8. General JS1 life

The rest of JS1 passed pretty slowly, we were now used to everything happening around us, we had made friends, formed clicks, etc, normal day to day life revolved around the same things, wake up for fatigue in the morning, morning PE, parade ground, classes, breakfast, back to class, lunch, siesta, afternoon prep, sports, dinner, night prep, night tattoo, lights out. Sounds all so smooth and easy I know, but it was a very different world altogether.

Waking up for fatigue, it was the duty of the JS3 provosts to organize fatigue (fatigue is simply morning cleaning), most times wake up time is anytime between 4am and 5am depending on the mood of the JS 3 provost, we had Provosts Dike Chinedu (who was now my godfather), Ermosele Okolo and Adams Diwa in JS1 block, they would distribute portions of work to different people, sweeping the floors, washing the toilets, cutting grasses around the hostels, cleaning rooms, cleaning the laundries and bathrooms etc, most times if it was Dike organizing fatigue for that day I was free, he would give me his white provost cap and belt to clean up and prepare for him, so I would be free of the pain of standing outside in the freezing Jos weather cutting grass or cleaning gutters, or having to wash the ever stinking JS1 toilets, Dike mostly spoilt me with money, milk, etc and I must confess I was a bit luckier than most of my mates, at least for the period we lived as JS1 in a block, before we were moved to hostels with our seniors. However, that didn’t spare me from the many stretched hangers of Okolo, or planks of Adams Diwa and Dike Chinedu(yes, we used to be caned with planks of wood and stretched hangers, the stretched hangers are actually metal hangers for hanging clothes that have been stretched out to become straight and very flexible, yes the same hangers you have in your wardrobe now).

Okolo was particularly feared for his skilled use of the stretched hangers, you couldn’t avoid it every morning, you hear the usual call ‘skies skies fall in, 10 counts, 1, 2, 3’, no matter how deeply you are sleeping you will hear that voice, and it is usually not loud, but somehow, you are always half awake in AFMS, even if the word of command comes at 2am within seconds we are all downstairs, in my set we were about 136 in JS1, divided into squadrons, blue, red, green and yellow squadrons, we would all dash down and within seconds everybody is downstairs, how dare you not be downstairs when Okolo is shouting ‘fall in’, this was no longer the nice and helpful Okolo, Dike and Diwa we knew during our first 2 weeks of grace, now we were seeing the reason why they were appointed as provosts, they were ‘effective’ (effective is a term used in AFMS for senior who can ‘move’ junior boys’, in other words, a wicked senior, but hanging an appointment, {provost is a form of appointment} isn’t just about being effective, you have to be effective, academically sound, and always neatly dressed).

So we are all downstairs, we form four straight lines according to our squadrons, I cannot remember exact numbers now, but let me assume in blue squadron we were 33, we would be asked to take number, ‘take number’, ‘1, 2, 3, …, 32 the last number SIR’, where is the last man, ‘sit on your heads’, ‘the hanger goes round on our backs and buttocks’, ‘jump up, go and get the last man’, we start searching the rooms for which of our sleep loving mates has refused to wake up, we sometimes find the culprit and wake him up with slaps and knocks and drag him down, sometimes we do not find the person (many dodgers would have ‘paratrouped’ out of the hostel at the sound of ‘fall in’) and we hear the sound again ‘blueeeeeee squadron JS1 fall in’ (that is the voice of the other boys told to call us down), Okolo gives the order ‘give them ten counts’, they count, ‘1, 2, 3, …, 10), we are all sprinting down, the late comers are told to plant (another name for sit on your head) and the hangers and planks do their rounds again), somehow we survive fatigue, it is time for morning PE, and Oga Jolly and Boxer (the two airmen who were in charge of PE) are going round hostels sending us all out for PE, we would do the normal early morning exercises and jogging, PE was a good time to rest because if you can succeed in dodging sports you can use that time to get some more sleep or prepare your uniforms etc. Sports used to be interesting with all the nice songs like ‘oga jolly give us glucose, if you give us moral go rise’, ‘who say we no go come back ayaya, catapult fire im papa ayaya, catapult fire im mama ayaya’. It is important to note how young we were, we were between the ages of 10 and 12, and some of us were even as young as 9years old in JS1, but we had grown up so fast in this fast paced environment.

After sports, dash back to your hostels, rush a bath, truth is most times we skipped the bath and just did what we call ‘rub and shine’, which involves washing your face, hands and legs and rubbing Vaseline (body cream), then before you have even finished your rub and shine, Dike, Diwa and Okolo are at it again, ‘skies move out for parade’, and again the now so familiar ’10 counts, 1, 2, 3, …, 9’, your seniors never count the last number, so if you are given 5 counts, it is actually 4, if you are given 10 counts, it is actually 9, and instead of counting to 10, it is usually ‘1, 2, …, 8, 9, drop your skulls(another name for sit on your head)’, so, those of you who couldn’t make it will plant, and the others who are coming after you will just join the planting parade like automated humans, after a while you are allowed to dash to parade ground, unfortunately by now you are late, and appointment holders in ss3 are now going to parade ground, you therefore have to hunch or forward roll to parade ground, you are not hunching alone, hunching with you are JS2 and 3 boys, SS1 and 2 boys, and most times one or two of them will pick you out for one offence or the other, either you were looking at him, or you were hunching by his side etc, you will have to face his own wrath much later in the days and weeks ahead.