“Hello Omo Imam ibo ni won post e si” (Hello Ms. Imam where were you posted to?) That was Olutobi in his conc Osogbo dialect asking where I was posted for my NYSC? Olutobi was my nerve-close friend in the Uni, we hailed from the same place and had a world of ours as undergraduates. He was a calm and undisturbed person all through our days in the Uni. Yea Olutobi knew how to have fun but he was never noisy about it.
If you have read one of my posts titled ‘DAYS OF OUR LIVES,’ where I brought you on my journey to graduation, you will have an idea of how having a true friend during the end of my undergraduate years would mean. Olutobi and I shared a common goal.
If you have also been coming with me in this series too, you will remember how enthusiastic I was about getting my ‘CALL UP LETTER’ in the first chapter. The joy I knew at being posted to serve in Lagos state was boundless, the same way Olutobi felt when he told me in the conversation I started up there that he was posted to Delta state.
Olutobi was one of those Corp members you are so sure he would find his way to redeploy ni sha, I did not even bother to ask him if he was going to redeploy or not. I knew he would compulsorily have to go for the three weeks camp, then hop back to Lagos to continue the hustle.
He was on the path of setting up a record label and a clothing line he called ‘WHYEMCEE.’ Introductory letters and proposals to start up the company as authored by me are sobbing silently in my archives. Last I saw him was one of those midweeks I closed early from my place of primary assignment and dropped by his place. Olutobi was a believer of process and he appreciated each step we made in our lives.
He said to me on my way home that we would flourish, only for that call on the 17th of June, 2017 to announce the death of Olutobi to me! For a moment I gave up on everything I wanted to become, I mean why stress this much when we would still die – but then we cannot afford to give up the race and amount to nothing in life. Olutobi lived his short stay prosperously, he touched lives in the best way he could and he did not leave without an impact.
This is to all Corp members who passed during the course of their Nysc. May God comfort their parents, families and friends.
On this note I will be ending my Nysc Diary series. I hope you enjoyed the journey with me? I have a fresh new series coming up, stay plugged with me.
If you missed any chapter in my Nysc Diary series, don’t be lazy to go back and read. You can check up some of my fiction series there too: IRONY OF FACES (another interesting one there)
I’m sure you’ld love the following stories off MY NYSC DIARY series in the links below:
- MY NYSC DIARY I (CALL UP LETTER)
- MY NYSC DIARY IV (DRILLS, EVENTS & BOYS)
- MY NYSC DIARY V (QUICK AMEBO)
- MY NYSC DIARY IX (FRIGHT IS FUN)
- MY NYSC DIARY XII (P.O.P RUSH)
Love Always
Sa’eedah!