I have come to the conclusion that though Nigeria may be a diverse country with over 250 ethnic groups and languages, there are a few things that bring us all together asides unity, and they make life so beautiful. Some of them are Football, Twitter banter other countries and of course, JOLLOF RICE.
You can never find a place in Nigeria that brings many people from different parts of the country like the NYSC orientation Camp and if there was one thing we all agreed on, it was Jollof rice was King. Camp food sucked and we barely ate it. After a few days of the kitchen staff cook, they were quick to appoint cooking schedules to the different platoons on Camp. This is where shit gets real! Everyone suddenly remembers they were caterers in their previous life. So, for different days on Camp, there were categories of people that you would see on the queue for food.
Firstly, there was a battle for which platoon could handle the cooking of the Jollof Rice. There were 10 platoons and Jollof could only be made by two platoons because there were only two Sundays in camp and Jollof was too special to be made on any other day. So for the first Sunday, we put our trust in the platoon whose turn it was to cook and they broke our hearts. When it was lunch, and we had finished eating, it felt like someone had died on camp. Everyone was sad because the Jollof just did not make any sense.
So, the second time, no one was ready to trust anyone or any squad. It almost caused a riot, no jokes. There was so much argument. Corpers almost started doing power point presentations about how they had handled parties and all of that sort just to cook the Jollof rice, it was unbelievable. In the end, we all came to a conclusion, each platoon was to produce one corper (of course, the best cook) in their squad to cook. For the first time, as they cooked, we stood at a distance watching them, NO MISTAKE MUST BE PERMITTED! After about four hours, it was time to serve; and brethren, it was another disaster! Everything was wrong, too many hands obviously spoilt the food. And that ladies and gentlemen was how we never ate delicious Jollof Rice at NYSC Camp. It still hurts very much till today.
Leave a Reply