Abidjan's high-flying flashy reveller generation

They are not children of high birth frittering away the family cash. They are between 13 and 17. Their favourite pastime is skimming the hot spots of the Ivorian economic capital of Abidjan for demonstrations of "power".

This includes buying the most expensive drinks or loading up their tables with beer bottles, distributing money to DJs or singers and strutting around surrounded by beautiful girls.

Although the atmosphere looks like that of an American series it happens in real life in Abidjan. I even met some of these teenagers in a strip bar (Disclaimer: I was there only in the context of my investigation). It was really surreal to see these boys canoodling with and even caressing girls who could be their elder sisters or their mothers!

This new breed of revellers are mainly teenagers who specialise in internet fraud. Cote d’Ivoire is known to have a thriving fraud industry in Africa. Most of these teenagers rush to spend the fruits of their "work" in bars and nightclubs. And there, as they are customers who spend big, the red carpets are literally rolled out for them and a blind eye turned to their activities.

For example, an Ivorian law dating from 1964 prohibits the sale of alcohol to minors with offenders liable to criminal prosecution. But nothing is done. Free houses continue to expand across the country-- next to the mobile phone business, it is said to be the activity that generates the most income. These alcohol kingdoms are also to be found near schools, universities, in backyards of homes ... and next to some worship places.

Whet appetite

Besides this expansion, public advertising of alcoholic beverages on television and in the city has done more to whet young people's thirst for alcohol.

If the princes of the night I mentioned are the loudest, many other teenagers: school boys and girls, street kids, young prostitutes … are also used to alcohol. Especially since it's so easy for a minor to enter a supermarket or in a bar and be served alcohol. Nobody would ask him for his ID card as it is done in the West.

It is true that because of all the crises that have shaken Cote d’Ivoire, manners were severely affected but this is not a reason to continue with this kind of wrong.

If we say that the future belongs to youth, it is dangerous to pass on the reins of the country for young alcoholics. Indeed when one is already a regular customer of bars and others in his teens, he has good chance of becoming an alcoholic before adulthood!

Parents certainly have a great responsibility in these deviations but also the authorities. Laws exist and they must be applied, even strengthened.

It is good to shout from rooftops that we are fighting for the development but it is also important to know how would be the state of health of those for whom we fight when we would have won the victory.