Lagos — For any one who may have encountered street urchins popularly known as 'area boys' and experienced their menace in Lagos State, will agree that momentarily hell could be let loose and would pray never to have a repeat encounter with young boys whose places of abode are under the bridges and hide-outs in the street corners.

Area Boys come in different forms with dangerous and clandestine intentions to snuff life out of their victims by inflicting bodily injury on who ever comes their way and not ready to do their billing, because in most cases they are hungry people and also angry. Most often they move around like lion looking for its pray to devour and would want to express desire to ensure they are able to keep the body and soul together. This they did with desperation and matter of do or die.

Before their antics became public knowledge, they have used different tactics to dispossess people of their valuables. In those days before the Babatunde Fashola government started what it refers to now as building a mega-city out of Lagos, walking or driving in Victoria Island may not be save as area boys can just accost a person and demand for any amount of money.

If such person rebuffs the demand he/she may be in for trouble because they are jobless and ready to delay the person for as long as he/she may be ready to part with his/her hard earn money. The person might even be ready to offer something but if the amount is not fat enough they are not ready to let go.

The area boys also made nuisance of themselves to commercial drivers who are seen on major metropolitan roads in Lagos raking money from transporters, which they do with the backing of the authorities of the various Transport Workers Unions. They force commercial bus conductors to part with what they collect from commuters promising fire and brimstone if they delay in giving them the money and even ready to beat any stubborn conductor to pulp for money which they don't work for.

At night, areas boys appear more deadly with the use of gun to force their victims to part with their valuables, this they do more often during the serious traffic jam. You become jittery as you are not too sure whether the gun in his hand is a toy or real gun, but because you don't want to gamble with your life since it doesn't have a duplicate you start bringing out all you have on you including money and other items such as phones and jewelry. The fact is that if you pretend as if you don't have something and they later search and find such thing, the victim may likely receive beating of his life because at that moment they are like demy-gods whose command you must obey and desire accomplish.

Also in the day time, area boys can walk to any compound and target a flat asking a familiar person known to occupants within the neighborhood to lead them and order such person to knock the door and once the victim opens the door they enter and also force the person that led them to enter to ensure that he/she doesn't expose them.

Many people have also experienced boarding 'one chance vehicle' in which you innocently like others commuters struggle to secure a seat but not knowing that the people you struggled with in the vehicle are dear devil area boys who will end up dispossessing a victim of valuables and push the person out of a moving vehicle. In most cases, many female victims have had to narrate gory tales about the nasty incidence of rape in the hands of these hoodlums.

Before now, Oshodi was once a haven for nefarious activities, where area boys had field day to perpetrate criminality. The place can be dangerous for non-area boy to be in odd hour like any time from 11 pm in the night, as such person would be at the mercy of the bad boys and unexpected can happen, but with the illumination of Oshodi there is no hide-out for the area boys. These are some of the nasty experiences people have had to go through if they are unfortunate to run into area boys in the 'state of excellence.'

But the State government is embarking on spectacular venture to keep the section of the society busy and sway them away from criminal activities. The State Commissioner for Environment, Dr. Muiz Banire said the beautification exercise currently going on in the State in the bid to turn Lagos into Mega-City has paid off as many of the former area boys have been rehabilitated with employment.

Banire, on several occasions had reiterated that many of the former bad boys have been engaged in the flowering and maintenance of the streets of Lagos where the boys are being paid what can be sufficient for them throughout the month. He said because the boys are used to spending money regularly the government does not wait till the end of the month before they are paid as they might find it difficult to wait for thirty days to receive pay. The Commissioner disclosed that the boys are paid weekly.

This is not the only means by which the boys are being kept busy in the state as the government had also completed an ultra-modern Rehabilitation and Vocational Centre at Isheri an outskirt of Lagos State where advanced instrument are being provided to teach the boys the basic skills in different fields of trades and vocation.

Dr. Walter Olatunde is the Project Director of DEUX Project Limited, the company handling the construction works of the centre and providing maintenance. At the vocational centre where the boys are known as 'Good Boys' there are various types of trade works such as fashion designing over which large number of swing machines have been provided sufficient enough to accommodate several area boys at a goal. There are provisions for such works as shoe making and basket woven, with lots of other vocational training acitivities.

The centre has two large dinning halls with kitchens and big dormitories to accommodate large number of areas boys, it's also provided with sufficient work-shops where trainees can adequately move freely in the course of their training. With the centre, any area boy who does not tap the opportunity provided by the training but chooses to roam the streets and cause havoc may find himself to blame when caught by the long arm of the law.

Olatunde whose company is also responsible for the construction of eight Maternal and Child Centre in the state, said the critical importance of health in the pursuance of economic prosperity is well understood by the Lagos State government. "This is why it is committing a large amount of resources to uplift the health sector to enable it deliver dividends of democracy to its citizens."

According to him, the life expectancy for the male population is 45 years while that of the female is 48 years, noting that the life expectancy is very short when compared to the developed world's average of 75 and 78 years for men and women respectively.

On disaster management and emergency care which the company also handles, Olatunde explained that in Lagos State, trauma from road traffic accidents, collapsed buildings, gunshot wounds and burns are major causes of morbidity and mortality, which have made it mandatory for the State to strengthen it's emergency services to help reduce the mortality and morbidity.

He said 10 Mobile Intensive Care Units (MICU) arrived and were delivered in February 2008, the MICUs are upgraded to the emergency vehicles in the LASAMBUS fleet, with each vehicle equipped with state of the art emergency resuscitation and monitoring equipment which allows for resuscitation of casualty at site and treatment while on transit to the emergency centre.

Olatunde said on March 4, 2008 a Mobile Field Hospital arrived and was delivered, with facility that include the core operating room with Critical Care Ward for 23 patients, while in addition there were five additional shelters providing admission for 30 patients of a hospital supported by laboratory services, hospital grade water and power.

The base, according to him will ensure that immediate care is provided at the disaster site and patients are stabilised before they are transferred to a major hospital for further care, he said it has been deployed in several health missions in the state since its commissioning, noting that it was also used to save over 50 lives when a stampede occurred during the Under-17 World Cup last November.

The Project Director said an international Disaster Management Consultant was engaged to audit the Lagos State Emergency service and its ability to respond to disaster, the final report on the overall disaster management system of the state according to him has been submitted and the report has been reviewed by Ministry of Health to develop a comprehensive Disaster Management Plan in consultation with Lagos State Emergency Management Agency (LASEMA) and other agencies.

He said the construction of three storey 50-bed Integrated Surgical Emergency and Burns Centre has commenced at Lagos State University Teaching Hospital (LASUTH) Annex, Gbagada and will be commissioned in July, while an emergency centre has been built at the toll gate end of the Lagos Ibadan express way and ready for commissioning.

He explained that training on pre-hospital and Hospital Emergency Care is provided continuously by six international accredited trainers, insisting that Lagos has the best and only internationally certified public Emergency Training Centre in the country. According to Olatunde, so far, over 2, 500 doctors, nurses, paramedics and drivers of the Lagos State Ministry of Health and Local Government Areas including staff of other agencies such as LAMATA, LASMA, LASEMA and Civil Defense amongst others have been trained as first respondents.