![Map of the Local Government Areas of Lagos](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/1b/Map_of_the_Local_Government_Areas_of_Lagos.png)
Area boys (')
are loosely organized
gang
A gang is a group or society of associates, friends or members of a family with a defined leadership and internal organization that identifies with or claims control over territory in a community and engages, either individually or collective ...
s of
street children,
teenagers
Adolescence () is a transitional stage of physical and psychological development that generally occurs during the period from puberty to adulthood (typically corresponding to the age of majority). Adolescence is usually associated with the t ...
and youths, composed mostly of males, who operate on the streets of major cities in Nigeria, including
Lagos
Lagos (Nigerian English: ; ) is the largest city in Nigeria and the second most populous city in Africa, with a population of 15.4 million as of 2015 within the city proper. Lagos was the national capital of Nigeria until December 1991 fo ...
,
Ibadan
Ibadan (, ; ) is the capital and most populous city of Oyo State, in Nigeria. It is the third-largest city by population in Nigeria after Lagos and Kano, with a total population of 3,649,000 as of 2021, and over 6 million people within its me ...
,
Onitsha,
Aba,
Umuahia
Umuahia () is the capital city of Abia State in southeastern Nigeria. Umuahia is located along the rail road that lies between Port Harcourt to its south,and Enugu city to its north. Umuahia has a population of 359,230 according to the 2006 Nige ...
,
Akure
Akure is a city in south-western Nigeria. It is the capital and largest city of Ondo State. The city had a population of 403,000 as at the 2006 population census.
History
Pre 1914
Rock engravings dating back to the Mesolithic period, ha ...
,
Ado-Ekiti
Ado Ekiti is the capital city of Ekiti State, Nigeria. It is the headquarter of the Ekiti central senatorial district, southwest, Nigeria.
History
Ado Ewi is an ancient city, founded by Ewi Awamaro the son of Biritikolu. Awamaro (the restles ...
and
Enugu.
They
extort
Extortion is the practice of obtaining benefit through coercion. In most jurisdictions it is likely to constitute a criminal offence; the bulk of this article deals with such cases. Robbery is the simplest and most common form of extortion, al ...
money from passers-by, public transporters and traders, sell illegal drugs, act as informal security guards, and perform other "odd jobs" in return for compensation.
In present times, "Agbero" is used informally to describe a person, usually a thug, who collects rates, fees, tools and other forms of tax around motor parks.
Colonial history
Jaguda boys (1920-1940)
Jaguda, meaning '
pickpockets
Pickpocketing is a form of larceny that involves the stealing of money or other valuables from the person or a victim's pocket without them noticing the theft at the time. It may involve considerable dexterity and a knack for misdirection. A th ...
', were a group of informally structured young boys based in Lagos and
Ibadan
Ibadan (, ; ) is the capital and most populous city of Oyo State, in Nigeria. It is the third-largest city by population in Nigeria after Lagos and Kano, with a total population of 3,649,000 as of 2021, and over 6 million people within its me ...
whose camaraderie was grounded on age and neighbourhood and whose major form of operation was against property.
These boys were usually products of a broken home or have lost a breadwinner and migrated to the city to fend for themselves.
Reports of juvenile offenders operating in crowded places began to reach the press in Lagos by the mid-1920s.
In Ibadan they were primarily migrant juveniles living in Ekotedo area, their visible means of income is to carry loads of the passengers within railways stations and collecting bus and lorry fares on behalf of drivers.
While in Lagos they could be seen gathering in
Victoria Street, Ereko market, Jankara market,
Iddo railway terminus and outside the tax office.
Their underworld activities were conducted through various means, including premeditating chaos in markets or public spaces by pretending to fight each other or bumping into their targets on the road while fellow gang members stealthily pickpocket of onlookers.
In Lagos, these group also received payments from market women as a form of protection against theft.
Boma boys (1940s)
The phenomenon of Boma boys in Lagos was ascribed to a group of unlicensed
guides
A guide is a person who leads travelers, sportspeople, or tourists through unknown or unfamiliar locations. The term can also be applied to a person who leads others to more abstract goals such as knowledge or wisdom.
Travel and recreation
Exp ...
of African and Europeans servicemen who operated prominently during World War II.
The boys were based around the Marina, some were
stowaways on ships who went to Freetown where the use of the word, bum meant to beg.
On their return to Lagos they hung around the Marina duping unsuspecting students of their school fees under the pretext they could arrange for them to travel abroad as stowaways.
When ships berth in the Marina, the boys show the way to the restaurants, hotels and brothels in Lagos to newly arrived sailors.
When
prostitution rose in Lagos, Boma boys were linked to its rise as a result of their activities conveying targets to brothels.
Thugs and touts
The use of the new nomenclature, touts or thugs to describe juvenile undesirables began in the 1950s. These youths who performed visible employment working in motor parks replaced the Boma and Jaguda boys in the 1950s.
These group were known as bullies who also work for politicians, they are closer to their modern day offspring, the Area boys. They usually receives money from politicians to cause mayhem, destruction of properties and lives.
Area boys
The nomenclature of Area boys can also mean touts, Alaayes, Agberos, omo onile, they are generally considered deviant youths who use extortion, exploitation, petty crimes and sometimes violent means to earn income.
These group grew along with the emergence of a growing informal economy of street trading. Many previously worked at the motor parks or as helps to carry loads for market customers.
Their activities expanded into acting as security for businessmen and politicians, bouncers, or means to harass tenants, loan defaulters, or the electoral process.
Area boys like their name, are boys known in the neighborhood, unlike their predecessors, Jagudas and Boma boys, Area boys were less likely to be recent migrants.
The boys are easily identified in the neighborhood and have a base location for meetings.
The base membership straddles employed and unemployed youths. To earn income, the unemployed youths move outwards towards a junction or intersection where they don on outfits as union members of a road transport association or engage in security related commerce that verges on extortion.
New contractors are billed owo ile or land levy, market traders are billed owo security which is money for security and there is street money or owo ita which is compensation to the area boys for commerce related activities within the neighborhood.
Demographics
Area boys have existed in the city of Lagos since the early 1980s. However, under various names, types of Area Boys have been traced back to the 1920s.
[^ Simon Heap, "Their Days are Spent in Gambling and Loafing, Pimping for Prostitutes, and Picking Pockets": Male Juvenile Delinquents on Lagos Island, Nigeria, 1920s-60s', ''Journal of Family History'', 35 (1), 2010, 48-70]
/ref> In 2007, the total number of area boys in Lagos was estimated at over 35,000 by a member of the Lagos State Judiciary; as of 1996, the number of them operating on Lagos Island
Lagos Island (''Ìsàlẹ̀ Èkó'') is the principal and central local government area (LGA) in Lagos, it was the capital of Lagos State until 1957. It is part of the Lagos Division. As of the preliminary 2006 Nigerian census, the LGA had a p ...
alone was placed around 1,000.[ A 1996 study of area boys on Lagos Island by Abubakar Momoh showed that only 26.4% of area boys were from Lagos State, while the rest were natives of ]Ogun State
Ogun State is a state in southwestern Nigeria. Created on 3 February 1976 from the former Western State. Ogun State borders Lagos State to the south, Oyo State and Osun State to the north, Ondo State to the east, and the Republic of Benin to th ...
(22.6%), Kwara State (14.2%), and Oyo State
Oyo State is an inland States of Nigeria, state in southwestern Nigeria. Its capital is Ibadan, the List of Nigerian cities by population, third most populous city in the country and formerly the second most populous city in Africa. Oyo State is b ...
(14.1%), amongst other states. Most were between twelve and thirty-five years old.
Asked whether they were "proud" to be area boys, 18% of respondents said yes, while 75% said no (7% did not respond).
Tactics and targets
A United Nations Development Programme
The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP)french: Programme des Nations unies pour le développement, PNUD is a United Nations agency tasked with helping countries eliminate poverty and achieve sustainable economic growth and human dev ...
(UNDP) 2001 report on Nigeria described the impact of the gang members as such:
The coercive and persuasive requests, petty crimes and sometimes violent offences by the so-called "area boys" to acquire resources, generally cash in the urban main business and crowded areas, have disturbed the civil society and defied the civic authority. Drug abuse among them has been variously reported as the cause of delinquent behaviour and crime.
Extortion
One of the methods Area Boys use for extortion is to surround pedestrians
A pedestrian is a person traveling on foot, whether walking or running. In modern times, the term usually refers to someone walking on a road or pavement, but this was not the case historically.
The meaning of pedestrian is displayed with ...
, drivers, and passengers
A passenger (also abbreviated as pax) is a person who travels in a vehicle, but does not bear any responsibility for the tasks required for that vehicle to arrive at its destination or otherwise operate the vehicle, and is not a steward. Th ...
in vehicles, which are stuck in traffic, and force them to pay for some actual or fictitious service before letting them go.[ To aid in collecting money during traffic jams, the area boys place nails in the road and dig up the streets. When the streets are flooded, however, they also aid motorists in avoiding ditches and pot holes amidst other services.
According to Momoh, much of the extortion from ]Igbo
Igbo may refer to:
* Igbo people, an ethnic group of Nigeria
* Igbo language, their language
* anything related to Igboland, a cultural region in Nigeria
See also
* Ibo (disambiguation)
* Igbo mythology
* Igbo music
* Igbo art
*
* Igbo-Ukwu, a ...
merchants by area boys is instigated by Lagos landlords, indigenous inhabitants of the city.
Illegal drug sale
Among the area boys are both sellers and users of illegal drug
The prohibition of drugs through sumptuary legislation or religious law is a common means of attempting to prevent the recreational use of certain intoxicating substances.
While some drugs are illegal to possess, many governments regulate the ...
s. This drug use has been linked as the cause of further crime.[ A study states "most of them use drugs (]cocaine
Cocaine (from , from , ultimately from Quechua: ''kúka'') is a central nervous system (CNS) stimulant mainly used recreationally for its euphoric effects. It is primarily obtained from the leaves of two Coca species native to South Ameri ...
, heroin, marijuana, etc.) either as occasional users or addicts, or as peddlers." Of 77 respondents to a survey, 12.2% dealt drugs, while 60.3% were addicts themselves. Sale of drugs takes place both in Nigeria and abroad, and sales abroad have earned a small percentage of the sellers significant amounts of money.[Momoh, p. 195]
Groups of area boys have been known to raid rival, Igbo drug sellers based in Central Lagos.[
]
Notable incidents involving area boys
During the Hausa
Hausa may refer to:
* Hausa people, an ethnic group of West Africa
* Hausa language, spoken in West Africa
* Hausa Kingdoms, a historical collection of Hausa city-states
* Hausa (horse) or Dongola horse, an African breed of riding horse
See also
...
-Yoruba
The Yoruba people (, , ) are a West African ethnic group that mainly inhabit parts of Nigeria, Benin, and Togo. The areas of these countries primarily inhabited by Yoruba are often collectively referred to as Yorubaland. The Yoruba constitute ...
riots in Lagos in 2000, where thousands of Hausa fled to military barracks and nearly 100 people died, area boys took advantage of the chaos and joined in the mayhem, throwing glass and bottles at shops.
At the Mile 12 Market (also in Lagos), soldiers were reported to work hand in hand with gang members as late as 2004. However, in May 2005, after a Nigerian soldier
A soldier is a person who is a member of an army. A soldier can be a conscripted or volunteer enlisted person, a non-commissioned officer, or an officer.
Etymology
The word ''soldier'' derives from the Middle English word , from Old French ...
was assaulted and stabbed by several area boys as he tried to prevent them from taking money from a bus driver,[ the military began a crackdown against the group. Following this, the group's activity was noted to be in decline.][
]
Area boys elsewhere in Nigeria
*Petty criminals have been labeled as "area boys" in Ibadan
Ibadan (, ; ) is the capital and most populous city of Oyo State, in Nigeria. It is the third-largest city by population in Nigeria after Lagos and Kano, with a total population of 3,649,000 as of 2021, and over 6 million people within its me ...
, where they control informal markets and are used to advance political causes.
*In Yankari National Park in Bauchi State
Bauchi State (Fula: ''Leydi Bauchi'' 𞤤𞤫𞤴𞤣𞤭 𞤦𞤢𞤵𞤷𞥅𞤭) is a state in the North-East geopolitical zone of Nigeria, bordered by Kano and Jigawa to the north, Taraba and Plateau to the south, Gombe and Yobe to the e ...
, baboon
Baboons are primates comprising the genus ''Papio'', one of the 23 genera of Old World monkeys. There are six species of baboon: the hamadryas baboon, the Guinea baboon, the olive baboon, the yellow baboon, the Kinda baboon and the chacma ...
s have been referred to as "area boys" because of their troublesome behavior.
* They were cited as a nuisance by the Director of Communications at Airtel
Bharti Airtel Limited, commonly known as (d/b/a) Airtel, is an Indian multinational telecommunications services company based in New Delhi. It operates in 18 countries across South Asia and Africa, as well as the Channel Islands. Current ...
in August 2012 because they demanded money to load diesel at the company's Base Transceiver Station
A base transceiver station (BTS) is a piece of equipment that facilitates wireless communication between user equipment (UE) and a network. UEs are devices like mobile phones (handsets), WLL phones, computers with wireless Internet connectivity, ...
s.
See also
* Bakassi Boys
General:
* Organized crime in Nigeria
* Crime in Nigeria
Crime in Nigeria is investigated by the Nigerian Police. Nigeria is considered to be a country with a high level of crime, ranking 17th among the least peaceful countries in the world. During the first half of 2022, almost 6,000 people were ki ...
References
{{reflist
Street gangs
Gangs in Nigeria
Crime in Lagos