A TALK ON ‘THE LIFE AFTER NYSC’ GIVEN BY BRIGHT AIYANYOR AGHEDO TO THE YEAR 2011 GRADUATING STUDENTS OF THE NIGERIA FEDERATION OF CATHOLIC STUDENTS (NFCS), EBONYI STATE UNIVERSITY, ABAKALIKI ON THIS DAY THE 8TH OF NOVEMBER, 2011; DELIVERED ON HIS BEHALF BY ORJI CHUKWUDI.
Dear friends i sincerely apologise for not making it flesh and blood to be with you on this your great celebration; painful though, but i thank God Almighty for his grace and mercies in your life as you move from one step in life unto another.
I was asked to talk on the life after NYSC! Interesting topic indeed that will open up alot of what you will call wounds and proffer healing to them. Wounds I call them, challenges ahead you will call them, but in all, they are all what most graduates will experience.
Good news! I bring you the first good news. Not all of you will just leave without going back into the classroom to retake a carry-over. I know some of you may be sad over this, but rejoice and say to yourself all things worketh together unto good for them that believeth in the Lord their God. I am a living testimony of what the world will call carry-over turned into favour, that of over 200 students in my set of Business Education Department, i am among the first 2 or 3 best graduating students; courtesy, a first semester carry-over in my final year. Please don’t say that i am diverting from the real talk but rather, i am trying to establish a premise on which my topic of the day could be well understood.
Good news!! Not all of you gathered here will go to NYSC the same time. There is time for everything under the earth says the Holy Bible. So therefore pray that your time should not come before or after the designed period but it should be the time God want it to be. Without being vain glorious, my time in the NYSC was the most rewarding one though not fully utilized, this i will tell you in the course of my talk.
Now the talk for the day. Life after NYSC.
The characteristics of this life include: loneliness, anger, regret, fear, dejection, repression, despair etc. These are the first characteristics of this life. Only those who will overcome these horrors will enjoy the following: joy, peace, happiness, productivity, increase etc. These are the fruit of patience, tolerance, dedication and faith in God.
Life after NYSC starts from the day you are given the discharge certificate. This is a day of horror! This is the day you will come in touch with the reality of adulthood. This will be the day that friends will turn foes and foes friends. This will be the day family members will see a monster in you and you see a scaring lion in your house. This will be the day the heavens will seems not to give more rain and the night will have sunshine. This will be the end of federal allowance and payment from your places of primary assignment. Above all, this will be the day you will take the greatest decision of your life weather to continue with your God or the contrary. But friends, am not here to put fear in you but rather open your minds to the truth of the life after NYSC. Thank God I have jumped some of these huddles, but yet i still have to do alot to meet up the task of life through the help of God; Philippians 4:13.
Colleagues, from the very moment your discharge certificate is given to you, you automatically add to the population of unemployed employable and unemployable Nigerians. You automatically become a man or woman of your own. Heaven help you if you never saved even for your transportation home. On the day i got my discharge certificate in Lafia, Nasarawa State, i couldn’t laugh nor rejoice; that was a mistake and ingratitude! I saw men weep while gazing at their certificate. I saw angels not smiling and babies celebrating. This was the day that many lost their lives and other valuables. This was the day a girl who just passed out went into the bank to withdraw money for her travel only to be hit down by a vehicle, therefore ending the life of such a presumed innocent young girl i will call her.
Colleagues, i believe we are progressing? The life after NYSC is a period where you will look at your Dad and cannot ask him any question; it is the period where so much is required from you in your home; again, heaven help you if you couldn’t safe any money to survive you after the service year. Friends, it will be a period you are expected to be closer to God your creator and know that alone you can’t do anything, but with God, all things are possible. Friends, this will be the period where loneliness will turn you into something else, but only the disciplined will save their lives and keep believing God for his kindness.
Friends, i work today as an Internal Auditor in Benin City, receiving as salary what i will still thank God is sustaining me through though but ye still experiencing the life huddle after NYSC. Only yesterday, i went to check on a house i am to rent, one room self contained for N90, 000 a year. Some of you may say, where you leaved in school is even more expensive than that, but the truth now is that ‘you will be the one to pay’ not mummy or daddy. I spend about N9,000 on fuelling the car on a month, all from the little salary! Small it may sound but all are to be satisfied from yet the small salary; Life after NYSC!
Friends, my best advice is that a wise son continues looking for a job even after getting a job. You must come in term with the struggles of Life. Friends, you have to decide today what percentage of your monthly allowance wills you safe? You must decide today whether to remain with God or the contrary.
Shockers of the life after NYSC:
1. Decrease in real friends
2. Decrease in income to be saved
3. Adulthood.
4. Increase in foes Etc.
This is the beginning of work life. This will be the time when you will see certain jobs and say ‘What was the essence of my going to school ‘? This is when graduates pray to get a N20, 000 jobs or even less. Stand your ground and say to yourself: I am important... prophesy greatness into your life, but pick up that N20, 000 job and start from there.
Friends, safe and safe during your NYSC, because you will need the money for transportation for interviews, recharge cards, browsing, boyfriend and girlfriend etc. Your parents may not be ready to give you a dime, but you have something to fall back to.
In conclusion friends, the life after NYSC is the beginning of the real life. A period of independence and freedom of choice which may likewise be limited. It is better to stand your ground during this period and believe that you are specially made by God. Put your hope in God alone because a whole lot of people you trusted so much will be the first to betray you. Do your best to build-up your skills during NYSC, put up applications in many companies as you could during NYSC. Be very close to God and he will be close to you. Remember this:
‘The Lord God shall supply all your needs according to his riches in glory in Christ Jesus.’ Phil. 4:19
I sincerely apologise for my inability to be here to felicitate with you, but know that God will make your weakness into strength and increase his grace in your life in Jesus Christ name. Amen.
God bless you.
Only God gives the strength
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