The rate at which secondary school
students are getting involved in cultism
today is disturbing. How did these future
leaders of tomorrow get entangled in this
unholy unions? Paul Omo Obadan reports
that if something is not done promptly to
check the trend society stands the risk of
being saddled with the burden of a
substantial dysfunctional youth population.

The rise of secret cults in secondary
schools is a recent disturbing trend that
has left school administrators, teachers,
parents and pupil themselves confounded.
In schools known to have cultists, many
pupils live in overwhelming fear. This is
because occasionally there are mysterious
illness, accidents, disputes, threats and
even deaths. Serious academic work can
hardly ever take place in a climate of
fright and insecurity. Besides, many
students become suspicious of one
another.

The media has been awash in recent
years with coverage of cult activities in
higher institutions in Nigeria mostly
especially when rivalries among the
confraternities now known as cults
descend in violence and deaths.
But as such reports decline, the cult
culture which has gone down the ladder to
secondary school is getting more
attention.

In schools noted for cultism, teachers
charged with discipline and strict
classrooms teachers come under frequent
threats. This leads to decline in the school
tone and general academic performance.

A good number of cultists have been
accused of robbery, rape, harassment and
intimidation of male teachers. Some have
also been used by politicians to cause
crisis in a bid to achieve their selfish
gains. Thus, young secondary school
children may acquire negative attitudes,
which may manifest in all their lives.

Police foil cult initiation of 46 Ebonyi
secondary school students
Only a fortnight ago, Ebonyi State Police
command foiled the cult initiation of 46
graduating students of a popular mission
secondary school in Izzi local government
area of Ebonyi State.

The students, who just concluded writing
their Senior School Certificate
Examination, conducted by the National
Examination Council, were said to be
members of a cult group identified as
Junior Vikings.

They had gathered at a hotel in the
metropolis located along old Enugu Road
to be initiated into a senior group known
as Senior Vikings when police swooped in
on them following a tip-off.

During the initiation, the police stormed
the venue leading to the arrest of over 15
of the students while the initiators flee.

The Police spokesperson in the state,
Chris Anyanwu, said the initiators had
dangerous items on them and added that
the police have mounted a man-hunt to
arrest the fleeing suspects.

He explained that the initiators who are
members of the Senior Vikings mandated
the graduating students who were dressed
in white hats, red shirts and black trousers
to be initiated into the senior team or face
difficulties in their lives.

Mr. Anyanwu, who said he regrets that
cult activities have increased in the state
in the last few months, announced that
the command will embark on sensitisation
campaign to various schools in the state
to enlighten the students on the need to
shun cultism.

He noted that if not checked, cultism can
lead to violent crimes like armed robbery
and kidnapping, describing it as a societal
problem. The above lends credence to the
fact that today, thousands of teenagers
as well as primary school pupils have
been exposed to cultism. Sunday Mirror
gathered that this ugly trend has not only
contributed to moral decadence, but has
also increased the spate of thuggery and
violence witnessed in the country.

Who then can be blamed for this? Could it
be the parents, the teachers, the school
authorities or lack of moral values in the
society? Everyone has a role to play in
making the future better. If something is
not done soon to check cultism in primary
and secondary schools, then both the
family and the greater society are at great
risk of social insecurity.

How It All Started
Despite concerted efforts by government
and concerned stakeholders to provide
Nigerians with quality education, a few
have chosen to toe the line that leads to
destruction through voluntary initiation
into different cults, which has eaten deep
into the education system.

What is known as secret cult in tertiary
institutions started at the University
College, Ibadan in 1953 when Prof. Wole
Soyinka, Aig-Imoukhuede, Pius Oleghe,
Ralph Opara, Nat Oyelola and Prof.
Muyiwa Awe formed the Pyrates
Confraternity also known as the National
Association of Seadogs with the
objectives of abolishing convention,
reviving the age chivalry, and ending
tribalism and elitism.

However these objectives have been
jettisoned as thousands of lives have been
lost and properties worth millions of naira
lost due to the sinister activities of cult
groups in the nation’s tertiary institutions.
As a result, the National Association of
Seadogs ordered a cessation of all its
activities on campuses of higher
institutions effective 1984.
Unfortunately, primary and secondary
schools are veritable grounds for breeding
cultists.

According to Professor Ngozi Osarenren,
of the department of Education
Foundations, University of Lagos, the
involvement of secondary school pupils in
secret cultism “tells you the level of
debasement in our society today”.

According to her, the issue has reached
an alarming proportion in Nigeria society
today. The last two decades have
witnessed secret cult violence in higher
institution in Nigeria. And this has spilled
over to the secondary schools leaving in
its trail, bloodletting and waste of human
lives.

Her words: “As a people, we have lost it.
We have failed to do the needful as
parents. We have also failed to do the
needful as government. If all parents have
been able to look after their children,
teach them the right values, we won’t
have the incidence of cultism in our
secondary schools. Secondly, when you
talk about cultism in secondary schools,
were did they get it from. You have to
think back. Maybe some of their parents
are actually cult members. So it is like
passing on the baton. It’s a family
tradition, because children are
impressionable and because they are
impressionable, it is what they see that
influences them. Some parents have been
bad role models. If my parents are doing
it, then it is good, I have to do it. And if
their parents are not doing it, their friends
are doing it. Peer pressure. The period of
peer pressure is a very critical period
whereby there is increased reliance on
friends than family. And they long to
belong to that which their friends belong.
And they would do everything possible to
be members of that clique.

The way out is for us to tell ourselves
some home truths. There are so many
parents who delude themselves that their
children are bigger than them. Your child
can never be bigger than you. It is when
you don’t want to tell yourself the truth.
The only way out is for parents to start
doing what they ought to do. Care and
attention for their children. In schools, the
teachers, the Principals should start
focusing on school itself, not school as in
quote. Most teachers that are supposed
to be foster parents, but they hardly play
that role. We have to look at the school
again;what kind of teachers do we have.
Do we have committed teachers? Do we
have motivated teachers? Do we have
teachers who have job satisfaction? Do
we have teachers who look forward to
going to school to impact on the children?
When you look at all these variables, the
teacher factor is very critical in ensuring
that the incidence is reduced in our
secondary schools.

A Child Psychologist, Professor Ibinabo
Agiobu-Kemmer of Head of Department of
Psychology, University of Lagos agrees
with Prof, Ngozi Osarenren. According to
her, parents have abdicated their roles as
parents.

“Parents are not checking or monitoring
their children or don’t have time for their
children as they should have. Some are
delegating or abdicating their
responsibilities to others. Those who still
want to keep the values are probably
getting fewer and fewer. Also, as adults in
the house, if one adult wants to correct
the child so that we can maintain the
value and what is right for their sake, the
other one is contradicting and saying
leave them alone, this a new world order,
that is old school. The children don’t want
to get conflicting messages.

“We have to restore the family alter.
Restore prayer time, sitting together and
defend family values, defend scriptural
values. It is sad to say but some of the
other religions sometimes protect their
morals and values more than so called
Christians do. How do we correct it, in
other words, I am saying you start from
the home. What is happening to our
families? Somebody must keep the home.
We wake up in the morning; they don’t
even see each other because you have to
be on the road by 4am. You come back
again in the night at 11p pm, you are all
tired and go straight to bed. There is no
family life again. At the weekend,
everybody is trying to go to the salon,
party etc. what you could not do during
the week to get ready again for the rat
race. Nobody is paying attention to the
babies, the children. Children need
somebody to pay attention to them.

Children need boundaries, and they need
parents to give them the boundaries.
Nobody is setting the boundaries. The
Parents are not setting the boundaries.
Maybe because nobody set it for them”.

Worried by the rise in cultism in primary
and secondary schools, former President
Goodluck Jonathan had called on the
National Assembly to enact tougher laws
against cultists and those engaging in
examination malpractice.

He had said the eradication of cultism
was a national project for all stakeholders
in the country as campuses of higher
institutions had been turned into breeding
ground for cultists, an avenue for the
practice of immoralities and a base for
grooming terrorists.

Speaking with Vanguard Learning at the
3rd national conference on Strategies for
Eradicating Cultism in Nigerian
Educational Institutions organised by the
University of Ibadan in conjunction with
the Ministry of Education and the National
Universities Commission in Abuja, the
former Minister of Education, Prof.
RuqqayatRufa’i, said there had been
recommendations in the past to curtail
cultism but the greatest challenge was
implementation.

“If we must succeed in eradicating
cultism in Nigerian institutions, all hands
must be on deck. Parents, religious
organisations and both members and non-
members of the government are to work
jointly on this measure.”

Attributing the rise in cultism to the
complicity of some desperate politicians,
President, National Association of Nigerian
Students, NANS, Com. Dauda Mohammed,
said: “It is frightening to see the depth at
which the menace of cultism has eating
deep into our educational system,
particularly with its incursion into the
secondary school levels, and we expect
government to take a decisive step in
checkmating cult activities on our
campuses and also taking practical steps
in bringing the sponsors of these cult
groups to book.

“The presence of cult groups in our
secondary schools is a spillover of the
prevalence of cultism in our tertiary
institutions. The first practical step that
government must take is the promotion of
Students Unionism as cultism took an
increased dimension from the point when
unionism became voluntary and union
activities were facing repression on our
campuses.”

Suggesting how to effectively combat
secret cultism, he said Nigerian
universities must enjoy improved funding,
especially recreational/academic facilities
must be improved and virile students
union activities must be allowed to thrive.
Mohammed urged the National Assembly
to also repeal the military decree of the
recommendations of the General Abisoye
panel, which made student unionism
voluntary rather than compulsory for
students in our higher institutions.

Proprietor of Jemibewon International
Academy and former Minister of Police
Affairs, retired Gen. David Jemibewon in a
recent media interview on the involvement
of secondary school pupils in secret
cultism said it is a tragedy. According to
him, it is a shame and tragedy to have
such at that level.

According to him, “It boils to the fact that
some parents and teachers are not
showing enough concern and attention to
children. Also some children are also not
showing great enthusiasm in their studies.
It is a reflection of the low level to which
our society has fallen. There is hardly
anything that works well in this country
anymore. Otherwise, I cannot imagine a
primary or secondary school boy being
involved in cultism. It is a tragedy! Efforts
should be made to ensure that it is
corrected. The idea of child abuse should
be clearly defined. Things that will help
children become good citizens ought not
to be seen as child abuse.

Source:- Nationalmirroronline