All You Need To Carry, Get, Or Know About NYSC Camping

The dream of “leaving schools” in Nigeria and moving on to better things in life is more pronounced than ever before in the minds of many folks. By saying leaving school, this doesn’t mean absconding from schools and engaging in activities that are not productive, but rather graduating from Nigerian Public Universities that are plagued with none stop strike activities. Though the rescue route for many these days is enrolling in private Universities for those that have the means of settling the bills that come with getting admitted in these universities. Therefore, graduating finally from any of these two types of universities and other higher institution of learning would be a massive thing for any person.
Firstly, let me use this medium to congratulate the newly mobilized Batch C NYSC members; the latest “Otondos” of the country. For many of these folks, NYSC is just “a must scheme” that they have to engage in for them to see the real side of life; especially the private Universities’ students; “Omo Mummies” while for some, it’s just going to remain a topic of debate as “This Scheme is not meant to be made compulsory or it’s a waste of resources and one year”. But anyway you guys view it; NYSC is an interesting scheme that has a lot of opportunities embedded in it for those with good foresights to take advantage of it. Trust me on this, NYSC is filled with fun and opportunities starting from the very first day you guys step your foot on your respective camps.


Secondly, I would like each and every one of you to get well prepared for the camping. These three weeks could be long for some that would end up in orientation camps with no fun to dig out and on the other hand, it could be very short for some that start catching the fun from the very first day on the camp. Besides the fun and drills to get engaged in, every OTONDO should endeavor to get themselves with some stuffs they would need in their respective orientation camps; some of these materials are:
At least 2 white T-Shirts,
2 White Shorts
2 Pairs of white Stockings
A pair of white footwear; “Tennis” would be good or white rubber Tennis footwear for those that have no patience to be cleaning footwear every morning or any fancy one for the fashion freaks but it must be white.
Waist pouch (Sometimes not allowed in some camps)
16 passport photographs
Stapler (This could save you the stress of walking about to get one while registration is on)
Sun shades (The Camp soldiers seize shades; it depends on your camp structure tho)
Toiletries
Original copy of call-up Letter, photocopies of Statement of result, Final year School ID Card and getting a folder (my clear bag) to hold stuffs together wouldn’t be a bad idea too.
For those that can eat from the kitchen, taking extra cash in the range of 10,000 naira would be wise. Otherwise, 25,000 naira to infinity could solve the problem of feeding for those that can’t eat from the kitchen, likewise “lounging” in the camp must also be considered.
Food container and cutleries
Handkerchief
Three to four casual wears are enough for the camping as they would be needed for Mosque on Fridays and Church on Sundays for those that would go.
Having a camera (good phones) to capture events would be awesome too.
Cereals and beverages
Bucket ( this could be gotten on camp for a token)
Small nylons for “shot-put”…………………………(lips sealed)
Most of these things stated above could be gotten from the MAMMY MARKET in various camps provided there is enough cash to throw around, but it is highly advisable that these stuffs should be done and gotten from outside the camp to reduce stress within the camp.


For those folks that like getting their wears fitted, in my candid opinion that could be discarded if not needed, I would say don’t slim fit before you wash the Khakhi uniform you would be given because it shrinks on every wash it goes through. If the slim fitting would be done let be as moderate as possible, because there is a good tendency of it getting torn while engaging in drills.