By AbdurRaheem Sa’ad Dembo
In June, 2015 I was in Abeokuta on an official assignment but my experience at a restaurant around Panseke has remained memorable. It was a day my mouth was left opened in dismay. It was also a moment I was dumbfounded going by what I had witnessed at that restaurant.
I am from Ilorin but I lived in Kano throughout my secondary school and University education, even though I visited Ilorin at the end of every semester. So is as good as I may not know what is obtainable among the young people in the Southern part of Nigeria.
As usual, I entered the restaurant and requested for rice and beans with two meats; meanwhile, a group of young boys who were gorgeously dressed in polo shirts and three quarters came in. One of them said they should sell three wraps of Amala with forty pieces of meat. The next person requested for two wraps and thirty meats and so on. They came along with big plates or I can call it a slightly big cooler. I looked at my left and right side perplexed.
That was the first time I had witnessed such a scenario since I was born. The woman fetched my food and I did justice to it. But as I was eating, it kept ringing in my head. Haba! Forty pieces of meats.
After I retired to a place I was putting up in the evening, I shared the strange experience with a brother.
“Eyin ara oke oya” meaning you people from the North. He said those boys I saw were Yahoo boys. He explained in detail how they operate, even though he lamented the ill development.
In the same year, I was in Ijebu-Ode on another official assignment and I lodged in a hotel. On a weekend, a group of boys drove in an exotic car and I overheard them telling the hotel receptionist that they would need steady light overnight and he assured them.
As early as 5:30 a.m. the following day they left the hotel and I quickly went out of my room, asked the receptionist who were they. In affirmative tone he disclosed they were Yahoo boys. I then sequentially narrated by experience at a restaurant in Abeokuta to him. He said,” Ema wo Bross, last night when they asked for alcohol upstairs; the ponmo i counted when they were eating may be up to 50 pieces”. That perfectly corroborated my strange experience in Abeokuta.
This piece is not all about my astonishment at the restaurant but uncovering the audacity of the young boys who are supposed to be the pride of our Nation. It is also significant to establish that Abeokuta is a cool city, where one can have good time, so explaining or sharing my experience about Yahoo boys there is not in any way to disparage the city and the people. The city has a special face lift in recent years due to the sagacity and good governance provided by former Governor, Ibikunle Amosun in the instances of expanded roads and bridges that would avail the eyes beautiful glimpse.
Significantly, the prevalence of Yahoo boys is now in almost every geopolitical zones in Nigeria. As parents we must teach our children the way of God so that they won’t go astray. We must not shy away from our primary responsibility of catering for them and monitoring them properly. Parents should not be too occupied to not having time for their children. At the end of one’s career, a person’s success is largely measurable, among other things, within the context of how well one’s children are doing.
*Causes of the Menace*
*Impatience*: The youth of today do not want to do the right thing. They want to cut corners. Get-rich-quick syndrome is what some of our youths believe in. They believe strongly that “Yahoo Yahoo” is the way to go. In fact, there is another level of it which is termed “Yahoo plus” , that is likened to rituals.
*Bad parenting*: This is the stage where “Yahoo Yahoo” is unconsciously nurtured by parents. As a parent it is your responsibility to provide for your child. But once you fail in this regard, you have exposed your children to dangerous or ruining tendencies. Once they see someone who is providing for them, thus they are susceptible to getting unwholesomely influenced. Some parents have indeed contributed to the waywardness of their children .
A social media Influencer, Ayekooto Akindele opined recently on his Facebook post, “Home Training is the greatest thing you owe the country as a patriotic citizen. Give it to your children before you give them smartphones”. Giving them smartphones early in life could lead them to such an unpalatable enterprise, if they are not properly monitored. It is better you don’t even give them.
I have read it online where mothers of Yahoo boys are calling themselves Association of Yahoo boys mothers Association. This is heart-wrenching and despicable. I have also heard that some parents advertently took their children to learn “Yahoo Yahoo”. This is also another sad one. Sometimes in 2020 in Ado Ekiti, the day the soccer maestro Diego Armando Maradona died, I was sitting in front of a restaurant with other colleagues and a young man was driving in an exotic car with some guys with him. Then one of the men who were also sitting close to a Vulcaniser spotted the young man and said ” him head dey there now, na Yahoo boys him dey drive. I was shocked and concluded that he was one of the bad parents contributing to the proliferation of Yahoos.The man by my observation could be in his 60s .Apparently, such a man does not see anything bad in such an unholy enterprise.
*Government attitude*: Our government laxity in providing jobs and enabling environment for private sectors to engage the youths is largely instrumental to the ugly social trend. Of course, the government can’t employ all her citizens; but can provide an enabling environment for private sectors to absolve many citizens.
*Get-rich-quick syndrome*: The youths of today want to cut corners and get rich quickly, forgetting the consequences of such excessive ambitions.
*Quest for luxury and freedom*: They want to belong to certain class in the society who are using exotic cars, Living in mansion and romancing beautiful women around them ,and lavishing the ill-gotten wealth on them uncontrollably.
*Peer group and Societal Pressure*. Mingling with bad boys can encourage innocent young men into Yahoo.Some parents and even the society sometimes mount unnecessary pressure on their sons by vituperating dangerous remarks that may ginger them into Yahoo business.
The National Assembly has huge responsibility towards addressing the threat by coming up with serious legislation that would spell out punishment for those who engage in Yahoo and Yahoo plus. They should also focus on the role of security agents in combating the menace because it has been rumoured that some security agents are also accomplices.
The Role of Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) in combating the menace is commendable. There have been so many arrests and convictions of young men accros the country who are into Yahoo Yahoo. But frankly, what the EFCC is doing is basically a reactive approach; we must however imbibe a holistic approach that would engender both proactiveness and reactiveness.
A veritable aspect of the proactiveness is good parenting. If parents invest their energy, care and prayers, the children would be far from the various wayward tendencies, such as Yahoo Yahoo. Though we cannot rule out the fact that some parents have been dutiful in their roles, their children have chosen to betray positive moulding. Whichever way, good parenting remains the prerequisite towards ensuring that the menace is reduced to the barest minimum in our society.
The National Orientation Agency (NOA) has a role to play here. They should come up with jingles on radio,television and Internet that would dissuade young men from venturing into the menace of “Yahoo Yahoo” ; it would help the entire young population in the short and in the long run. There should also be the aspect targeted at parents, where the jingles would dramatise or explain the consequences of failing to protect and prevent their children from such evil machinations. The jingles should also focus on the Fleetingness of joy embedded in the Yahoo thing.They can equally partner other agencies in order to take the campaign to schools and other places.
It is imperative to establish that Yahoo Yahoo is more prevalent in some regions than the others. Hence, NOA should focus more on the regions where it is rampant. That doesn’t mean other regions should be disregarded. It is a serious threat to our noble existence and collective measures must be taken to addressing the menace. A stitch in time, they say, saves nine.
abdurraheemsaaddembo@gmail.com
