One of the most pressing issues in the minds of people in Nigeria as far as Education in concerned today is that pertaining to the quality or standard of education.
Qualitative education should lead to detectable gains in knowledge, skills and values. There are however several students/youth’s vices that seemed to be militating against the realization of the desired qualitative education in Nigerian tertiary institutions. For the purpose of this discuss/write up, some of these vices are; (I) Drug abuse (II) Cultism.
Cultism
According to Denga (1991) cultism is defined as a system of religious belief and practice of an ideology. Similarly, Orukpe (1988) defined secret cult as a group of people who share and propagate peculiar secret belief divulged only to members. In addition, their initiation procedures often involve secret rituals like swearing by some deity, human blood and other procedures when send shivers down the spires of most people.
Sometimes, secret cults attend function of members like marriages, burial ceremonies, naming ceremonies and the like. Some secret societies appear in uniforms that are usually odd and easy to identify (usually black over black).
Some of these clandestine activities include nocturnal meeting in very odd places like cemeteries, valleys, abandoned buildings etc. They usually engage themselves in gangster-like activities like taking cocaine, marijuana (Indian Hemp) and even drinking of human blood. They delight in seeing fellow human beings suffer and die gruesomely.
Some historical perspective of cultism will suffice here. The origin of the phenomenon of cultism in Nigerian tertiary institutions is traceable to the formation of the Pirate confraternity of the university of Ibadan in 1952 by Wole Soyinka and members of his gang mainly as a lobby group of students in order to score even with the university authorities.
One of the objectives of the group was to inspire patriotic sentiments and check the new colonialist mentality spreading among the nation’s educated class who are products of western education. At that time, violence was not said to have manifested in their conduct. Nevertheless, this initially peaceful group later snowballed into an immensely detestable group whose members became highly involved in ritualism and voodooism.
The phenomenon of cultism has virtually spread to almost all the tertiary intuitions in Nigeria and fast spreading to the secondary schools. Secret cult groups are now dreaded on the campuses because of their secret activities and ascribed mysticism and power. Members enjoy an aura of fearsomeness especially from non-members.
A study by Prof. Nwadike in 2003 show, there are about 45 secret cults in Nigerian institutions of higher learning and are all equipped with an elaborate hierarchy, insignia and distinct attire. Some of the most notable of these secret cult groups include the SEADOGS, BLACKBRASSIERS, BUCCANEER CONFRATERNITY etc.
Cultism leads to outbreak of violence on campuses and its attendant destruction of lives and property.
‘’PEACE ON CAMPUS INITIATIVE’’ (an organization formed to help combat cultism in Nigerian University campuses) revealed that as at September 2003, five thousand students and lecturers put together have died on Nigerian campuses as a result of cult-related violent clashes (source. New age Newspaper September 2003).
The frequent outbreaks of cult wars in some campuses have generated feelings of fear and social insecurity among students and lecturers. The unhealthy rivalry among secret cult groups often intensify acts of terrorism and hatred among students on campuses. These sometimes result in the closure of tertiary educational institutions for quite a long time, which has negative effect on the implementation of academic programmes.
Generally, the aims and objectives of cult activities in our campuses are not very clear and meaningful in most cases. Youths join cult groups ostensibly to gain recognition and popularity and to enhance social life in the campuses. They easily mobilize or force other students to join riots or demonstrations against constituted authorities or even against other cult groups that oppose their operations.
Whenever their member is expelled from school on grounds of poor academic performance or anti-social behaviours, they generate and cause troubles that usually lead innocent students into riots and destruction of lives, college or university properties. They use threats to intimidate girls to befriend them and engage in the taking of dangerous drugs to become bold and authoritative. They also use threats to force students to elect them into leadership positions on campuses.
In conclusion, youths are easily hired or lured into cults as a result of:
– Bad association or company
– Fear
– Dangerous rumours
– Poor upbringing
– Poverty
– Frustration
– Broken home
Cult members hardily pay attention to their studies, as they are fond of cajoling their lecturers into awarding them underserved marks and scores in examinations whether they have done well or not.
Proper moral upbringing of children and wards by parents and guardians is recommended as a remedy to curbing cultism in tertiary institutions in Nigeria. The youths should be properly counselled on peer-group relationships. An innocent child can easily be transformed into a dangerous fearful young man, if he can make friends indiscriminately
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