ABSTRACT
This study explored the influence of area boys on behavioural disorder among adolescents of Shomolu Local Government Area of Lagos State. Descriptive research survey design was employed for the assessment of the opinions of the selected respondents, with the adoption of questionnaire. Three hundred representatives were selected in this study, to represent the entire population of the study. Three null hypotheses were formulated and tested with the application of the independent t-test statistical tool at 0.05 level of significance.
The result showed that: 1. A significant difference exists between the activities of the area boys and the level of adolescents’ study habits. 2. A significant difference exists between area boys’ activities and their desires to watch pornographic film. 3. There is a significant difference between the activities of the area boys and the degree of their moral values in the community. All the hypotheses were tested at 0.05 level of significance. Based on the results obtained in this study, it is recommended that Government should look into the activities of the area boys and girls in Nigeria, particularly, in Shomolu Local Government Area. It is important to note that most of the area boys are graduates, and some of them are professionals. Therefore, both the states and federal governments should ensure that these men and women are carefully catered for, by way of employing them and keeping them busy, because an idle hand or mind, they say, is the devil’s workshop. So, they should be rehabilitated for them to change and turn a new leaf.
CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION
1.1 Background to the Study
Lagos city is a meeting point of different ethnic groups from various parts of the country as well as people from other parts of the world. This city as in most cities of developing countries, has the existence of a wide divide between the ‘haves’ and the ‘have-nots’ which gave birth to a situation of apparent existence of affluence and poverty. The city also prides itself with the abundance of different sub-cultural groups in the state. One of such sub-cultural groups is the phenomenon of ‘Area Boys’ sub-cultural group, whose activities to some extent constitutes social problems to all and sundry in the state.
Lagos today, is one of such urban centres where this culture is predominant and, it seems to be assuming a dangerous proportion. In the past, especially during the 1960s, one would agree that it is a matter of pride to be called a Lagos boy, ‘OmoEko’. It can be said, also, that it is a matter of pride to be known as a boy from a particular area of the city such as IsaleEko, Campus Square, Idumagba, Olowogbowo, IsaleOfin and Lafiaji. Hence it was common then to see people being identified with their areas of residence. This type of identification gave momentum to a sense of belongingness, which encouraged competition in all walks of life, particularly imports and commercial activities. However, all these may not suggest that every boy or girl in Lagos then was well behaved or good mannered. There were pockets of juvenile delinquents regarded as “the do nothing” who were involved in petty theft and other various juvenile crimes.
The youths who indulge in petty theft and other various delinquent behaviour were known as ‘Jaguda’. Hence, whosoever was classified as ‘do nothing’ or involve in stealing was called ‘Jaguda-Eko’. This made Sonowo (2003) to note that in Lagos today, this era of pride and respectability is gone and has been replaced with that of fear, chaos, violence and anarchy caused by another generation of Lagos boys”. From the sayings of Sonowo (2003) above, one can say that the emergence of “Area Boys” started with the reality of ‘Jaguda’ – Eko notion in Lagos Island. The word “Area Boys” connotes a youth characterized by social unrest. The term has generated lots of concern by the adults society and every responsible citizen. A careful search into the dictionary to find the closet words that can best describe “Area Boys” is the word ‘miscreant’ meaning a person who has done something wrong or illegal. The United Nations report best explains ‘Area Boys’. A growing menace on the Streets of Lagos.A group of armed Street Children on the rampage on the streets of Lagos harassing motorists and pedestrians and extorting money from them (UN 14 July, 2005).
‘Area Boys’ are people who are likely to indulge in negative issues like:
– Crime as a way of life and means of livelihood.
– taking of drug and peddling it.
– Homosexuality (male)
– Prostituing (female)
– Thuggery
– Assassination etc.
A critical analysis of the social character of adolescents and youths may support the view that it was greatly affected by alienation from the wider society as a result of which they were more prone to expression of violence in the face of economic hardship. The fact that the adolescent and youths generally were severely affected by failure of the educational system, unemployment, a weak relationship with family and community life occasioned by breakdown of the traditional family structure and the collapse of the traditional mechanisms for social mobility and social conflicts resolutions to some extent, made them to be mostly isolated from the society which they were familiar with, yet, could hardly be part of it. These perceived problems, which are common in urban centres in Nigeria have to some reasonable extent, created a situation where children are found on the streets without adequate parental supervision and subjected to its various temptations, that form the veritable workshop for criminal apprenticeship.
The adolescent children between the ages of twelve and eighteen represents the future of any society. They need a lot of investing in, moral wise, educationally and all the positives concerning man moulding qualities. It is a very vulnerable age. Vulnerable in the sense that it is susceptible. The adolescent is in the age of adventure. He is ready to explore anything he sees from the immediate environment.
One of the pet names for ‘Area Boys’ is ‘Alaye’. A kid with the title ‘Alaye’ automatically gain the respect of his colleagues, soon that ‘Alaye’ kid will go beyond the adoption of the notorious pet name to begin, the very acts of ‘Alaye’ in his immediate environment. On environmental sanitation days, he leads others to block the street road with planks and benches borrowed from the ever present stalls and shops around and begin to beg for money. it starts like that, later, they will become hostile to the motorists that refuse to comply. Again, the “Area Boys” syndrome is like a breast cancer in the immediate environment. It is eating up every jobless youth and every child is a likely candidate, especially, the homeless child.