An old but now apparent threat is sweeping through Calabar
Skolombo is a slang.
What
it really is a term used to describe a dangerous and lawless band of
street boys and girls that roam the streets freely. The streets is their
home. The cold of the night is the blanket with which they sleep at
night, because they have no parents, or even homes.
These
band, mostly teenagers, are made up of people whose parents either
abandoned them, or those that wandered to the city in search of a better
life.
But for years, these band have gone unnoticed.
Now, the price for turning a blind eye is being paid dearly by the people of Calabar. The 'Skolombo' threat is now real.
People
have also called them ‘Imoke Boys’ as a result of the Destiny Child
Centre run by the wife of the governor, Mrs. Obioma Imoke. The
governor’s wife, had through this pet project, gathered such abandoned
street children in the past, rehabilitated and reunited them with their
respective families. But it appears the number of such children is
growing now as no new intake has been admitted into the centre in recent
time, according to investigation.
It was learnt
that the idea of gathering abandoned street children and rehabilitating
them might have been hampered for two reasons. The first was that the
success of the idea brought about the problem of increasing number of
abandoned children who found their way to Calabar from neighbouring
states and countries. Secondly, funds from international donors had
reduced drastically.
Most of them have survived on
the streets for over 10 years under harsh conditions and have over
these years adopted strategies to cope with the harsh realities of their
lives.
Fifteen-year-old Raymond Godswill from
Ebonyi State said he never knew his parents. He said he grew up with his
grandmother in Amasiri, who told him that his mother died shortly after
giving birth to him and that she (grandmother) did not know the father.
Godswill,
who currently resides in one undeveloped plot of land with a
dilapidated structure behind it along the popular Atekong Street with
nine others, said they have different talents and could excel in any
trade if given formal training.
He said, “I have
not seen my parents before. All my life, I have only known my
grandmother who told me that my mother died shortly after giving birth
to me. I found my way to Calabar for greener pastures. We have different
talents; I play football and can achieve something great in life if I
can get someone to help me. We have those among us who have interest in
music as a career. We are begging for assistance.”
A
visit to one of the hideouts where they lived revealed a sorry
situation as one of the children was in critical health situation with
no money to seek medical attention. “We do not have money to take him to
hospital,” one of the angry teenagers shouted.
The
situation is not different at the unkempt park opposite the Flour Mills
Junction along the busy Murtala Mohammed Highway, where some of the
abandoned children have been exposed to social vices caused by
prostitutes who flock the area.
Over the years,
Calabar and Cross River State at large has been a global destination in
the tourism sector in Nigeria. In fact, the popular Calabar Carnival,
which has found its way into the world map of tourism events, attracts
no fewer than 2000 foreign guests. But the activities of some of these
Skolombo boys have become a threat to residents of Calabar as most of
them have turned into criminal gangs who rob unsuspecting pedestrians.
In
January, residents of Abua Street in Calabar South aborted a robbery
spree by a 20-man-gang of teenage robbers who were said to be some of
the ‘Skolombo boys’. Some of them were caught after they had raided
several shops and snatched valuables from residents along Edgerley Road
and other adjoining streets in Calabar South.
The
State Commissioner of Social Welfare in Cross River State, Mrs. Patricia
Enderly, said there had been conscious efforts to reunite the abandoned
street children with their families, but added that the problem seemed
to be escalating as some of the teenagers find their way back to the
street shortly afterwards.
She said, “Instead of
leaving them out there, we try to consciously pull them off the street,
do some documentation with a view to getting information on their state
of origin and their parental background. We try to reunite them with
their families. But some of the guardians are proving difficult in
accepting them back.
“We have continued to work;
that is why they are not as many as they have been in the past because
we keep taking them out. The unfortunate thing is that most of them
still find their way back to the state.
“In most
cases, they (street boys) are mainly from neighbouring Akwa Ibom and
Ebonyi states. We also had cases of others from Cameroon which we had
since repatriated. We also had one from Ghana which we sent back through
Lagos. So, that is what we have to do now rather than keep them here.
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