Keeping the scolombo boys at bay

Before the advent of the current administration in Cross River State, the menace of street boys, popularly called “Scolombo boys” was nauseating. They were all over the place, walking in groups, their clothes torn at various points while their unkempt faces nosed around for objects, valuable or not, whose owners were out of sight. It is difficult to trace where the name “Scolombo” emanated from as before then, they were called Imoke boys.

This appellation was borne out of the fact that the wife of the former governor, Mrs. Obioma Imoke, had established a home for the street boys, having discovered that they were not only many in number, but were also posing a threat to patriotic residents, especially at night. Daily, their numbers increased, forcing the former Commissioner for Ministry of Social Welfare and Rural Development, Mrs. Patricia Enderley, to suspect that the children were being dumped at night in the state by parents or their guardians from neighbouring states, especially from Akwa Ibom State.

But life on the streets was, to the boys, the best outside heaven. Young and vibrant, they lived by scavenging the road side bins, moved from one compound to another in search of attractive objects, and sleep just anywhere they find convenient, including, but not limited to, road sides and inside culverts.

With ages ranging from three to 17, their stories on why they are on the streets are as varied as their bizarre appearance. The tales ranged from being driven away from homes by their parents after being accused of one evil or the other, including being witches, to abandonment by their mothers immediately after birth.

Determined to stay alive, they formed cliques, bonded by societal neglect and compromised by the more mature hoodlums, who had experienced street life well ahead of them. In fact, their association with these senior stragglers made it difficult, if not impossible, for these street children to be reformed.

While the boys were being used for running errands for the more mature ones, who served as “godfathers” to them, the young girls settled for prostitution, with a bit of stealing. Scolombo boys were not only being avoided by people who consider themselves decent, they were equally left to roam without apprehension and/or interrogation by security agents.

They could walk into an open compound while the owner was away and pilfer whatever was in sight and take to their heels. In some cases, and because they walked in clusters, victims could be manhandled if an attempt was made to confront them, especially at night. A visit to places like the cultural centre, UniCal, Atekong junction, the millennium arcade as well as the State Housing Estate early this year, would have revealed unusual clusters of young boys and girls in rag-type clothes, looking unkempt and playing football on the several green lawns in the city, waiting for night fall. Others would pull carts from one place to another, scavenging for metals, iron rods, and other discarded materials, which they sell in kilos to make some money. However, during the day, they operated with one group independent of the other. But at night, they would converge at designated spots, particularly around Atekong Junction, which serves as the red light street of the state.

One easily identifiable feature of the Scolombo boys is a scar on any part of the body. Sometimes, this scar may not be as a result criminal conduct, but a price for recognition handed down during initiation. One other way of identifying them was the frequent brawl, which were carried out by the road side mostly to attract by-standers. Narrating his experience to our correspondent early February, one of them who gave his name as Etido Bassey, and who was 12 years in January, nursing a deep cut on the left side of his head, said he and his friend, who he simply called, Edem, were sleeping one night on the corridor of a palm wine bar located along Uwanse Street when a man came after them in the middle of the night. “Somebody pursued us in the night with a knife while we were sleeping in a palm wine shop and gave me a cut on the head and cut Edem on his back. He nearly killed us,” Bassey recalled.

The resultant wound may have been left to fester before an emergency treatment was conducted. The wound emitted such stench that only an uncovered pit toilet could produce. But this did not stop Bassey from flaunting it around. He occasionally felt some pains. For Anietie, his time was torn between scavenging for metals in refuse dumps and selling same at Bogobiri, a popular Hausa settlement located in the heart of Calabar. His main target was mechanic workshops and electronic repair shops. His bag was always a container for an assortment of iron metals, disused radio and television components which he sold sometimes for as high as N10.00 (ten naira) a kilogramme. Another six years old kid, Kingsley Okon, said his parents were dead and he was taken in by an Hausa trader for whom he was hawking sachet water. But his elder sister, who was not happy that he was not living at home, went to his benefactor with a made up story which led to his disengagement.

“I was staying with an Huasa man called Yellow in Bogobiri to sell pure water but one day, my elder sister came and told him that my mother and father are alive and that he should send me home and the man drove me away,” Okon said. Asked why he could not go and live with the sister since she did not want her to sell pure water for the Hausa man, he simply retorted; “Small girl, can she take care of me?” His group member, Ita, aged 10 on his part, said what brought him to the streets was the separation between his parents. “My father drove my mother away and married another woman and the new woman said I should go and live with my mother and when I went to my mother, she sent me back to my father that she has married a new husband and I should not come and disturb her home,” Ita said giggling. However, since Prof. Ben Ayade became governor of the state on May 29 2015, the Scolombo boys, hitherto daring and hardly ever challenged, have gone underground. The reason is simple; there is a task force in place to take them off the streets.

The task force, headed by Brig. Gen. Mannix Inyang (rtd.) has the mandate to sweep off street boys and eliminate their menace. Since the task force “began sitting,” the boys have deserted the streets, which raises the question as to why they were allowed unfettered freedom in the past. It is the credit of the governor that these boys, though still found in some areas traditionally designated red light areas, have become sober, and not as daring as before when their activities were done openly and violently. Three years down the line, since the administration of Ayade, Scolombo boys are still around but operating underground.

It is therefore important for the government to put structures that will, if possible, completely take them out of the streets, or keep their activities at the lowest ebb even in subsequent administrations. One recalls that during Imoke’s era, several attempts were made by both the Ministry of Social Welfare and Rural Development and the Destiny home of Mrs. Obioma Imoke to clear the streets of the kids. That measure turned out to be very temporary as no sooner were they hurried out of the streets, did the streets come abuzz with the same kids.