Enterprise Issues
With Siaka Momoh
Thrice, I was forced to have contact with these social miscreants called ‘area boys’ in Lagos. You need to pray you never have anything to do with them. My first encounter was on Lagos Island, by the Public Affairs Section of the US Consul-General’s Office on Broad street where my car broke down.
It was getting late, about 8 pm. One of them, who perhaps must have spent the better part of his life doing the ‘area boy’ thing because from all considerations, he looked a spent force, came to me to ask what was the matter. I told him nothing was the matter since I considered him inconsequential. He left and somehow, the car responded but only took me as far as the Bank Of Industry, on Broad Street then, where I struck a deal with the security men on duty, who kept watch over it until the following day when my mechanic fixed it.
The second experience was also on Lagos Island, but this time on Marina. I had a flat tyre and so had to pull the car out of the busy Marina Street to a point I thought was an automobile workshop which however turned out to be one of their hot spots along the road. One of them immediately showed up to offer help. I obliged. All he needed to do was to replace the flat tyre with the spare. This was something I could do on my own but I was neatly dressed up for an appointment in Lagos Business School and did not want my nice suit smeared. But there was another strong point I could not ignore: Area Boys consider it their right to offer such service as long as you are in their territory. To resist is to curt their attack.
But as soon as he commenced changing the tyre, others dashed in from various directions and offered to join the one I had contracted for the job.They were eight in all – eight men to replace one flat tyre! I sensed it was a systematic plan to mob me and pilfer valuables from the car. I politely told them I needed only one hand and that hand had been hired. They grumbled and stayed off, but hung around. I paid the one I contracted N100 on completion of the job, and he announced to them “It’s only N100 card that chairman gave me o, you had better ask him to raise you before he lives…”. Before they could react, I jumped into my car and sped off.
Only recently, I had another encounter with them, by Hassan Bus-stop along Oshodi/Apapa Expressway. I had had enough experience dealing with them so it was easy dismissing them this time around. But this encounter led me to discovering the nuisance they constitute to traders in the second-hand electricity generators market located in Hasan Bus-Stop. You cannot take delivery of generators from this market without paying commissions to them – they collect commissions on sales made by someone else. This practice, I gather, obtains in similar markets across Lagos. Commercial drivers in Lagos pay these fees grudgingly.
This social miscreants menace is a global phenomenon. Let us draw from an experience in Skopje. Skopje is the capital of the Republic of Macedonia. As largest city in the country, it is a political, economic, and cultural center of Macedonia. It lies on the upper course of the Vardar River and is located on a major north-south Balkan route between Belgrade and Athens.
The first impression of a visitor to Skopje is invariably the same: it is a new and modern city. It is a trading center for the cotton, tobacco, grains, and livestock produced in the surrounding region. The city also has manufacturing facilities for iron and steel, electrical machinery, chemicals, textiles, carpets, and foods. This is one good side any tourist will love to be associated with. The testimony of a tourist recorded in Skopje Travel Guide titled Street Safety: Ghettos are the same all around the world, tells the story.
The tourist in question, had an experience in a particular area-near the Turkish Bazaar, a poorest neighbourhood in Skopje. While on a familiarity walk, he strolled into the neighbourhood, oblivious to the neighbourhood’s reputation as a combat zone where he had a close shave with death. He encountered three of the ugliest, nastiest, thuggish Albanians known to mankind. Without hesitation, one demanded money from him in English. Speaking fluent Italian, he responded, “Non parlo inglese.” And as luck would have it, a shop proprietor was kind enough to translate for the thugs. “Give me your money.” The punk spoke, only this time he brandished a knife. One thing saved his life, he could speak little Albanian, their language and he let them know he was in Kosovo for three months ‘fighting’ their course.
Again, the issue of street children (yes, they start as street children) is one of the fast growing social problems in Ethiopia. The United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) estimates that there are more than 150-thousand street children in the country. Reports say economic problems have made many of them assume responsibilities normally reserved for adults, that large number of them are forced to work on the streets to satisfy their basic needs and support their families.
It is clear that these social miscreants are everywhere. It is a naughty social problem that governments must rise up to combat.
