3 July 2009
editorial
Abuja — The Sultan of Sokoto, Alhaji Muhammad Sa'ad Abubakar was right when he raised serious concerns recently over the growth of the menace of negative youthful exuberance, characteristic of miscreants generally referred to as Area Boys, in an otherwise peaceful state of Sokoto. The Sultan's alarm came while receiving in audience the new Police Commissioner posted to the state.
Sultan Abubakar urged the new Police boss to bring the situation under control, while blaming the politicians for the aggravation of the menace in a state that was hitherto a model for peaceful co existence amongst peoples of diverse cultures and traditions. In the Sultan's view, the menace was encouraged by the high level of joblessness and thus the need for government to create more jobs to absorb the teeming army of young people who have since become a menace and ready recruitment tools for unscrupulous politicians who exploit the youth's deprived conditions for selfish gains.
Truly, Nigerians ought to be concerned about this growing and disturbing trend in areas where they previously never existed, or at least at low levels while the problem seems to be under control in those places where it had hitherto taken notorious dimension. Definitely the return to civil rule in 1999 came with it a lot of attributes, amongst which are the negative expression of the newly acquired freedom, which in turn gave rise to new freedom to dissent negatively capitalized on by some elements of the political class who found ready use of the unemployed and sometime uneducated young people who serve them as political thugs.
The menace of area boys was mainly identified with, but not restricted entirely to, the Lagos area for several years. But the development in the last ten years or so clearly shows that one reason why they exist in the first place is clearly linked to societal lack of care for especially the vulnerable youth of the society.
We believe that true to the Sultan's views, the menace of area boys in Sokoto and even other states can best be addressed through increased care and higher investment on social policy. This exactly seems to be the case in Lagos which was the umbilical cord of area boys in Nigeria. The government of Lagos state seem to have adequately addressed the problem of area boys by creating employment opportunities and providing the ground for reintegration, which clearly serve as a model to all other states in the federation especially where the menace was created with the return to civil rule in 1999.
While applauding the efforts of the Lagos State government for its determination to humanely end the menace of the Area Boys' syndrome, we implore on others to borrow a leaf from there and develop the social structures that would encourage young people to abandon their destructive ways, and be focused and productive as useful members of the Nigerian society.
The politicians who derive pleasure in plunging the youth into such anti social activities must be sanctioned by the society as a strategic measure of stemming new occurrences. We encourage governments across the country to increase investment on social programmes that will have direct bearing on the lives of the young people. This definitely will go a long way in reducing social tension and pressures which makes the youth gullible and ready targets for use by unpatriotic elements.
Certainly, the menace of area boys must be tackled with the urgency that the situation demands in order to save and reassure the future. We believe the way to go about it is not the occasional rounding up of these youths to remove them off the streets for some grand public function. For starters, those who are of school age can be rehabilitated and put through the public school system. Funding such a social project should not be the responsibility of governments alone. Civil society organizations, philanthropic individuals and corporate bodies can chip in, because in the final analysis, ending the potential menace of these area boys will be of immense benefit to the society as a whole. Parents should also ensure that they pay adequate attention to their children in order to prevent them from taking to drugs and other anti social activities that turn them into area boys.
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