Read Story: SEASON 1 EPISODE 7
I travelled back to base and resumed duty on a
Monday; it was a week to Christmas. The daily
routines were waking up in the morning and do
my morning pushups and sit ups as I get set for
work. I report for work at 7.30am and by 8.00am
it is time for morning parade. Here we are
addressed by the Commanding Officer (C.O) the
Administrative Officer (A.O) or the Regimental
sergeant Major (R.S.M) we are briefed of any
development and any information necessary is
announced to us. Issues are also treated on the
Parade ground.
Issues could be anything ranging from refusal to
give your Wife adequate monthly allowance, Wife
battering, drunkenness, Igbo smoking, sleeping
with the daughter of a fellow Soldier (Children
above 18 are not supposed to live in the
Barracks) Fighting, the list is endless. Our
dresses are also inspected and our breath
smelled to find out those that wash their eyes
with hot drinks before coming to work daily.
Our Office is inside the barracks community and
I trek 30 minutes to the Office from my House,
some Soldiers come to work with Motor Cycles
while others trek, Soldiers that were fortunate to
have gone for one or two internationally peace
keeping mission drive Cars to the Office. They
could afford Cars as a result of accumulated
salaries while away on the peace keeping
mission; they are paid allowances while on
mission so they could save their salaries.
For those that are married, they sign up some
cheque leafs for their Wives for monthly family
upkeep and Children School fees, the unmarried
ones save more except for those that have
serious relationships or live-in lovers before
departure for the operation. There are several
cases of Men that returned from two years
peace keeping mission only to discover that all
the monies saved up or sent home have been
squandered by their Wives, such cases results
into family break ups as such Wives are termed
“Witches” they never expected their husbands to
return alive. For Soldiers that do not return home
alive, all his savings and benefits goes to his
next of Kin.
At 2.30pm it is close of work officially but
sometimes one has to hang around until the
senior officers have left the Office before you
can leave because of any ad-hoc assignment
that could come up.
I was a signaler, attached to the radio room and
my job was to receive and transmit information
within all military formations, some information
are coded and has to be decoded for further
transmission. Some volatile and high profiled
messaged are transmitted “encoded” for security
reasons. Only the recipients can decode such
messages. Our office also tracks messages
within the national telecommunication networks
to surf out potential dangerous information of
national interest.
Whenever I am on night duty, I take the next day
off, sometimes I am attached to the house of a
senior officer as night guard, or I am assigned to
guard a sensitive post. The job routine was fixed
and I have my weekends to myself except if I am
on weekend duty. I have planned to enroll in
either of the Enugu state university or the
institute of management and technology for a
part time degree program once I am fully settled,
say next year.
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We did not receive any salaries in December and
January; HQ admin was yet to be done with our
documentation into the NA database so I
survived on borrowing and charity. We were very
credit worthy for older Soldiers readily lend us
monies because they all knew we were
expecting something big when our bulk money is
paid up, and once this is paid, everyone will
know. The barracks is a small community where
nothing goes unnoticed.
I stopped smoking marijuana because I was
broke and managing the meager resources with
me as I wait patiently for my pay, Secondly Igbo
smoking was not encouraged in the Army
contrary to my expectation, in fact it was a
punishable offence to be caught smoking Indian
hemp, however, fifty percent of the Soldiers still
smoke it. I had brought a lot of food stuff from
the Village but after three months of non receipt
of salary my Ban became empty.
By April in 1991, we were preparing for the
annual G.O.C (General Officer Commanding) Cup
inter unit football tournament. I was among the
Players of the Signals Corp, I played centre
forward and we go to the Field every evening
after office hours for training and practice. It
was during one of those sessions that I met Mr.
Chike or Oga Chike as he was popularly called.
Oga Chike was a Civilian business man that
deals on Machines and automobile Spare parts at
a market called “Coal camp” in Enugu. He
supplies the Army spare parts from time to time
and he is well known in the barracks, he is about
the only Civilian that would drive into the
barracks without being interrogated at the main
gate. He approached me after a training session
and shook hands with me, he said he liked the
way I play football, he encouraged me to keep it
up and strive to be enlisted into the revered
“Green Beret” Army Team. Players in the Green
Beret are favoured with speedy promotions and a
lot of leisure. I thanked him and together we
strolled to the Corporal below mess (CBM) we
joined others to watch an ongoing football match
while he ordered for drinks. I had no Television
set in my house so I normally come to the mess
to get entertained.
It was during my discussion with Chike that I
indicated interest in buying a cheap car when I
receive my money, I told him I would love to
drive the Car to my Village to pick my Mother
and bring her to Enugu with me. He promised to
help me get one when I am ready. He said he
had some cars handy for sale but are far beyond
my reach based on my budget.
The Football competition started in earnest and I
made more friends, my skill at playing local
football in the Village and chasing games in the
Forest paid off as I was easily spotted as a Star
on the field, I scored in every match that we
played, I scored two goals when we played
against the military Police, I scored a goal when
we played against the medical corps and two
goals against Engineers, we drew two goals apart
with Workshop and BAD (Base ammunition
depot) My unit was top on the league.
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