MY CAMP SERIES: EPISODE 8

Victory at last!

You remember how I said I was prepared to march my platoon to victory even if it meant independently, right? Well, we attained victory, and alas, without my help.

Walk with me as I tell you how this unofficial 8th wonder of the world happened.

Remember my first week before I ran to join the OBS crew? I told you in one episode that I was eager to march alongside my platoon members because I've always loved parades; the seriousness, the sound of the drums and all the other activities involved? You remember? Somewhere again I told you how scared I was of the soldiers in camp and how I couldn't comprehend the fact that some corpers even had the nerve to stand and gist with them, correct?

Even though I moved to OBS, I didn't really abandon my platoon, I was still nursing the hope that I could avoid the punishments and trainings ‘under the sun or in the rain’, and somehow still participate in the parade. I kept going back to check on things, I wanted to know if the coast would be clear enough for me to at least join in the practice.

I know that I have so much pride, but this particular pride is valid. I dey match die! Soldiers are soldiers for a reason but there are civilians like myself who regardless of our nonexistent military trainings, can do a lot of things soldiers can do too. Have you heard me shouting? Have you seen my legs following commands? Have you seen my game face and soldier poise? I'm a soldier in my heart.

I left my people before things got serious, but during the time I spent, I knew my platoon would need a miracle to not come last and collect the ’wooden spoon’.

Note:They give the wooden spoon to the platoon that comes last after the parade.

Time was drawing close and the soldiers assigned to my platoon were getting impatient, and for good reason, I promise you. Even my platoon leader, one fine yellow boy, ‘my Henry’, was marching rubbish 😂. After more than three squats during the practice, I knew I'd have to cancel my dream in order to save my legs and my health.

On this particular day, I'd been watching longingly from the OBS stand and finally decided to join my platoon members for practice. Corporal Hannatu, a female soldier assigned to platoon 10 was teaching us how to do the about turn but people were turning in opposite directions. It was sneaky enough not to notice, but the ununiformed stomping of legs was too obvious because so many people were getting it wrong.

“Everybody go down”. I screamed ‘againnn?’ in my mind because, again? She kept us there for a few minutes and warned us, she said something like, “me I dey smile with una but if una want make I change am for una I fit do am, if una know say una go match rubbish I go show una say una no fit disgrace me for this camp”. She went on to warn us about how we'd been making her receive queries from our camp commander because of our bad behaviour. I remember that we still didn't achieve any great thing that day.

Two days before the D-day, I couldn't believe my eyes. I saw a platoon matching perfectly; hands and legs going in rhythm. I was admiring them and taking the opportunity by virtue of my position as an OBS member, I got close with my phone to take pictures and videos and by some magic, I saw our platoon's smally corper, ‘ambasaador’ in front and my girl Favour giving the command. I felt goose pimples all over my hairy hands. It was very cold around that time which also helped intensify the cold shivers running through my body as I watched. I watched with pride and I even ran back to tell my OBS people that “ that's platoon 10 oo, are you people seeing?”.

The D-day came but I was part of the people cooking for the inter-platoon cooking competition so I didn't go to watch the parade. We were carried away by gist and my “I don't like your face” man was hovering around me too so I was beautifully occupied until someone ran to bring the good news to us that the parade had ended and platoon 10 came first place 🥇.

It was so funny how we didn't believe her at first because we knew 😂. Henry, our platoon leader was with us in the kitchen too and a few other anti-marching people. When we discovered that this girl wasn't joking, I led the troop of people running to the parade ground to celebrate. I lost my voice that day from jubilation. I'd never seen all my platoon members rejoicing or coming together joyfully like we did that day. Everybody danced and danced, the drummers were on our side too and they kept giving us melodies. It was a great day, one of my few best days of camp.

That's not all. On our camp POP, awards were given to both camp officials and corpers for outstanding performances, and corporal Hannatu received the award for outstanding leadership during the parade. It was the most beautiful thing as members of platoon 10 began to show themselves, everybody was screaming her praises and chanting “up down forward”, her best command.

Apparently, participation was later reduced to interest; everybody's participation in the parade was based on their own freewill which made the work easier. The parade crowned the camp inter-platoon competitions. All other positions for competitions were announced after the inter-platoon cooking competition.

People kept insisting that we used our ambassador, the little big guy in our platoon to our advantage because he was already popular amongst camp officials, but in our defence, at least we used him and didn't ignore the fact that he was a corper like us too.

Someone on the group chat said, “no be who first call police they win case. Big Ups Platoon 10. Saved the best for last”