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 ab
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