IF media reports are anything to go by, cultism is alarmingly on the rise in tertiary and post-primary institutions in Nigeria, a development that has raised grave concerns in many quarters, prompting several calls on government to take urgent steps to stem the tide. Indeed it is said that many have lost their lives to campus terrorism, especially cult wars among rival groups, while several have dropped out of school without actualising their ambition and dreams.
The unfortunate situation explains why more Nigerian parents nowIF media reports are anything to go by, cultism is alarmingly on the rise in tertiary and post-primary institutions in Nigeria, a development that has raised grave concerns in many quarters, prompting several calls on government to take urgent steps to stem the tide. Indeed it is said that many have lost their lives to campus terrorism, especially cult wars among rival groups, while several have dropped out of school without actualising their ambition and dreams.
The unfortunate situation explains why more Nigerian parents now prefer to send their children to secondary schools and universities run and managed by religious institutions where they feel the lives of their children would be safe and properly molded without minding the financial implication.
Some of these private faith-based schools are noted for adopting very proactive measures to prevent any possible infiltration. For instance in 2003, Madonna University Okija, Anambra State succeeded in pre-empting the infiltrating of the school by cult groups by directing all students staying off campus to move into the hostels within the institution. Some of the students who defied the directive were immediately expelled from the school and that served as a deterrence to others.
The good news is that a non-governmental organisation, the Peace on Campus Initiative/ Initiatives for Child Education Against Cultism in Nigeria, ICEAC, has taken it upon itself to tackle the problem.
Oliver-Cromwell
Comrade Oliver Cromwell, a retired Naval Officer and the National Coordinator of the PCI/ICEAC initiatives in a recent interaction with Vanguard Metro, VM, in Uyo the Akwa Ibom State capital gives an insight on the factors promoting the spread of cultism in Nigerian schools and what his body is doing about it. According to him: “Although we are not everywhere but we are working seriously at containing the rate of cult activities in the states we are covering at the moment. Apart from reducing the incidence of cultism in Nigerian schools the two advocacies also provide alternative safe landing for those who are tired of practising terrorism on campuses and also provide ground for renunciation for those who want to come out because we discovered that most of the students who are in cult groups did not join willingly. Some of them were conscripted; others were misled or deceived to join cultism.”
Going down memory lane, Cromwell recalled that it was the level of killings, rapes and other anti-social behaviours and vices perpetrated by cultists in the University of Uyo in the 1990s that moved him into fighting the menace.
“The problem started in 1991, about 24 years ago. Then the University of Uyo was known as Cross Rivers State University, UNICROSS and the second name then was ‘War College’ because of the level of killings on the campus. There was no weekend we don’t pick one or two dead bodies from the Agriculture Farm. Then the school used to celebrate cultism.
“The killings got to a point that the military administrator in the state then, Col Bako, summoned the Service Chiefs- the Army Commander, Navy Commander, SSS and the Commissioner of Police to find out what was happening on the campus because as at that time people did not really understand what was going on.
“The Service Chiefs were asked to come in and each Command was mandated to send somebody to monitor what was happening and that was how I became a permanent undergraduate on campus for 10 years. So I had to gather all men of the armed forces on campus, we talked and said enough was enough. But then we could not perform because most of the soldiers were on campus illegally.
“In 1994 I had to gather some student activists, some lecturers who detests terrorism and some fellowships too. We joined together to form what is called the ‘Students High Command’. We assured those weaklings who wanted to join cultism that there is no point, that they should come to ‘Students Higher Command’ that is known by the university.
“The High Command was very effective and we were able to stop so many things on campus. We stopped initiation on campus; we stopped what they called A-Robbery, that is phone snatching.
“The High Command drove them out of campus; but that did not solve the problem because they now turned guerrilla; they will come, hit and run away. So we now brought it down to the PCI.
“This time around we can sit down with cultists and discuss. We can engage them to work with us and with time they don’t go back again. And through the PCI we now found out what attracts them to cultism. By 2003, the Akwa Ibom State government adopted it because from that moment there were no more gunshots on campus, no student demonstrations; no cult wars; the University of Uyo adopted it and released money for us to go into wide sensitisation under the leadership of Professor Akpan Ekpo,” Cromwell said at length.
He also noted factors such as academic fraud promoted by some lecturers, influence of desperate politicians, certain traditional and religious practices, even breakdown in family and societal values as contributing to the perpetration of cultism among youths.
*Cross section of students as they renounced cultism.
”It is giving us problem because the lecturers now gang up against us; they are doing everything to frustrate what we are doing. And the implication of that is that it promotes prostitution, it encourages confraternity on campuses, and students are detached from academics. Academic fraud should be fought seriously.
“Now as it stands I am calling on the state security service to come in; I am calling on the Ministry of Education; Council of Schools should also come into this. I am glad that the EFCC are into it too and I expect ICPC to come in also.
“The last general elections promoted cultism among the youths and it is an indication that politicians contribute immensely to the high incidence of cultism and terrorism among our youths. A situation where politicians buy guns for these boys during elections and at the end of the day they are appointed as PAs, SAs and so on, encourages cultism.
“The Boko Haram insurgency in the North has been traced to the Almajiri system where children between the ages of five and seven are separated from their parents; they keep begging to survive. You go to the streets of Kano, Yobe you see close to 3000 everyday, but about the age of 20 you will not see them on the streets again.
“They are not educated, they don’t have money; they did not even learn any trade; so where are they? So if this people can wreak this level of havoc today what happens to the South where we have over 300,000 armed militia. That is where I am looking at, and that is why I am very, very worried.
“They are everywhere, in schools, in the streets. And the worst situation is that of secondary schools because they are first timers in illicit drug use and in live weapon handling. Before 2007 we were covering most secondary schools in Akwa Ibom State; we discovered that there are close to 17 and 19 cult groups that exist in secondary schools in this state and they are offshoot of the bigger body and before they go to higher institutions they are already initiated.” prefer to send their children to secondary schools and universities run and managed by religious institutions where they feel the lives of their children would be safe and properly molded without minding the financial implication.
Some of these private faith-based schools are noted for adopting very proactive measures to prevent any possible infiltration. For instance in 2003, Madonna University Okija, Anambra State succeeded in pre-empting the infiltrating of the school by cult groups by directing all students staying off campus to move into the hostels within the institution. Some of the students who defied the directive were immediately expelled from the school and that served as a deterrence to others.
The good news is that a non-governmental organisation, the Peace on Campus Initiative/ Initiatives for Child Education Against Cultism in Nigeria, ICEAC, has taken it upon itself to tackle the problem.
Oliver-Cromwell
Comrade Oliver Cromwell, a retired Naval Officer and the National Coordinator of the PCI/ICEAC initiatives in a recent interaction with Vanguard Metro, VM, in Uyo the Akwa Ibom State capital gives an insight on the factors promoting the spread of cultism in Nigerian schools and what his body is doing about it. According to him: “Although we are not everywhere but we are working seriously at containing the rate of cult activities in the states we are covering at the moment. Apart from reducing the incidence of cultism in Nigerian schools the two advocacies also provide alternative safe landing for those who are tired of practising terrorism on campuses and also provide ground for renunciation for those who want to come out because we discovered that most of the students who are in cult groups did not join willingly. Some of them were conscripted; others were misled or deceived to join cultism.”
Going down memory lane, Cromwell recalled that it was the level of killings, rapes and other anti-social behaviours and vices perpetrated by cultists in the University of Uyo in the 1990s that moved him into fighting the menace.
“The problem started in 1991, about 24 years ago. Then the University of Uyo was known as Cross Rivers State University, UNICROSS and the second name then was ‘War College’ because of the level of killings on the campus. There was no weekend we don’t pick one or two dead bodies from the Agriculture Farm. Then the school used to celebrate cultism.
“The killings got to a point that the military administrator in the state then, Col Bako, summoned the Service Chiefs- the Army Commander, Navy Commander, SSS and the Commissioner of Police to find out what was happening on the campus because as at that time people did not really understand what was going on.
“The Service Chiefs were asked to come in and each Command was mandated to send somebody to monitor what was happening and that was how I became a permanent undergraduate on campus for 10 years. So I had to gather all men of the armed forces on campus, we talked and said enough was enough. But then we could not perform because most of the soldiers were on campus illegally.
“In 1994 I had to gather some student activists, some lecturers who detests terrorism and some fellowships too. We joined together to form what is called the ‘Students High Command’. We assured those weaklings who wanted to join cultism that there is no point, that they should come to ‘Students Higher Command’ that is known by the university.
“The High Command was very effective and we were able to stop so many things on campus. We stopped initiation on campus; we stopped what they called A-Robbery, that is phone snatching.
“The High Command drove them out of campus; but that did not solve the problem because they now turned guerrilla; they will come, hit and run away. So we now brought it down to the PCI.
“This time around we can sit down with cultists and discuss. We can engage them to work with us and with time they don’t go back again. And through the PCI we now found out what attracts them to cultism. By 2003, the Akwa Ibom State government adopted it because from that moment there were no more gunshots on campus, no student demonstrations; no cult wars; the University of Uyo adopted it and released money for us to go into wide sensitisation under the leadership of Professor Akpan Ekpo,” Cromwell said at length.
He also noted factors such as academic fraud promoted by some lecturers, influence of desperate politicians, certain traditional and religious practices, even breakdown in family and societal values as contributing to the perpetration of cultism among youths.
*Cross section of students as they renounced cultism.
”It is giving us problem because the lecturers now gang up against us; they are doing everything to frustrate what we are doing. And the implication of that is that it promotes prostitution, it encourages confraternity on campuses, and students are detached from academics. Academic fraud should be fought seriously.
“Now as it stands I am calling on the state security service to come in; I am calling on the Ministry of Education; Council of Schools should also come into this. I am glad that the EFCC are into it too and I expect ICPC to come in also.
“The last general elections promoted cultism among the youths and it is an indication that politicians contribute immensely to the high incidence of cultism and terrorism among our youths. A situation where politicians buy guns for these boys during elections and at the end of the day they are appointed as PAs, SAs and so on, encourages cultism.
“The Boko Haram insurgency in the North has been traced to the Almajiri system where children between the ages of five and seven are separated from their parents; they keep begging to survive. You go to the streets of Kano, Yobe you see close to 3000 everyday, but about the age of 20 you will not see them on the streets again.
“They are not educated, they don’t have money; they did not even learn any trade; so where are they? So if this people can wreak this level of havoc today what happens to the South where we have over 300,000 armed militia. That is where I am looking at, and that is why I am very, very worried.
“They are everywhere, in schools, in the streets. And the worst situation is that of secondary schools because they are first timers in illicit drug use and in live weapon handling. Before 2007 we were covering most secondary schools in Akwa Ibom State; we discovered that there are close to 17 and 19 cult groups that exist in secondary schools in this state and they are offshoot of the bigger body and before they go to higher institutions they are already initiated.”
No comments:
Post a Comment