CHAPTER
ONE
1.0
INTRODUCTION
Cultism can simply be described as a
land of gang behavior that is accepted and value of the larger society and is characterized
by oath, taking secrecy and violence.
Cultism can also be seen as the state of
phenomenon where persons are bound together with a common belief usually
through some rituals.
According to the Oxford Dictionary
English 5th Edition, the word “Cult” means a system of religion worships
especially one that is expressed in rituals.
From this definition, cults are now
popularly known as confraternity and have assumed monstrous features in our
Tertiary Institutions.
To this end, our various campuses have
become the core, fortified area of violence and terrorism. In addition to this,
campus cult have contributed a major threat to academic program in our universities
and these cults encourage moral ruin, murder, terrorism, sexual harassment,
armed robbery etc. Thereby making the campus which is supposed to be a centre
for knowledge acquisition to become a devils nest for cultist operations.
According to Ogunade 2002, cultic
activities are sometimes laden with blood. It may be the blood of an animal or
that of human beings. He claimed that during initiations, rites or during rival
group clashes within the university setting, blood flow during which many lives
are lost in the process. There are various secret cults now in our institutions
of higher learning. They are called different names depending on the
institution. There are those cults mostly meant for male students while there
are some mostly for the female students. These various cults are usually in
conflict with one another during which many of their lives including innocent
non-members are lost.
Ogunade 2002, defined a secret cult as
an enclosed organized association or group devoted to the same cause. It is an
endorsed group having an exclusive sacred ideology and a series of rites
centering around their sacred symbols. Secret cult is a terminology cowed by a
former Military Head of State, Ibrahim Bedamusi Babangida between 1983 to 1984.
Before this period, these gangs had always been referred to as fraternities.
The members of the cult, according to
Ogunade (2002) commit themselves to oath and allegiance which serves as their
strong bond. This group of people are always violent when defending their
course. Thus, secret cult could therefore be defined as a set of practices,
belief system of ideal whose essence is known only to the inner members and
excessively admired and defended even to the point of laying down one’s life.
It is this doggedness and strong conviction demonstrated by members that
reinforces the importance of and awe for the group especially amongst non
members.
It is pertinent to note that Nigeria in
the 1940’s was on the verge of gaining political independence. The
nationalistic favour in the country gave a warning signal to the colonialist
that the sun was about to set on the British Empire.
Political parties sprang up in the major
centers of the country which raised political awareness and questioned the
continued stay of the colonialists in the country. Nigerian students were not
left out of this social charge. The idea of the students was to respond to the
demands of the time, enhance cultural nationalism and fight the tribalism of
politics. The Anti Anglo defence pact
with Britain riot and the “Ali must go” students protest of 1978 was ably
handled by members of the pirates confraternity.
However, over the years, due to doctrinal
differences and inabilities of intending members to meet required standards of
the Pirates Confraternity Protestants ones started emerging like the
Buccaneers, Mafia, Hikings. The early nineties witnessed a boom as every
university was plagued with cult explosion such as the Black Axe, Black Cats,
Trojan Horse, Black Panthers etc.
1.1 History Of Cultism In Nigeria Universities
In 1952, a group of seven students from
the University College Ibadan formed the Pirates Confraternity. They called
themselves the “Magnificent Seven” or “Original Seven”. They include: Wole
Soyinka, Ralph Okpara, Pius Okegbe, Frank Aigimoukhuede, Awe and Ben Egwu
Chalam. (Igodo: 2002:19).
They observed that the University was
populated with wealthy students who were associated with colonial powers. Those
who were poor, were struggling in every manner to be accepted by the more
advantaged students. Social life was based on tribalism. This prompted them to
form a confraternity which membership was open to any promising male student
regardless of tribe or race. But selection was stringent and most applicants
were denied. For almost twenty years, the Pirates were the only confraternity
on Nigerian campuses.
In the late 1960s, the Pirates
registered themselves as National Association of Seadogs (NAS) and the
confraternity extended off campus. Later on, another confraternity known as
Buccaneers Confraternity was registered as National Association of Sea Lords.
This division was as a result of assertion of leadership of the group where
some wanted to hold onto power and not wanting to give it up.
It is still regarded in many quarters as
the fountain head of Campus Cultism in Nigeria Tertiary Institutions (Ewgu
2004).
1.2 Basic
Objectives Of Early Cult In Nigeria Universities
It
was with good intentions that the Seven Young Men formed the Pirates
Confraternity in 1952 at University College Ibadan.
According
to Egwu (Egwu, 2004:2), when they started, they did not have the kind of
organization that now pervades in the Universities. They started as a
confraternity. It is just a meeting of minds of those who though the same way.
Wole Soyinka was the Captain because he initiated the move. They had three
basic objectives when they started.
1. They
wanted to abolish convention: They did not want to do thing just because it was
the convention, they wanted to see if there was a reason for doing a particular
thing in a particular way of if there was a better way of doing it. They did
not want to follow convention blindly.
2. They
wanted to revive everybody in the campus as regards strengthening the whole
students (the weaker sex in particular) in knowing their rights as students, to
fight any intimidation that may come their way.
3. The
third objective was in response to the Richards constitution at that time,
which was discriminating and aimed at tribalizing the Africans Politics.
4. To
end tribalism and elitism: It is noteworthy, that the group was not to harm,
maim, kill and destroy as their cohesiveness and absolute allegiance to rules
made it become an elite brightest and the politically conscious. They
teleguided political events and held important positions within the student
body like President, Chief Judge, P.R.O and Secretary. Their existence was well known by students
and was not associated with weird, horrorful and spiteful characters of the
latter day confraternities.
1.3
Theoretical framework of Cultism
The
Behavioral Theory
Behaviourism also called learning
perspective, where any physical action is a behavior, is a philosophy of
psychology based on the proposition that all things that organisms do can and
should be regarded as behaviours.
The theory used in this study is
B.F Sinner’s Operant Conditioning Theory. The behaviourist school of thought
maintains that behavior as such can be described scientifically without
recourse either to internal physiological events or to hypothetical constructs
such as mind.
Behaviourism comprises the position
that all theories should have observational correlates but that there are no
philosophical differences between publicity observation processes such as
actions and privately observable processes such as thinking and feeling.
In this study, B.F Skiner’s
behaviourism is considered radical since it expands behavioural principles to
processes within the organism.
B.F Skinner who emphasized behavior
or responses (operants) that are learned because they are followed by
reinforces, as food or praise, increase the likelihood of the response it
follows. The emphasis throughout the approach is on specific overt behavior
that can be altered or changed by means of reinforces.
He advocated behavior modification,
which seeks to change behavior by the systematic application of learning
principles, using his operant conditioning theory. This method focuses on
specific behaviours rather than general personality characteristics or
underlying conflicts. Complex behaviours are developed out of the reinforced
building up of simplex behaviours.
Skinner’s view of behavior is most
often characterized as a molecule. This view is inconsistent with Skinner’s
complete description of behavior as delinated in other works. Behaviorism is
concerned with observable behavior of human beings. Although divergences exist
in the specifics of behavioural viewpoints but the general consensus is that
most man’s behaviour is learned hence
living is learning and it is a life long process.
A child starts learning as soon as
it is born. As the individual interacts with his environment, new knowledge is acquired through experiences. In addition to this,
Ugbandu in Olabisi (1993) explained that most new intakes in higher
institutions belong to the adolescent age bracket, a stage they are subjected
to psychological fluctuations, while searching for their personalities. In
their search he explained, the influence of their peers are paramount.
Explaining further, Skinner (1969)
in Egbulo (2000) hold that learning involves three indentified stages namely:
the stimulus or the learning task, which the learner is confronted with, the
behavior that is elicited or the skill that is learnt, and the reinforcement
which follows that behavior. It is for this reason that most human behavior and
actions are learned and therefore subject to change. It is for this reason that
behavior therapists propounded that behaviours should be measured in terms of
what one can see, hear and count in order to know the specific and measurable
causes of these behaviours (Watson, 1913).
In addition, The frontiers of
knowledge of behavior theory were expanded to include internal reinforcements
like thoughts and emotions in the stability of such behavior in an individual.
In other words, the internal reinforcement helps to maintain and sustain the
external rewards and punishments (Bandura, 1971), I. Rogers (1976) maintained
that the differing concentrations of androgens in males and females cannot
explain human sex differences in sexual and aggressive behavior.
In line with the view of Rogers
above, Money (1997) stressed that biological factors do not themselves produce
differences in male and female behavior. This may mean that gender identities
are the conceptions individuals have of themselves of being male or female
through early and sustained imitation of adult behavior. Our social environment
provides us with sex-typed conceptions and stereotypes. What Money is pointing
to is that individual is essentially neutral at birth and that biological
differences in gender identities but could affect the threshold for the
elicitation of such behavior.
For the fact that all behavior are
learned, it can equally be unlearned through the help of a professional
individual. Though according to Rogers, that human beings are endowed with all
goodness, still maintains that environment can change human beings. As those
fresher men/new intakes get to the higher institutions of learning, without
proper directives as in organizing orientation programmes may tend to fall into
the hands of these cultist, this is because the environment is strange to them
and can be humiliated easily.
Social
Learning Theory
Social learning theory is derived
from the work of Albert Bandurel (1971) which proposed that social learning
occurred through four main stages of initiation; close contact. imitation of
superior, understanding of concepts and role model behavior.
Social learning suggests a
combination of environment (social) and psychological factors influence
behavior. Social learning theory emphasized the importance of learning in
personality development and change; like the baheviourists, but differ in three
ways; first, that social learning theorists suggest that reinforces, such as
praise and punishment are important in determining whether behavior are
performed, but are not critical to behaviors from parents or other models, by
observing them, without the necessity of reward, though children will be more
likely to perform behaviours they have observed if they are rewarded for such
performance.
Secondly, social learning theorists
suggested that many complex behaviours are learned holistically; and thirdly,
they emphasize the importance of internal processes such as thought, in the
development and regulation of behaviours.
When an individual is conditioned
to be rewarded, they anticipate it to happen in the future, but when they are
presented with a non-reward situation this creates an unconditioned frustration
response otherwise called humiliation.
According to Dollard and Miller’s
(1939, 1950), the individual is “instigated” toward a bahaviour, which is some
antecedent condition of which the predicted response is the consequences. The
applications of social learning theory have been important in the history of
education policies. Agha (1994) observed that some students from families that
have an established practices of traditional religious worship often
characterized by fetishness is a sine quo non for campus cults, assorted
charms, voodoo magic masks and peculiar regalia are more or less part of secret
cults paraphernalia, this then shows people learn through imitation and
observing. Social learning theory can also be seen in television and movie
rating system that is used in our different homes and tertiary institutions
where students have most freedoms.
The rating system is designed to
let all parents know what the programme that their children are watching
contain hence some students may decide to join cult after watching these
movies. Some content may be harmful to children who do not have the cognitive
ability to process certain content, however, the child may model the behaviours
seen on TV.
Locus of control is an important
consideration when helping students in higher education environments perform
better academically this is because the individual influences his environment
while the environment in turn influences the individual. Thus a person in a
person in a friendly environment would learn friendliness which he could
transfer to another environment.
The environment has to do with the
individuals’ immediate surroundings and other human persons. No educational
institution can survive or achieve its objectives if authority has not been
vested in some people. In tertiary
institutions, the students are obliged to read hard and make good results hence
these campus cultists prefers getting good results through mischievous ways
such as tormenting the lecturers for good grades, destroying school properties,
more so, radical students bodies and raping, all these things are being learned
within the environment one sees him/herself. Hence, for an individual to
develop his personality fully, he/she must have mutual transaction with his
environment and significant others. Cultists have wreaked havoc on campuses.
Social learning theorist, Bandura (1971) believe that individuals acquire those
ways of thinking, feeling and behaving characteristics of males and females
through their social experiences. Language provides a good example of the
cultural transmission process. This theory suggests that some students learn to
be cultists within the environment they see themselves.
CHAPTER
TWO
2.0
EXPANSION
FROM THE UNIVERSITIES
In 1972 Bolaji Carew and several others
were expelled from the Pirates for failing to meet expected standards. In
reaction to this and other events, the Pirates registered themselves under the
name National Association of Seadogs (NAS) and, at least one source states,
pulled the confraternity out of the Universities. Carew went on to find the
Buccaneers Confraternity (also called the National Association of Sea Lords),
largely copying the Seadog’s structure, symbols and ceremonies. A major impetus
for the creation of new confraternities was the fact that members of the new
groups simply did not meet the high academic and intellectual standards set by
the Seadogs, and thus considered the original organization to be elitist.
However, Soyinka would later point to individuals who became accustomed to
exerting power in the rigidly hierarchical confraternity, and were unwilling to
give it up, as to blame for the initial schism. As new groups formed,
inter-group tensions led to fighting, though those were initially limited to
fist-fights.
The Supreme Eiye Confraternity (Also
known as the National Association of Air Lords) was formed in the University of
Ibadan in 1965. In the 1980s confraternity spread throughout the over 300
institutions of higher education in the Country. The Neo Black Movement of
Africa (Also called Black Aze) emerged from University of Benin in Edo State.
In 1983 Students of the University of Calabar in Cross River State founded the
Eternal Fraternal Order of the Legion Consortium (the Klan Konfraternity) (The
Adventurers or, alternatively, the De Norsemen Club of Nigeria) the following
year. This time period saw a drastic change in the role of the confraternities.
The coup of Ibrahim Babangida in 1983 caused a large degree of Political
tension. Military leaders, beginning in the 1980s, began to see the
confraternities as a check on the student unions and university staff, who were
the only organized groups opposing military rules. The confraternities were
thus provided payment and weapons to use against student activists, though the
weapons were often used in deadly inter-confraternity rivalries.
Sociologist Emeka Akudi noted that some
university vice-chancellors protected confraternities which were known to be
violent and used them to attack students deemed troublesome. During this
period, the confraternities introduced new traditional religious practices,
including Voodoo, before any other activity. Perhaps in reaction to the changes
in 1984, Wole Soyinka declared that the Seadogs should not operate on any
university campuses.
In the early 1990s, confraternity
activities expanded dramatically in the Niger Delta as confraternities engaged
in a bloody struggle for supremacy. The family confraternity (the campus Mafia
or the Mafia), which modeled itself after the Italian Mafia emerged. Shortly
after their arrival, several students were expelled from Abia state university
for cheating and “cultism”. a reference to the voodoo-practicing confraternity,
which marked the beginning of a shift of confraternity activities from the
university to off campus. However, the consolidation of confraternity
activities outside Nigerian Universities Campuses was loosed by the nationwide
renouncement of cultism by university students and the breakdown of traditional
campus cults all over the country as a result of amnesty granted to all
renounced cultists at the onset of the present democratic government. This led
to migration of cultists from the campuses to residential neighbourhoods and
streets as campuses were no more safe haven for them.
Incompetence of government officials and
inadequate facilities to police campuses by University Authorities led to the
resurgence of cultism in the campuses as renounced cultists who could not be
protected by the law, went back to their cult groups to seek protection from
rival groups who had discerned their identity as a result of the renouncement
ceremony. This resulted in a situation where cult groups were now well
established in and outside the campuses.
In the late 1990s, all female
confraternities began to be formed. These include the Black Brazier (Bra Bra),
the Viqueens, Daughters of Jezebel, and the Damsel.
Female confraternities have supplied
spies for allied male confraternities as well as acting as prostitution
syndicates.
2.1 Characteristics Of The Present Day Cults In
Campuses.
Frequent criminal activity for cults
include;
1. Illegal
Possession of Firearms
2. Drug
abuse
3. Violent
crimes like armed robbery
4. Illicit
Sexual escapades
5. Killing
of innocent student, academic and non-academic staff
6. Arson
7. Rape
8. Extortion
9. Intimidating
protessors into giving high grades by burning their cars or briefly abducting
their children
10.
Physical attacks
11.
Blackmail
12.
Factional struggle and war of supremacy
culminating in blooding clashes between the cult groups.
13.
Inter-cult clashes
CHAPTER
THREE
3.0 FACTORS MOTIVATING STUDENTS TO JOIN CULT
Majority of the people who join new age
cults are between 18 – 22 years old at the time of first contact i.e, the immediate post high school and
period. Hence motivation for joining cults may come from the following.
1. Peer
Group’s Influence
2. Some
young students in cults have experienced very unstable or non existence family
relationship but they do not constitute the norm.
3. A
number of students have known the pains and deprivation of a single-parent home
and perhaps for this reason, some have strongly identified with older students
who provides a parental image.
4. Some
young people who have problem backgrounds and have experienced varying degrees
of “failure”
5. Those
people that come from broken homes or have a history of emotional problems and
unresolved personal conflicts.
6. The
search for identity and a quest for spiritual reality that provides clear-cut
answers to questions.
7. Impressions
given to them by corrupt government officials
8. Inadequate
learning facilities
9. Inadequate
religious and moral background
10.
Autocratic and hostile relationship
between the administrations of the institution, the staff and the students
11.
Improper exposure of negative behaviour from the mass media, Example magical films,
occultism, nudity etc.
3.1 Factors Responsible For Cultism In Nigeria
Universities
1.
Parental
And Home Background
This is a major factor when considering
the cause of students joining campus cults. Students participation in cultism
maybe influenced by parents involvement in similar activities as they will not
see anything wrong in their children involvement in cultism.
Parents may encourage their children to
join cults so that they may maintain the traditional titles that have been
given to them (the parents).
Children from broken homes may also find
solace in cultism. A home characterized by child abuse, intolerance, insecurity
and hostility may be a breeding ground for prospective cult members.
2.
Society
The society is another cause of cultism
in Nigerian tertiary institution. The Nigerian adult society is materialism.
There is mad ambition for wealth and power. Some powerful member of the society
sometime unleash terror on the other members of the society. Some of them
recruit young adults to carryout various crimes in the society and can erase
the long arms of the law. They are fraudsters, kidnappers, ritual killers etc.
Children who grow in this kind of environment many see nothing wrong in cult activities
that involve maiming and killing of innocent people.
3.
Emotional
Instability
Emotional sickness contributes to
the cause of cultism in higher institution of learning in Nigeria Children who
have emotional sickness lead to be frustrated and fed up with life. In an
attempt to express their anger against neglects, they may join cults to unleash
terror on the society that has caused them emotional distress.
4.
Inadequate Facilities In Educational
Institutions
Learning facilities provided in
educational institutions are grossly inadequate to the extent that some
students cannot cope academically. Because of the erase for certificates, such
intellectually weak students join cult to harass lecturers as administrations
so that they can be given underserved marks.
5.
Government
Corruption And Failure To Sanction Cult Activities
Cultists in our educational
institutions watch how government officials break the laws of the land with
impunity because they are members of several cults. Government also fails to
apply sanctions against cultists who contravene the laws of the land because of
the protection offered by those who are close to the correctors of power.
Cultists are therefore given the impression that they can go away with any cut
of lawlessness.
6.
Lack
Of Elaborate Orientation Programme
Lack of elaborate orientation
programme for new entrants as identified by Ugendu in Olabisi (1993), is one of
the factors. He observed that most
members were recruited as freshers, were the evils of campus cults and horror
they wreck on fellow students are highlighted, freshers do not have vital
information, hence they are lured into those cults as novice.
7.
Affiliation
Need
Another psychological phenomenon
mentioned by Omulabi in Olabisi (1993) is what he called “Affiliation Need” which
prompt student’s to form or join these cults. He said that affiliation and
belonging drive them to join these cults to assess their worth and evaluate
their self identity within the group he further observed that the use of
secrecy by members is to easit an aura of myth around the society thereby striking
fears, dreaded and anxiety into non
members, thus boosting their ego in the academic society.
8.
Society
Decadence
Society decadence is another factor
identified by Omasuka (1993) which motivates the occurrence of these cults. He
said that behavioral patterns of individuals are largely molded on valves and
aspirations of their society. He said in our Nigerian society, we trample,
maim, and deamate one another in endless search for recognition, respect and
prestige.
9.
Natural
Environmental
According to Ujo (1991), the
university is a microcosm of the country, and an individual’s action is
conditioned and structured by the socio-cultural environment within which he
resides.
He explains that before the 1970s,
the socio-cultural environment of Nigeria was conservative and non aggressive
but had a revolutionary transformation in the early 1970s. He attributed this to
the civil weir which many of the youths in the army were trained in violence. Many
returned and decided to put what they learned in practice.
Violence crimes such as robbery and
rape became rampant in Nigeria as from the 1970s. He also mentioned that
government contributed to the culture of violence by introducing public execution
of armed robbers. Over a period of time, Nigerians came to accept violence as a
way of life and the entire society became prone to crime and increasingly
volatile.
10.
Rustication
And Proscription Of Cult Members
Ihejietoh (1990) an author, holds
the view that suspension, rustication and proscription of cult members motivate
the existence of cults in our tertiary institutions. He said that the approach
is negative and as such it begets violence and aggression.
11.
Clamping Down On Cult And Student Union
Clamping down on cults and student union in the view
of Kolo (1994) also increases the actions. He explains that when open meetings,
congress, gathering, public meetings are banned or clamped down, students
decide to meet in the secret, and this has led to the eruption of campus cults.
He also mentioned that clamping down our individual homes lead to rebellion.
CHAPTER FOUR
4.
0 INITIATION OF NEW MEMBERS
This is the most important stage in cult
activity. It involves the indoctrination, orientation, and teaching of the
ethos of cult as well as the rituals and rites which the initiates are obliged
to undergo. It is mostly conducted underwear.
Igodo (2002), noted that it is prominent
manifestation the administering of alien materials to the initiated. This can
be in the form of drinking concoctions, blood oaths, spiritual rituals which
climax in his willful surrender of his ego and consciousness to the spirit
being that enters and controls him. The initiate comes out of initiation in
possession of secret signs, symbols and marks to be preserved and protected.
The indoctrination and orientation which
entrants receive which in most cases is product of hallucination and hypothesis
makes them to accept and to carry out actions that have no moral justification
such as killing, arson and rape. Therefore, after the candidates have been
through this stage, they are taken for a level of initiation which takes the
form of physical drilling and brutalizing. After the initiate is told some of
the members who are regarded as role models either on campus or in the larger
society. (Berger 2001:6). They tell the initiate he is about to join a
prestigious organization that would change his life for the better.
At internals, the initiates are drilled.
They are subjected to several experiences, threats, scams, fear and many other subterfuges
are used (Idogo 2004:4).
In this drilling session, initiates are
subjected to countless rules to which they are not even aware. After this, if
the initiate is found worthy, his thumb is pierced with a blade which he is
told to tough the blood to a sheet of paper. It is some king of signature and
signifies your acceptance to being a member of the brotherhood. This document
is kept jealously and even after you are let go, you are told that it could be
used against you if you decide to reveal what has been seen. Immediately after
the initiate are made to know the following rules below:
1.
You are asked if you really decide to
join the fraternity.
2.
You are told the creed and made to rule
it.
3.
You are subjected to questioning
sessions where your ability to think quickly and logistically is tested.
4.
You are made to a cocktail i.e a mixture
of several drinks, which may be used to test your “staying power”.
5.
You are asked to identify and after
doing this, the cycle of initiation is considered complete.
4.1
Consequences Of Being A Cult Member
1.
Contamination of deadly diseases through
blood, oath during initiation, old members and new initiates normally take
blood oath from the mixture of blood of new initiates. This can spread
HIV/AIDS; Hepatitis B, and other deadly diseases.
2.
Killing and Destruction: One can be a
victim of intra-cult clash. A member is prone to heinous crimes, violence and
killings.
3.
You can destroy your future and career
if you get expelled from school.
4.
During initiation, initiates become
possessed by evil spirits that control their sense of reasoning to commit havoc
on their fellow students and society.
5.
The evils perpetuated these individuals
as a result of becoming cult members haunts them in the future.
4.2
Effects of Cultism
1. As
earlier noted, the emergence of cult groups in our tertiary institutions was
not a result of divine disobedience, but a result of socio-economic conflicts.
Conflicts that were energized by the capitalist character of our made of
production. Thus, there was a need to find the relevance within this changing
order. Gradually, the cults constituted themselves into a protection group that
fought and advanced the rights and privileges of their members including
passing exams, acquiring girlfriend, accommodation etc.
2. Intra
and inter cult clashes negatively affect the students learning process.
3. Violence
on campus which leaves students wounded, maimed or even killed as the case may
be, which also contribute to the feelings of insecurity.
4. Incarceration, rustication or expulsion of
both innocent and guilty students.
5. In
cases of closure, hospitalization, suspension or incarceration, the resultant
effect is that learning is suspended for some period of time, possibly a year
or more.
6. It
leads to colossal loss of infrastructure and other resources.
7. Psyche
of students and peace of the campus would be adversely affected.
8. Existence
of cult groups within the university has made life unsafe and meaningless for
both staff and students.
9. Public
attack on lecturers who insist or meant for passing examinations.
10.
Maltreatment of female-students who
refuse amorous advances of cult members.
11.
This awful situation creates way for
academic immorality, national importance and ruin as it is an inescapable
truism that no nation can develop beyond the capacities of her tertiary
institutions and if her future leaders, the youths who according to Benjamin
Disreali, are the trustees of posterity, are trained in such a milieu, nothing
then awaits such a notion but A FUTURE THAT IS BUILT AND STRIVES ON VIOLENCE.
A practical examples of these effects is
the Obafemi Awolowo University Murders.
On July 10, 1999, one of the most
notable single attacks occurred at Obafemi Awolowo University (OAU) in Ife. OAU
had been considered one of the safest universities in the country, largely due
to student-organized resistence to the confraternities. After one cult member
was shot and killed during an attempted kidnapping in 1991, the confraternities
appeared to stay away from the university. In February 1999, student leaders
organized a campus wide search, which found eight secret cult members who were
stockpiling machine guns and other weapons in their dorm room. This enraged the
Black Axe confraternity, who organized a murder squad that hacked the student
union secretary-general to death in his bed and targeted other student leaders.
In a student assembly called the
following day, the president of the Student’s Union, who had escaped the
killers by leaping from his window,
demanded the resignation of Vice-Chancellor, Wole Omole, who was seen as
obstructing efforts to fight confraternities, such as by refusing to expel the
eight cultist who had been found stockpiling weapons. A bounty of 10,000 naira ($100)
was offered for his capture and one vigilante group reportedly abducted Omole’s
wife as ransom for his surrender. Ewos and the Mafia student also manned
checkpoints and carried out searches for cult members still on campus,
arresting suspects like the official Leke. IN one case, students worried about
police leniency stormed a police station to re-seize a suspect they had
previously turned over.
Nigerian Education Minister, Tunde
Adeniran later dismissed Omole and ordered university administrators to
eradicate confraternities from their campuses by September 1999. In response,
hundreds of cult members publicly renounced their confraternity and cult
associated violence temporally subsided.
CHAPTER
FIVE
5.0 WORKABLE SOLUTIONS TO AID THE CONTROL OF
CAMPUS CULT ACITIVITIES
In an interview in Ogbodo et al
(1999:1a), Tunji Tubi suggested the following solutions to incessant clashes on
campuses:
1. Mandating
of every club or society to register with the campus authorities. With this,
nobody could be faceless and more he reasoned.
2. The
security should be built up to become commensurate with the number of student
available .
3. Identified
culprits should be brought to book.
4. Ugbendu
believed that only re-orientation of students could solve these problems of
cultism in higher institutions. He argues that since most members were
recruited as fresher. if the universities organize elaborate orientation
programme for new entrants, many of them would find an answer to the questions
that lead them to these cults. He posits that orientation programme would be effective if it involves vital
information of secret cults and the havoc they wreak on fellow students.
5. Opinion
in daily champion (February 9, 1990) suggest that the nation should find out
the negative impacts of the continued clamp down on active student unionism,
especially National Association of Nigerian Students (NANS). He narrated that
this action is related to the emergence of underground movement. It is the view
that the nation could stand to gain if certain aspects of these misguided
zeal’s are properly oriented and channeled into creative and productive
ventures.
6. Accroding
to Kolo (1994), the problem of cultism is a problem of social crisis. Political
programmes, economic situation should be avoided. He said policies that say non
indigene grounds and general inequality in the society, if eradicated will help
stamp out cultism.
7. (Salau
and Nwaonusuru, 1994) are of the view that students should be encouraged to
join approved religions groups in schools for moral upbringing and spiritual
security in God. They also said that counseling services should be made known
to students. They were also of the view that recreational facilities in the
schools should be provided and students be encouraged to get involved in
extra-curricular activities like Hall games, inter-department or faculty sports
competitions, etc.
8. There
should be improved facilities and living conditions on campuses so as to
minimize perceive strain on the social system which underlines cultism on our
campuses.
9. Academic
freedom, and proper education should be indulged by all students and also, the
process of policy formulation and decision making.
10.
Rehabilitation of these gangsters and
instant punishment of them.
5.1 RECOMMENDATIONS:
Based on findings of
this study, the following recommendations are made:
1. Parents
should learn to love and discipline their children at home from childhood.
Parents should also support university and government authorities in their
efforts to check the menace of campus cults.
2. The university authorities should allow all
clubs and societies in the university to register with them and highlight their
objectives.
3. The
university authorities should beef up the security department and equip them
with modern/sophisticated tools and also uphold the truth and be more sincere
when handling campus cult issues.
4. At
the beginning of every session, the guidance and counseling department should
be assisted to organize an elaborate orientation programme for all new
students; and during this programme, the ills of cultism should be spelt out
and students cautioned not to identify with them.
5. Lecturers
should make attendance to lecture compulsory and also take record of class
attendance of students who fail to meet up the minimum percentage of attendance
should not be allowed to do the examination, this will help check other
students.
5.2 CONCLUSION
Realizing the havoc which cultism has
caused on both members and non members of the academic community and society,
all hands must be on deck to checkmate their activities.
It is therefore the duty on the part of
the society and the university communities to de-emphasis celebration of
violence and cult activities and shift attention to positive societal values
which will enhance positive growth and development.
REFERENCES
Akpan,
U (1990) “Secret Cults Take Over Campuses
“Sunday Champion, February 25 p.1.
Amachere,
J (1992) “cult Member dies In clash
“Daily Sunday Wednesday November 6. p.
11.
Ezennah, C (1992) “Blood feud on the campus” Tell Magazine, October, 26 p.19.
Hornby, AS (1995) Oxfold Advanced Learner’s Dictionary (5th ed.) Tertiary
Education Oxford, Oxfold University Press.
National Association of Seadogs (1993) “National Association of Seadogs Handbook”
pp.2-4.
Obi, 1 (1990) “The
Cult Our Cults African Concord April 2.
Opaluwh, A B “Cultism
and Nigerian Campuses: The way out.
Jekayinka, A A “Cult
Activities in the Nigerian Institution of Higher Learning” University of North
Nigeria.
Yusuf, D (2006) Cultism Leadership.
http/www.leadershipnigeria.com
Ugorji, N. J “Social
Problems Associated with Campus Cult activities in Tertiary Institutions in
Anambra State: Implications for Counseling.
www.martinslibrary.blogspot.com
www.thevyrusonline.blogspot.com
www.eskervictor.blogspot.com
www.articleng.com
0 comments:
Post a Comment