10th July, 2023
With its growing number of out-of-school children and unemployed youths, Mararaba, the densely populated slum in Karu Local Government Area of Nasarawa State is a breeding ground for social misbehaviour. Authorities say, however, that steps are being taken to address the challenge
By Nkrumah Bankong-Obi/Lafia
The faint rays of light had just begun to separate night from day on a Friday. Loud decibels of noise seep through window panes and doorways from a roadside compound that enlarges inwards, filter into the highway. This reporter’s ears trimmed to catch the incoherent crossfire. There is a smell of chaos, the definitive description of a morning brawl. City Rock, the headlining brothel in Mararaba, a suburb of Nigeria’s capital city, Abuja, is still in-swing. Many underage girls believed to be sex peddlers have been spotted in the premises.
About 500 metres southwards in the direction of the ancient city of Keffi, the lone-pedestrian bridge which provides cover for motorists, roadside traders, hawks, urchins and pickpockets has come alive. Elderly beggars line the bridge soliciting arms from other road users. This area popularly called Mararaba Junction is the theatre of deviant behaviour. The melting point is summed by resident thusly: “Mararaba Under Bridge” is the home of pickpocketing and other social vices. It is believed that even criminals, mostly young boys and prostitutes make contact with one another first around that bridge. It is a dangerous place,” Rita Ochang, a trader told this medium.
A drive could be a great experience around the countryside. But for some residents, a bus ride from or to Abuja through Mararaba revs up bad memories. Recently, Queen, an undergraduate student who’s holidaying in the city became uneasy as the vehicle she boarded snarled past Nyanya, the boundary town between Abuja and Nasarawa State. As the driver manoeuvred the lanes, he slipped her mobile phone into her handbag, clutching the bag to her chest. It is evening and movement was nearly halted due to traffic.
“Mararaba is a notorious city,” she told our reporter who also rode in the bus. “A few days ago, some area boys robbed me and some passengers in traffic like this. They took my phones and another person’s handbag and a laptop computer. I still feel traumatized,” she said. Stories like this are common in Mararaba which is the commercial nerve centre of Karu Local Government Area of Nasarawa State.
Petty thieves and burglars are a fixture in the settlement as drug users, out-of-school children abound. From Kabayi to Aso, from Abacha road to Rugan Julie and One-Man Village, incidences of intrusion into private homes are rife. And the culprits, sources say, have been found to be mostly streets children or youths of malformed character. Some residents told PM NEWS that bag-snatching rings have a haven in the market and operate freely in the adjoining areas. It is believed that the authorities are reluctant to tackle the challenge posed by these deviant kids and youths.
The occupants and sex-hawkers of City Rock and Abacha road who are mostly below fifteen years complement another trend of poor behaviour in Mararaba. The rising cases of secret cult activities among children in the area, an elderly teacher who chose to be unnamed said, are alarming. Sources told this medium that kids in primary and secondary schools have been caught during initiations and other cult-related activities. Particularly notorious, according to residents who confided in our reporter, are children in public schools like the Government Junior Secondary, Mararaba, Government Secondary School, Aso, among others. Efforts to speak with the authorities were fruitless as the school were holidaying when our correspondent visited.
“The Junior school has been properly fenced to prevent loitering, truancy and cultism among its students and pupils. It used to be menace before the school was fenced and gated,” a resident who craved anonymity said.
How does the environment influence the behaviour of young people?
This reporter sought the views of Awuken Ojong, a guidance and counsellor who previously worked in the city. She believes that the congested houses and lack of regard for individual spaces provided avenue for good and poor social interactions. And when this happens, the company can morph from innocence to the vices you are talking about,” noting that the poor social support systems and improperly trained educators cannot adequately provide a sound background for the kids, even if they report in school.
Ojong, who now offers counselling services in Lafia noted that the agents of socialization – home, school, religious centres, peer groups etc., in Mararaba are in bad shape. “There has to be a radical effort to reform the children. The physical environment needs to be in sync with the moral and educational environment. Until we get this right, you will continue to see the chaos on the road, hence the bag snatching and pickpocketing and then burglary and other vices that are common there,” she submitted.
The multitudes who throng to betting shops appear to corroborate Ojong’s perspective about negative peer pressure on youths in the community. The various football bet shops offer means of making money in a manner that encourages grift. “If I bet with N100 and I get my blocks well, I could win N100,000 or even much more. Some of us earn a living from this, since jobs are so hard to find,” Linus Adeh, a regular punter told PM NEWS.
Our reporter observed that most of these premises brim with young men even in the early hours of the morning. The patrons are sometimes unkempt and quarrels are regular feature in such places.
But Augustine Ashikini, Director of Social Development in the Nasarawa State Ministry of Women and Social Development says the state government has invested time and resources to promote behavioural change in all parts of the State. “The State government has tried to key into the Federal government’s “At-RISK”. It targets out-of-school children, street kids, vulnerable children and youths. It provides them basic literacy and life skills for the purposes of independent socioeconomic living.
“The programme has recruited six hundred and fifty youth facilitators across Nasarawa State. There are a minimum of fifty of them in each Local Government Area and they will generate data, organize the children into community hubs, give them education and support skills.”
When asked why the out-of-school-children syndrome persists in the State, he identified attitude of misguided parents who send their wards to Nasarawa from far-flung places like Kano, Katsina, Gombe to acquire Koranic education without any safety nets to cater for the welfare of these children.
“The Tsangaya or Islamic pupils come from various states in the North and some are very young. The mallams who supposedly care for these kids know nothing about child care. And because they have no capacity to receive or process the teaching, they hit the streets trying to help themselves,” he said.
But the itinerant pupils are just a leg of the social problems among children and youths in Mararaba. There are kids whose parents are of other religions and hail from states apart from Northern Nigeria but have gone wayward. The cosmopolitan nature of the town eases exposure to criminal gangs. The market square, the dense slums where betting halls, night clubs and other uncontrolled social centres have sprung up, providing cover for nefarious activities to happen.
Ashikini says government is aware that not all individuals may be amenable or prepared to accept interventionist programmes that can lure them away from crime, “we also think about those who may not be inclined to accepting these efforts to lift deviant children out of the streets and empower them], it is the effective mobilization of the instruments of social control to bare on organisations that provide a safe haven for such individuals to flourish in their areas. It involves the mobilization of security agencies to take care of such anomalies.”
The security agencies have been accused of failing to checkmate the activities of youthful criminals in Mararaba. “The police do not appear to help us a lot. Sometimes they arrest these burglars and drug users but before you know it, the bad boys are back in business,” a woman who does not want her name in print for fear of retribution, told PM NEWS. Another, accused police officers of extorting people caught in criminal acts and helping them to bypass the law.
Ranhan Nansel, a deputy superintendent of Police and Public Relations officer of Nasarawa State Police Command denies the accusations of inappropriate behaviour by the police. “These people may be arrested and if the offences are bailable, we can’t keep them. Also, if they’re charged to court and the court allows them to go on bail, we can’t hold them against the law.”
PM NEWS also observed that Mararaba is under-policed. Apart from the divisions in Abacha Road and Mararaba market, we counted about five police posts across the area. But DSP Nansel does not believe that this is a challenge. “We are not complaining. The number of personnel is never adequate. We just work with the number that we have,” he posited, noting that surveillance and other policing mechanisms have been effectively adopted by the command.
He blamed the lack of statistics on the crime rate in the area on the unwillingness of the public to report incidences of crime. He advised them to call the attention of the security agencies whenever criminal activity is suspected or has occurred.
The absence of reformation facilities in Nasarawa State poses a challenge for law enforcement agents dealing with persons deemed underage to be quarantined in the regular correctional centres. An official who had no authorization to speak to the media said the state government is currently partnering with a non-governmental organsation to provide such facilities in line with the provision of the Administration of Criminal Justice Act.
Mararaba is a rusty suburb sheltering several thousands of people. It is home to individuals and families, some of whom are workers serving in private and public establishments in the FCT. Others are traders, artisans who ply their trade within their locality.