Kaduna

Across the North-West the staples are grain rather than root: tuwo shinkafa (soft rice pudding) and tuwo masara (maize), eaten with a thick soup such as miyan kuka (baobab leaf), miyan taushe (pumpkin and groundnut) or miyan kubewa (okra).

• Suya — thinly sliced beef rubbed in a groundnut and pepper spice mix and grilled over charcoal. Sold in the evenings almost everywhere.
• Masa — small fermented rice cakes, usually breakfast.
• Dan wake — bean-flour dumplings tossed with oil and pepper.
• Kilishi — dried spiced meat, and the thing most corps members take home.
• Fura da nono — millet balls in fermented milk, sold cold and genuinely reviving in the heat.

The mammy market at camp will sell a southern menu too. If you have not eaten this food before, start with small portions: the pepper is not the same pepper.

Kaduna has large Muslim and Christian populations, distributed unevenly: the north of the state is predominantly Muslim and the south predominantly Christian, with Kaduna city itself mixed.

Camp runs both a mosque and a church, with service times on the timetable, and attendance is your own business.

Religion and community identity have been sensitive in parts of this state. As a corps member you are a guest and a visible one. Do not take a side in a local dispute, do not repeat one online, and follow whatever guidance camp officials give about movement — it is issued for a reason and it takes precedence over anything written here.

Kaduna is one of twelve northern states that adopted a Sharia penal code from 1999. In practice this means two systems run side by side:

• Sharia courts apply to Muslims in the state.
• Non-Muslims remain under the general penal code and the federal courts, and are not tried in Sharia courts.
• Federal law — the constitution, the criminal code, road traffic law — applies to everyone regardless.

What this changes for a corps member day to day is mostly about public conduct rather than about courts. Alcohol sale and consumption are restricted or prohibited in much of the state, and where they are permitted they are confined to particular areas. Public dress is expected to be modest for both men and women. Unmarried men and women are not expected to share private accommodation, and in some places transport is segregated.

Enforcement differs between local governments and between the state capital and rural areas, and it is not something to work out by experiment. Ask your camp officials and your platoon leaders what applies where you are, follow what they tell you, and remember that as a corps member you are a guest of the state and highly visible.

This section is background, not legal advice. Anything with legal consequences goes through the NYSC state secretariat, not through an app.

Kaduna is more religiously mixed than most of the states that share this legal position, and the balance changes markedly between the north and south of the state. What is unremarkable in one local government may not be in another, which makes asking locally more important here, not less.

Hausa is the language of the street, the market and most conversation in Kaduna. English is the language of offices, schools and camp, so you will be understood — but ten words of Hausa will change how you are treated in a market.

• Sannu — hello (reply sannu kadai)
• Ina kwana — good morning (reply lafiya lau)
• Ina wuni — good afternoon
• Na gode — thank you
• Nawa ne? — how much is it?
• Ya rage? — will you reduce it?
• Ba komai — it is nothing / no problem
• Ruwa — water

Greeting first and asking second is not optional politeness here; going straight to the question reads as rude.

Within town, keke napep (tricycles) and shared taxis run fixed routes and cost a fixed drop. Motorcycle taxis (achaba) are common in some areas and restricted in others — the rules differ by local government and change, so ask at camp rather than assuming.

Between states, travel by a registered motor park operator rather than a roadside vehicle, leave early enough to arrive in daylight, and tell somebody your route. Agree the fare before you get in.