Located in Osun State, Ikonifin is a Yoruba-speaking rural community in the Ola-Oluwa Local Government Area. It is sandwiched between Obamoro town and Ife-Odan in the Ejigbo Local Government Area of the state.

FIJ gathered from residents that two structures built by the administration of Adebisi Akande, a former Governor of Osun State, under the rural housing project programme in 2002, were meant to accommodate corps members deployed to the community by the National Youth Service Corps (NYSC).

The structures were used for some years until it became unsafe for human occupation recently. Built with burnt bricks, it is now a ghost of its former self.

READ ALSO: REPORTER’S DIARY: Mature Mangoes Seek Attention in Osun LGA, But No One ‘Sees’ Them

Idowu Olatidoye, an indigene of the community schooling at Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife, told FIJ that state of the building had been affecting the community badly.

He explained that corps members no longer like to spend their service year in the community because basic things like safe accommodation are lacking.

“Before the building wore out, we used to have about ten corpers in the community each year, who would be posted to our public schools and hospitals, contributing to the social wellbeing of the people. Today, the story has changed. We hardly have three corpers who would stay for the duration of their service year,” Olatidoye told FIJ.

FIJ observed, during a visit to the community on May 6, that the lodge is located on the fringe of the only community grammar school in Ikonifin. The roofs of the building have been damaged, and the ceilings are breaking down.

Wasps hang freely on their nests in the inner layers of the roofs of the building, waiting for an intruder to sting.

Everything decent about the building has broken down. The windows have fallen down, the floors were littered with animal excrements, and the only water source was without a cover.

Also observed was a water stanchion erected by one Oloruneto Ayomide, a Batch C corper posted to Ikonifin during the 2013/2014 service period, which is now in a derelict condition.

Olatidoye further said, “Once corpers are posted to our community now, they apply for redeployment after seeing. Ultimately, we are denied their contributions to our socio-cultural wellbeing.”

He said the situation is different in other major communities in Ola-Oluwa Local Government Aea. “If you go to Ogbaagba, Bode-Osi, Asa, among others, you will see public-funded corper’s lodges. In those communities, you will find adequate numbers of corps members. Free accommodation is encouraging them to stay and serve in those areas.”

He said the community could have mustered resources to provide a new building for corps members but it appeared there was not enough funds to do that. He also said leaders of the community once rehabilitated a dilapidated school building to ease teaching and learning in the community grammar school.

READ ALSO: SPECIAL REPORT: Osun Post Office Where Workers Don’t Accept Consignments for Fear of Rain

He said the community had informed the local government authorities of the problem but nothing had been done. “When we told them some years ago, they promised to look into it,” he said.

FIJ’s efforts to speak with the Ola-Oluwa local government authorities were not successful. An official at the local government secretariat, who asked not to be named, said, on Monday, that the council manager, who was in a position to attend to our request, was not on seat at the time.

When asked if he had the council manager’s phone number, he answered in the negative.