It was one of the cool Saturday after a rainy Friday, when i decided to give myself a walk to the joints within my area, since the weather is very friendly.

It was around 3pm in the afternoon which looks like 7am in the morning. I decided to dress casually with a long La Viva top and a pencil jean. After i had followed my mind to walk toward the Ife-Ibadan toll gate which is some minutes walk to my house.

After walking for about 13 minutes with the headphones in my ear listening to reggea vibes, I came across a very large compound which was fenced round with a gate that leads to the compound.

The compound is quiet with a lot of mango trees that attract the league of different bird species. Even though it is very hard for me to see what is happening inside, but i immediately grew some urges to know more about the place.

I had the feelings that it could be a private property, but the fact is that i had not heard about this youth center for all the time i had spent in the area. I decided to check on the place with one mind of been sent away or been welcome, so i knocked on the gate . A man open the door with a warm smile and ask me what i want, i explained myself to him and he immediately open the door for me to enter. The man offered me a seat very close to the security post

I was suprised when i had settled down on the chair to see a set of Charlet building in a row with some newly painted and some in the old paint. The man explained to me that the I Y Y youth village is a gorvernment owned but due to corruption and mismanagement. The property has been in a deteriorating state.

It was a great discovery i made that day as i decided to walk around the camp. There are 20 charlet building, a 150 capacity auditorium, a kitchen, MDG fish pond project, a Power house, a born hole water system and some old buildings that need refurbishing. Although all the building in this camp need to be refurbished. I was told that only some religious youth organisation and other institution like NYSC, NYPEP, MDG and other forum make use of the facilities once in a while.

I was so delighted to discover this kind of property very close to my neighbourhood, praying that the oyo state gorvernment will not abandon this beautiful insight of the visionaries of this project.

I thanked the man for the warm reception and encourage him to keep up the good work.

following and listening with rapt attention

IYY make sense die, the lite is awesome. We camped there for 2 weeks last August.

please i need assistance bamboonest... Am a student with Anambra State University Uli and currently doing a project on Youth Villages in Nigeria. I stumbled across your experience here and I felt your information could be worthwhile. Please can you oblige me with detailed location of the village you went, if possible, pictures/snapshots of the place(as much as possible), site sketches of various locations of the facilities, and any other information you could lay your hands on about the IYY youth village. FINALLY, WHAT EXACTLY IS THE FULL MEANING OF "IYY"?
Reach me on elixirdesign2002@yahoo.com.