Known as 'Area Boys' and 'Area Girls', the street youth often approach people with tales of woes, before waylaying their unsuspecting victims. ''Area boys and ...girls are part of the bad things in this city that most dwellers like me would like to avoid ,'' says Abeni Oke, a marketing executive who was accosted by the street youth recently.

''As I waited to catch a bus, two of them appeared from nowhere asking for money. I ignored them, only for one of them to forcibly remove my glasses from my face,'' Oke recalls. ''They were recovered by a man who ran after him, although the glasses got b roken in the ensuing struggle.''

Oke, like most Lagos residents, was pleased recently when the government started a new programme to remove the youth from the streets and place them in agricultural and other projects where they can earn a small wage.

Some 1000 youth have been identified for an agricultural project under the ''Good Boys and Good Girls'' programme. The youth will be placed on allocated land where they will farm cassava and maize, two of Nigeria's staple foods. They also will receive tr aining in livestock breeding.

The idea behind the project, says Colonel Mohammed Marwa, the Lagos Military Administrator, is to provide youth who have fallen into crime and drugs on the streets with an opportunity to improve their lives.

Some of the youth also have been employed by the government- owned Direct Labour Agency. The agency has employed about 1000 youth to repair and rebuild city roads, according to Abayomi Opeolu, who is in charge of the youth programme. The youth receive a daily pay of 500 Naira (about four U.S. Dollars).

Opeolu said some youth also have been put to work on the 'Operation Weed for Flower' campaign.

''The operation is aimed at, apart from providing employment, beautifying the state and establishing the springboard for assessing the adequacy of the 'Good boys and girls' for other jobs,'' Opeolu said.

According to sociologist Lance Oluwasegun, the youth programme could be an answer to the growing problem of street children in Nigeria.

''I think it is a good idea...any programme or policy that takes people off the streets ought to be commended. I believe that other states should take a cue from the Lagos example,'' Oluwasegun said.

He, however, cautioned: ''It remains to be seen if the government can meet the task of fully training the miscreants to become useful citizens again''.

But one of the youth interviewed said the programme has given him a chance to turn his life around.

''I am excited about my new role in society. I was on drugs and generally useless to myself and anybody for about five years,'' said the young man who declined to be named.

''I had been in and out of drug rehabilitation programmes for about two years before going to one organised by a church. As soon as I finished that, I heard about the government offering us jobs to work as casual labourers and I have not looked back sinc e then.''