The Anti-Cultism Summit of Today 95.1 FM Port Harcourt slated for this very day the 6th of July 2019 is a very laudable CSR project. I strongly hope that the outcome of the summit would effectively address the problem of cultism in Rivers State, to some good extent at least.
One wouldn’t know how best to define cultism to suit the situation we have at hand. But the weighty factor about it is that cultism according to our situation is associated with some bizarre, anti-social, violent and criminal activities which disturb the peace of the society and impede development. Rivers State is not the only place where the menace of cultism exists, and cultism is not a new thing either. But cultism in Rivers State in recent times is obviously assuming a very worrisome dimension. As a core liberal in ideological orientation, I wouldn’t be e against any adult involving himself in cultism if it weren’t for the violent and criminal effects it does have on the society. Man naturally is a logical being capable of knowing and doing what is best for himself; therefore, if being a cultist is a good thing FOR YOU, if it has any way of improving your life – please be a cultist except if it involves any law-forbidden activity! That’s where the issue lies, the issue lies in the fact that what we know as cultism in our society today involves some law-forbidden activities – violent and criminal activities which are generally anti-social. In one Political Science Publication I’ve read about one DECLARATION OF THE RIGHT OF MAN in which it is stated that “man is at liberty to do everything that does not harm another man.” So, I wouldn’t be against any man being a cultist but for the fact that doing so portends harm for another man in the society. Maybe I myself would have joined something on campus (when I was lured) but for rationality sake. Rationality simply is something that plays out in an analysis of cost versus benefit. For me, the cost simply outweighs the benefit!
This cultism thing we’re talking about is a very complex and sensitive thing, especially in this part of the world. Those to whom we look up, and whose responsibility it should be to tackle this menace of cultism could be the same people behind it; and when you talk about fighting cultism, they join you to talk about it meanwhile they remain blameless of it. So sometimes it seems as if we’re just talking for nothing!
However, we must talk about it because some of us who are well-meaning citizens and who are not involved in it are very much concerned about its ravaging effect on our society. One major factor that encourages cultism is that it seems to be an access road to political relevance in this part of the universe. Another factor is that we condone cultism in our small social spaces. The second factor is the one I would rather bother about in this write-up. A man once boasted to me that all his sons are ‘soldiers’ and therefore no outsider could dare mess with him or his family. By his sons being soldiers, he meant that they were cult boys – and he is their father, and it is something he was proud of! Most people know that some of their family members and relatives, friends etc are involved in this thing, and they do not caution them against it. When I was living in Aluu as a student of Uniport, there was a time some of those guys came and carried out an armed attack in a our neigbourhood. We went to a police team stationed at Aluu to report the matter, and in anger one of the police officers there told one of the girls among us: “those boys are also your boyfriends, when we catch them and lock them up you girls are still the ones that will come here to shed stupid tears crying and begging us to allow you give them food.” And that is it! So, that’s how we condone this thing and the people involved in it, and it is a problem.
Now, MY SUGGESTIONS ON HOW WE CAN EFFECTIVELY TACKLE CULTISM:
If we look around us, there’s a tendency we’ll notice in many teenage boys these days; most teenage boys in the streets these days are in the habit of displaying traits of hooliganism – cult-related behaviours, and they freely chant cult-related slangs. It’s a very common trend on the streets these days. We should tackle this trend because that’s where cultism starts from. Some of those teenage boys may not really be involved in cultism yet, but those cult-related behaviors draw them to it, and they get involved in it not knowing the far-reaching and destructive implications (even to themselves) – just out of youthful impulses. We should seriously begin to caution teenage boys on our streets, in our compounds and so on, when we see them display traits of hooliganism and cult-related behaviours or when we hear them chant those cult-related slangs. We should not allow such behaviours to fester, we should start to tackle cultism from there because that’s where cultism likely starts from. Those teenage boys’ cult-related traits and behavious may look negligible and insignificant to us but that’s where cultism starts from! And those teenage boys, as they grow, will graduate into real time cultists and then begin to cause all sorts of mayhem in the society.
There are many more solutions to this problem of cultism. I may want to write a sequel to this article if I have the time and if it pleases me.
Thanks for reading this one.
Kingsley Onwuka