INTRODUCTION
The most essential problem facing tertiary institutions
in Nigeria is the problem of cultism here and there.
There is no long existing single institution of higher
learning that has not experienced the menace of
cultism for one time or another. As we have today, the menace and the aggressiveness of cult members
and cult related violent clashes and activities on most
tertiary institutions campuses have caused the
sudden death of lecturers and students. DEFINITIONS
The Oxford Concise Dictionary of Sociology (1996)
gives the sociological definition of cult as a small
group or religious activities whose beliefs are
typically secret, esoteric and individualistic. Lexican
Webster’s Dictionary defines secret cult as a group of people who share a common cause and whose
mode of meetings and agenda are unknown to the
public and where initiation into rank and file is usually
done in secret. Ogunbameru (2004) defines cultism or
secret cult as any form of organisation whose
activities are not exclusively kept away from the knowledge of others but such activities are carried
out at odd hours of the day and they often clash with
the accepted norms and values of everyday life.
Oxford Advance Learners’ Dictionary defines cultism
as a system of religious worship especially one that is
expressed in rituals. In summary, cultism can be defined as a ritual practice by group of people whose
membership, admission, policy, and initiation
formalities as well as their mode of operations are
kept secret with their activities having negative
effects on both members and non-members alike. WHY STUDENT ENGAGE IN CULTISM
Despite the fact that all manners of evil (such as
examination malpractice, rape, robbery, arson,
maiming, murder, killing, intimidation of fellow
students and lectures for good grades, love
(girlfriend), clashes of rival cult group among others) has become of cultism, some student of tertiary
institutions still find it fashionable to engage in it for
different reasons.
Ivor Ogidefa, an educationist, in his article “Cultism in
Educational institutions in Nigeria: causes, possible
solutions and counseling implications” published in 2008, identified Eziali’s reasons why students join
cults. According to Eziali (2000) in Ogidefa’s article,
the following such as search for responsibility, search
for satisfaction of ones aspirations and needs, search
for security and search for social identity are the
reasons why student engage in cultism. These reasons can be explained below.
- Search for responsibility: some students join cults
group in order to perform certain services for the
members. For example, some students may engage in
cultism in order to fight for perceived injustice in their
campuses against their members. - Search for satisfaction of ones aspirations and needs:
some students also engage in cults group in order to
satisfy their desires, aspirations and needs. Example
of this is that a student may belong to a cult group
which part of her objective is to ensure the success of
her members in academic examinations. - Search for security: Many students of tertiary
institutions, especially the female students join cult
groups in order to protect themselves while some
male students join to secure their girlfriends.
- Search for social identity: There are also students
who join cult group for popularity. They want to make name and to be regarded as powerful people. For
these students, to belong to a cult group is a way of
achieving prestige and greatness. They belief that
they could influence decisions on campus and that
they could as well dictate the pace during the student
union and students representative elections. To Oshodomo (1999) in this same article by Ivor
Ogidefa, some students join campus cults to gain
respect and recognition and to acquire protection
against sanctions from members of the community.
He also added that students join cult groups for
reasons based on past negative experiences at the family level. There are others who join cults because
they want to create avenues to exhibit and diffuse
frustrations from the family, schools and society.
There are students who join cult group for reason of
wealth (financial assistance) while others join cults to
hide their weaknesses (inferiority complex) – academic or social. Some are forced to join while
others feel that the objectives of the cults are landable
and worthwhile.
Other reason why students engage in cultism might
be influenced by parental and home background,
because parents who are members of secret cult may not see anything wrong in their children’s
involvement in cultism. Students who have emotional
sickness who are possessed by the demon may join
cult groups to unleash terror on the society that has
caused emotional distress and can grow up to
become criminals because of the evil spirit in them. Some students also become cultist because their
friends are members. Some students join cult because
certain lecturers and administration are members of
secret cults. Unconducive learning facilities,
environment and inadequate welfare programmes for
students can also encourage students to engage in cultism and inadequate religious and moral
instructions and education can lure students to
embracing cult groups and cult activities. THE EFFECTS CULTISM HAS ON THE STUDENTS
The attendant effects of cultism on the learning
process cannot be exhausted as both intra and inter-
cult clashes negatively affect the students in a very
high proportion. It sometimes leads to incarceration,
rustication or expulsion of both innocent and student members (Opaluwah 2009) or they may spend more
than the required number of years for graduation
(Ogidefa 2008).
Cult activities (which include killing, maiming, raping of
fellow students and even lecturers) may disrupt the
academic calendar of the nation institutions of learning (Ogidefa 2008). The peace on campus is
adversely affected whenever there is cult invasion,
this may result in suspension of academic activities
for sometime (Opaluwah 2009). This singular activities
can affects the years of graduation of students and
may discourage students towards continue studying in the university concern.
A lot of lives and properties have been destroyed
through cult violence (Mgbekem 2004). Young
undergraduates who are supposed to be leaders in
future have fallen victims of trigger-happy cultists
(Jamiu 2008). Another effect of cultism is that, before and during
examinations, students are always organizing night
vigil and prayer for a successful end of exams and or
semester. They always sleep with one eye closed
(Ogidefa 2008). And because of (this) frequent cult
disturbances and insecurity, some parents now prefer off campus accommodation for their children in
tertiary institutions for fear of being victims of campus
cultists’ rampage (Mgbekem 2004).
Some members of cult groups are caused bodily harm
that may result to physical injuries and or death
especially during their initiation ceremonies. Closely related to this is the fact that some of them risk health
problems because of harmful drugs such as
marijuana, cocaine among others they take.
Cult group often subvert (or undermine) the genuine
students’ unionism and destabilize university
administrations, which do not condone their nefarious activities (Ogidefa 2008). HOW TO CURB THE MENACE OF CULTISM
Over the past two decades, various attempts have
been made to deal with the problem of cultism. The
various measures taken include the enactment of
decree 47 of 1989 that pronounced a number of jail
term for any cultist found guilty (Fasanmi 2006). Also the Federal Republic of Nigeria under Chief Olusegun
Obasanjo in 2000 issued a three- month ultimatum to
all vice-chancellors to eradicate cultism from the
campuses. Some higher institutions also set up anti-
cult groups consisting of the student body itself and
some security agents to monitor and check the activities of cultists on campus (Ajay I.A, Ekundayo H.T
and Osalusi F.M).
Despite the various measures, it appears the
proliferation of cult groups and their dastard acts
continue unabated. However to curb this menace, the
following are veritable. Government and non-governmental agencies and the
media should step up their campaigns against cultism
and its destructive tendencies. The evil nature of
cultism should be explained to young people in
schools at all levels through sensitization, seminars,
workshops, symposium, posters, handbills and public lectures.
Parent should desist from being members of secret
cults and also prevent their children from joining bad
group. Religious and moral instructions and education
should be re-introduced in all spheres of lives and the
decadent society should be spiritually reawakened by joint effort of parents, religious organizations, and
government. Parents should be more vigilant
concerning the activities of their children within and
outside the home.
Also, there must be improved facilities and improved
living conditions on campuses so as to minimize perceived strain in the social system which underlines
cultism on the campuses (Adewale 2005).
The school authorities of higher institutions of learning
must show their readiness and determination to
eradicate cultism. They must brace up to the
challenges of the cultism, which as become one of the most potent evils of the recent time. To Adewale
(2005), it is very necessary for the committee of vice
chancellor of the Nigerian universities to adopt a
common and uniform approach to solving the problem
of cultism. The issue of former cultists who sometimes
return to universities as staff must be looked into. Students who do not belong to cults and some security
agents can be organized into anti-cult vanguards or
groups to watch or monitor and check the activities of
cultists on campus and report cult members to the
university authorities or to law enforcement agents.
This means that school authorities as posited by Jamiu (2008) must intensify armed patrol and surveillance
on campuses. CONCLUSION
Having established in the course of dealing with the
topic: various scholarly definitions of cultism, various
reasons why students engage in it, various effects
that cult groups and their activities has on students
and various measures that should be adopted to curb the menace. It is therefore imperative on the part of
parents, university authorities, religious groups,
government and non-governmental organizations and
agencies to let all hands be on deck to combat this
ugly trend that is gaining ground in most tertiary
institutions.

souce: naijapals

you should have edit this naah......anyways, as usual...... shun cultism!!!....