Enjoy!!
It was a Monday morning in the month of March, 2012. I discovered I was getting late for my weekly NYSC CDS meeting at the Local Government, so I had to skip breakfast, as I hurriedly jumped into the bus and off we zoomed to Ikeja.
The usual practice of signing the NYSC attendance register was beginning to get on my nerves as we had to queue for virtually everything we wanted done. After a long queue of corpers, I finally signed the attendance for the week.
I then had to wait for our group leader to arrive so we can start the meeting, as I was beginning to run out of patience.
Finally he arrived, and we began the meeting.
We talked about a variety of 'uninteresting' things. I was getting really bored with the CDS meeting as I just couldn't wait to leave and head back home.
Time dragged slowly, and we were told to contribute some little money for a project we were going to undertake in some weeks' time. At that moment, I lost my cool, as I complained bitterly to the leader that NYSC hadn't paid my monthly stipend, and I was living on borrowed funds. My complaints fell on deaf ears as we were compelled to either pay up or be reported to the NYSC CDS coordinator.
I had no choice but to part with a substantial amount of money. I was left seething as to how I was going to survive the next few days without a reimbursement.
Finally we were done with CDS, and I could heave a great sigh of relief.
My friends were about to leave for the day, so I joined them, as they also going my way.
My friends were jamming some hip-hop songs, much to my satisfaction, as I just needed to cool my self off in my new-found ambience. I didn't have an inkling as to what I was going to encounter.
My friend drove, while another of my friend was sat in front, I was the only one at the back seat of the car, so I had ample space all to myself.
As we were about to make a turn to head into the main road, the car was flagged down by a Federal Road Safety Commission (FRSC) official for a reason we weren't privy to.
I looked in astonishment at my other friends, as to why were being stopped.
The official came to meet us, looking stressed out and haggard, as the long hours of standing seemed to have had an effect on his fitness.
We politely asked why he stopped us, but he wouldn't answer us. He told us to park the car, while he went to report our offence to his boss.
We got down from the car and went to meet the boss to ask what our offence was. The boss, a lady, told us that it was because my friend on the passengers' seat didn't make use of the seat belt.
We looked at the lady in disgust, as my friend used the seat belt, but the timing came a bit late as the belt was worn almost immediately when the official saw us.
We felt we had a point to prove because as at the time the official stopped the vehicle finally, the seat belt was already worn, but he was smart enough to have spotted us from afar.
We knew we were doomed, so we tried to talk to the official that he should have at least pardoned us since the belt was already worn, but he wouldn't listen.
The lady boss had already taken the particulars of the car and began to issue us a ticket, as she ordered the car to be parked in the FRSC compound.
All our efforts to find a 'lie' to tell the woman didn't yield any result, as the woman had already issued us a ticket to pay the fine of N10,000 before the car could be released to us.
N10,000 fine!!! We then began to raise our voices on the main road, as we argued with the woman. It became very heated, as passers-by looked in our direction. We were dressed in the full NYSC uniform, and so it became a case of FRSC vs NYSC.
We argued that the official who spotted us was very unfair, as the least he could have done was to pardon us, but he chose to flag us down. We were getting very angry, as the argument raged on.
We then moved to the official that stopped us and began to hurl spiteful words at him, as the official moved away to ignore us and look for more culprits. We accused him of conspiracy and injustice, as we saw some 'Danfo' buses whose drivers failed to make use of their seat belts, pass by; but the official failed to flag them down as well. We sighted them as examples, but they all fell on deaf ears.
At that point, the lady boss got very furious with us, as she felt the need to protect her officers. She threatened us that she would write a petition against us to NYSC, for breaking the law, for harassing an officer of the law, and for trying to disrupt the course of duty.
After hearing those words come out from her mouth, we decided to calm down and moved over to plead with the woman to let us go, that we were sorry.
After minutes of pleading, she finally calmed down and told us that since she had already issued the ticket, there was no way she could cancel it, but the highest she could do for us was to reduce the fine we were going to pay.
We still wanted to get off free of charge because none of us had money on us. NYSC hadn't paid our monthly stipend.
The woman decided to have compassion on us and reduced the fine drastically to the sum of N2,000.
We now began to crack our brains as to how we were going to raise the sum of N2,000 to pay in the bank. We now proceeded to that particular bank we were supposed to pay the fine to. On getting to the bank, we met a mammoth crowd. The day was getting really bad.
We patiently waited till it got to our turn. When it got to our turn, the teller told us to wait while they set up the FRSC portal where the money will be paid. I had to part with my last N500. My friends too part with their last monies, and the sum of N2,000 was complete.
It was very annoying we had to part with all we had because we felt we could have been at least pardoned by that official.
After some minutes, we paid the fine and headed back to the FRSC office to submit the receipt. We then signed some documents so as to have the car released to us. It was, finally.
We drove out of the compound, thanked the lady boss for assisting us at least. We looked at that official in disdain, and zoomed off.
*We learnt to always obey the law and after such harrowing experience, such was never going to repeat itself*
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