Beauty beyond your imagination

I completed my one-year mandatory service to my country! From the orientation camp to my place of primary assignment, my NYSC PPA experience was filled with a mix of emotions; excitement, curiosity, and distaste to name a few.

The easiest way to get a good PPA is through a request letter. It is simple. If you like a firm, you can apply to work for them for some time. If they like you, they may give you a request letter.

MY PPA EXPERIENCE IN LAGOS STATE.

Another phase of my NYSC life started immediately. I arrived at my PPA which happens to be a private firm in Lagos. It was a marketing job and the pay was just # 10000. Nonsense upon ingredients, I rejected them because I had somewhere I wanted to work.

It was not an easy phase, the company made it hard for me because they didn’t want to reject me but in the end, I got rejected by them.

I later got posted to Page financials services, Ikoyi. The pay is manageable though, I will not complain.

I am really glad this happened. The experience I had led me to identify my analytical thinking skills as an Internal Audit Intern. 

And I have been able to improve my interpersonal skills with my supervisors and line manager.

“Well, Lucky for me my uncle is working where I served but no one knows what the next day holds for me in terms of traffic on the third mainland bridge.

However, I faced the stress of battling traffic to get to work early enough. Nevertheless, the experience was both interesting and stressful.

It is not easy coping with Lagos’s stress. Because you have to wake up early to beat traffic on top of that you have to pray that the road is free.  I cope by being patient and prayerful. It is not interesting at all but can be dramatic and funny because in the streets of Lagos a lot of drama occurs. The most common drama is two car drivers cursing at each other for clashing on the road or a bus driver using his hand to control traffic while driving.

After getting to know the people in my department, I asked to be added to the WhatsApp group so I can receive necessary information and updates. 

The response I got was that they have talked about it in the department and they feel it’s not necessary to add me, and if there’s anything I need to know, I will be informed. To date, I haven’t been added yet.

The worst part was having the salary deducted for lateness. So if you come in late like after 8:10 a.m. instead of 8:00 a.m. 

you’d get like #1000 knocked off on top of #30,000 and I’m not full-time staff. 

Walahi, I was debited twice, it pained me gon.

Inside this Lagos traffic o.

 As a Corper, you can not use office wifi except on your desktop, and it is only your lunchtime you can step out.

 My supervisor, Omasan Sey was understanding and he was patient with me and my mentor Mrs. Olamide was supportive.

Every Tuesday, they had departmental meetings. Most of the time we would have to go to the board room to wait until they finished. Me, that was kuku happy because the meeting can be boring and I can even doze off.

My PPA is 60/40. I enjoyed what I did because I was learning. I was not given accommodation but I live with my parents so I was not bothered about it but I wanted to live alone sha”.

Every first and last Friday, we took a day off because the workload was too much. But Madame always had to be a pain in the ass, she would always try to make sure we came but God pass am.

There was one of my supervisors that frustrated me and my other colleague( though she passed out before me) who was a Corper too, but now I and my supervisor are cool.

I met a lot of new people, some of whom have become great friends aside from the ones I made in camp. And I also got to hang out with some friends at CDS when we visited the Lekki Conservation Center. It was a great experience I will not forget.

My time with the Scheme has afforded me the avenue to sensitize the marketplace, fire station, schools, with the CDS group– Servicom and Gender desk– and also to educate people on important issues on domestic violence, and gender equality, and how the organization can provide good services to their customers.

I didn’t like her, at first because she is trouble, she is a difficult person to work with.

It wasn’t as bad as I thought. I often hear people say it is just a waste of time which I partially agree with because aside from going to your PPA and weekly CDS- mine was Wednesday, there is nothing more to NYSC. For me, it was just a period of learning to work with people, be able to accommodate different personalities that people possess, and above all I learned to be more patient with myself and the people I worked with.

“The NYSC allows us to provide for the less privileged and give lectures to students about some social issues that they do not get much awareness about in their respective schools,” 

It was not a waste of time but an opportunity to explore and make money and more friends.

Well, Today is my passing out parade and I will miss the Khaki, CDS, and most importantly my admirers in my local government.

Did I enjoy my service year?

Will they retain me at my PPA?

Let’s chit-chat in the comment section below.

P.S .: THANKS FOR READING TO THIS POINT, I LOVE YOU!