We have already identified great streams to which the abundant energies of many youths may be channeled. We have recommended that we should discontinue the use of hoodlums and miscreants to describe youths in the country. We recommended that they be called Lagos Corner Boys, LCBs. Lagos Corner Boys are neighbourhood boys found mostly at street corners gisting, smoking and drinking for most part of the day, without education or a regular source of legitimate income.

Many of them are feared and dreaded because of their reputation as ‘bad boys.’ But from them could emerge a class of cornerstones that may uphold the new society we are all praying to emerge to serve the interests of everyone.

Changing the name of the neighbourhood boys commonly called hoodlums and miscreants is not the same as changing SARS to SWAT, as the police authorities attempted to do but was rejected by the people. Changing the name to LCBs is both a journey and a destination combined. The process is one of elaborate communication and engagement but the idea that the bearer of the name has intrinsic worth and value is a significant departure from the past. Almost automatically, it sends the signals to the bearer that society wants to see him differently from how it was in the past. Particularly from the negative images conjured up in the mind as those easily associated with words like hoodlums and miscreants.