The highpoint of the Swearing-In of the 2018 NYSC Batch B Stream II corps members Thursday last week would have been the colourful presentation by the cultural troupe – if Davido had not shown up.
But the 25 year-old hiphop sensation showed up at the Iyana Ipaja camp and everything changed.
No one quite noticed when the white Mercedes Benz car with plate number PF 413-S. drove about 200 metres from the gate and packed behind the canopy that accommodated the NYSC camp officials and visitors during the ceremony.
But when it was ready to be noticed, it suddenly became visible and though one could hardly see through its dark tinted glasses, it was clear its occupants were ready to come out.
The corps members suddenly became aware that David Adeleke had arrived. They had been expecting him. We, journalists, too. We were just a few metres from where the car was packed. We had just finished interviewing the Lagos State NYSC Coordinator, Prince Mohammed Momoh – questioning why he did not ensure Davido was in camp. We were about to settle for his explanation that he had been smuggled in and out to avoid distraction when the masquerade revealed himself. Our story automatically changed.
Shouts of “Davido”, “O-B-O”, and “Platoon Nine” soon rent the air and the car was surrounded by Mobile phone bearing corps members who had to provide concrete evidence to show friends and family that Davido was indeed in camp with them.
It was my first time seeing a celebrity being mobbed live. His private bodyguards could not do the job alone. The soldiers, police, man-o-war and other camp officials all joined in the Herculean task of getting him from the car into the State Coordinator’s office.
In the office, there was some confusion — likely compounded by the noise the corps members who stood without behind every available windows looking to the office were making. It was almost impossible to hear or say anything audible above the din. My recording of our short interview with him was hardly useful. I could hear nothing.
Davido was there to sign the NYSC oath of allegiance and speak with the press. But it also inadvertently provided the officials and security personnel a chance to take pictures on their mobile phones.
However, they also had to think of how he was going to get out easier than he got in.
Someone suggested they blow the beagle which is used to assembly all corps members on the parade ground. It worked. On the parade ground, the soldiers had better control of them and got them to sit down on the ground.
A stage was first set before the corps members which made them to think Davido may perform for them. But he refused to mount it. When he got the microphone, he spoke instead, urging them to be their best. He said he wanted to take pictures with the corps members. I got the feeling he was not allowed to be as free as he wanted. He had to leave afterwards. This time, there was no hiding his departure. Many corps members left the parade ground in defiance to the soldiers and ran after his car. He threw cash in the air on the way out and some of his ‘pursuers’ got distracted and scrambled for the money instead.
If there had been plans to get Davido to stay in camp, like the regular corps members, I am sure that day’s experience must have ended it. For me, it cleared all thoughts that the NYSC officials were lying about his influence and the level of distraction his presence caused on camp.
It would have been good if he could participate in camp life like others – wake up by the beagle, go for PT (Physical Training); participate in the endurance trek; march, do man-o-war activities and the like. But I do not think the NYSC Camp is secure enough for that. Its location in a densely populated community close to Iyana Ipaja bus stop makes it vulnerable to invasion from outsiders, who tried to get in when they learnt of his presence. It would have been a security breach. I understand if the NYSC officials had no choice but give him a long exeat to excuse him from the camp.
