal projects to renovate and equip the schools, community libraries and even police stations. A host of corps members belonging to various groups devoted time to carry out services like sensitising the community on achieving the Millennium Development Goals, cancer awareness, peer education training, encouraging mass literacy, HIV/AIDS awareness and going as far as rendering social services to the people of various communities. As a matter of fact, these services were eventually carried out by corps members with all willingness and humility.
Nigeria sentences her young graduates to one-year compulsory experience in a foreign part of the country. Though unwilling at first, these young men and women end up loving every bit of their experience – the people they met, the new delicacies they were forced to try out, the new and interesting cultures, the foreign language they spoke and of course their discovery of how much joy selfless service could offer. Many of the corps members, upon passing out, are often transformed and forcefully humbled through service. They were called to serve their country but they ended up being served. They gained new perspectives on certain issues, discovered the path they must follow to achieve greatness in life and found ways to continue in service.
Service, as it turns out is indeed the best way to discover self. If you find yourself in a corner of confusion and emptiness, try service. If you think you have come to the end of the road and there seems to be no way forward, try rendering service to others. If you really do want to feel fulfilled, help put a smile on a sad face and give a helping hand to those who need help. Dr Albert Schweitzer, the famous missionary doctor and the 1952 Nobel Peace Prize winner who spent his life helping the poor in Africa once said, “I don’t know what your destiny will be, but one thing I know: the only ones among you who will be really happy are those who have sought and found how to serve.” Indeed, the motto of the NYSC is well deserved; “Service and Humility.”
