At traffic lights in Abuja, young boys are often seen armed with squeegees waiting for the lights to turn red so they could clean windscreens and make small money. They call themselves ‘car wash’ boys’ even though they only clean windscreens. But who really are these boys? Where do they come from and why are they on the streets chasing dreams that are running faster than the boys can manage? On a warm Abuja evening, Yusuf Lawal, 12, stood by the side of road waiting for the traffic light to turn red before jumping onto the street to clean the windshield of the cars halted by the light. Sometimes he gets a token N10 or N20, other times he is shouted at or warned off by drivers not to touch their windshields. Yusuf is not alone on these streets. Many boys like him take advantage of the traffic lights in Abuja to make small amounts of money. The ‘car wash’ boys, as they call themselves, seem to come out of nowhere, quickly squirt liquid detergent from a plastic bottle onto the...